Looming Darkness: Daybreak
by Shadow Horizons
Summary: Part I. Sora, Kairi and Riku are looking forward to a somewhat normal life. However, Maleficent has returned with powerful new allies, seeking revenge and control of Kingdom Hearts. All the while, an old enemy's revival is close at hand. Will our heroes be prepared? Or will they be consumed by the everlasting darkness? Rated M for language, violence, and some adult themes.
1. Reunion

_Hello to all,_

_Shadow Horizons here. This is my first fanfic so I hope you enjoy it and will want to continue reading after you finish this chapter. I'm also open to criticism, general thoughts, and questions. The beginning is a little slow, I'm not going to lie to you, but I promise you it will start picking up real soon. _

_Anyways, this story takes place during/immediately following the end of Kingdom Hearts II. As a forewarning, there will be bits and pieces of romantic spots because I'm a fan of romantic adventure stories._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or Final Fantasy. I only own my original characters and my ideas._

_Enjoy! _

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

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_Kingdom Hearts: Looming Darkness_

Chapter One: Reunion

_Sunday, May 16__th__ 4794 P.C._

The sun continued its daily approach towards the ocean, slowly sinking from the sky. Golden orange and pink rays colored the distant edge of the horizon in the west. Few clouds dotted the sky, a perfect sunset. The waves lapped gently against the white sandy beaches of the Destiny Islands. Not far from the smallest island, where children from all of the Islands would come to play, two bright blue streaks of light fell from the heavens and crashed into the ocean barely causing a splash. Two teenage boys broke the waters' surface where the light had collided with it. One shook the water from his caramel colored spiky hair while the other merely pushed his long silver bangs from his face. They both looked around in awe, surprised to suddenly find themselves in the water.

"Sora! Riku!"

Both boys turned towards the voice calling out to them. On the beach of the Island stood their longtime childhood friend, Kairi, excitedly waving at them. Sora let out a cry of joy and immediately made a beeline for the shore, closely followed by Riku. The minute his feet touched solid ground, Sora began running towards Kairi. She smiled at her friend, happy to see him return from his final battle safe. Several blurs moved quickly past her, headed straight towards Sora. Sora stopped in surprise. His anthropomorphic friends Donald and Goofy leapt excitedly into the air and tackled him back into the water. King Mickey ran past the three and leapt into the air, embracing Riku in a hug.

Sora struggled to get Donald and Goofy off of him so that he could sit up and recover the air they had knocked from his lungs. They pulled Sora into another group hug, silently communicating their happiness that Sora and Riku had won the battle against Xemnas and saved Kingdom Hearts once again from the forces of Darkness. Sora looked over at Mickey and Riku. Mickey looked back and gave Sora a nod and a massive smile. Kairi let out a small giggle.

Sora turned his gaze from the others back to the person his heart yearned to see most, Kairi. His indigo eyes locked onto her violet-blue ones and time slowed down for a long second for both of them. Sora's stomach turned over inside at the sight of her. He took that second to take in every detail about her, her eyes, the way her auburn hair caught the light from the setting sun, her beautiful pale-white skin, and her light red lips.

Sora forced himself to look away long enough to pull the lucky charm she had given him nearly two years ago from his pocket. He paused for a moment, gazing at the charm in his hand. He felt his body go numb for a moment. He had known for a long time that he liked Kairi, but he had never been able to decide on whether or not he was in _love_ with her or not. But now, looking into her eyes, he finally knew. He truly loved her. He loved her with every fiber of his being.

He squeezed the charm slightly tighter. How could he have not realized it? He had spent every night looking at that charm since the day he sealed Kingdom Hearts for the first time. His heart cried out to her. He looked back into her gleaming eyes. Somewhere in his mind, he heard a voice that was not his own call out _Naminé._ Sora smiled slightly to himself and let his Nobody, Roxas, take control of his body for a moment. As the image of Sora gave way to a beaming Roxas, the image of Kairi, likewise, gave way to the now beaming Naminé. They gazed at each other for a long moment before turning back into Sora and Kairi.

Sora wiped a tear of happiness from the corner of his eye. "W-we're back!" he said, grinning at Kairi. She returned the grin and held out her hand. "You're home." Sora beamed at her and took her hand, holding the good luck charm she had given him between their palms. Kairi helped pull Sora to his feet and quickly drew him into a hug surprising him with just how tightly she was gripping him. "I've missed you so much," she whispered into his ear. Sora quickly recovered and returned her embrace. "I've missed you too."

They stared into each others' eyes until a cough from Riku snapped the pair of them back to reality. "As much as I'd love to sit here all day and watch you two stare at each other," he said sarcastically, "The day isn't going to last much longer and I'd very much like to get to the main Island before nightfall, okay?" Sora and Kairi sighed in defeat and broke their embrace. Riku couldn't help but smile at just how oblivious those two were to everyone else when they were together. They all began walking towards the dock where there were three boats tied up. "How come there are already three boats here?" Riku asked aloud. He and Sora looked at Kairi, who shrugged. "I don't know," She replied, "I didn't leave them here." After a moment of considering the origins of the boats, there was a collective shrug from the group and they continued towards the boats.

Sora walked slower than the others, taking in the island where he, Kairi and Riku had spent so much time together when they were younger. His eyes traveled from the tree house, to his and Kairi's Secret Place, to the old shack, and finally, they came to rest on the horizontally bent Paopu fruit tree. An idea struck him. "Hey guys," he said to the group. They all stopped and turned back to look at him quizzically. "I've gotta use the bathroom real quick, okay?" Riku shrugged and continued on. The others quickly followed. Kairi shot him a quizzical look before smiling and running to catch up to the others.

Sora quickly darted into the old shack and bolted up the wooden stairs inside. He poked his head out of the door at the top of the ramp and looked out at the docks to make sure no one was watching. He quickly darted across the driftwood bridge and ducked behind the Paopu tree. He checked to make sure that no one had looked over yet. He quickly scanned the tree and spotted his goal, the last Paopu on the tree. He reached up and snatched the fruit from the limb. He quickly checked yet again to see if anyone was watching and stuffed the Paopu fruit into one of the side pockets of his pants. He quickly bolted across the bridge and was back at the bottom of the stairs in the old shack in a under a stepped out of the old shack and was halfway across the beach before Kairi finally turned around to call out to him, "Hurry up, you lazy bum!" Sora smiled at the nickname she had given him years ago.

"I am. I am!" He broke into a sprint and was by her side in a flash.

Sora looked at the three boats, Donald and Goofy in one, Riku and the King in the other. "Guess that means we get to share a boat," he said to Kairi, who nodded in reply. Sora couldn't help but notice that her cheeks had turned a bright shade of pink. _Why is she blushing? We've shared a boat hundreds of times, what makes today any different?_

He climbed into the boat and held out his hand to Kairi. "Come on, Kai." he said softly. Kairi's cheeks quickly turned to a darker shade of red causing Sora's grin to grow wider. She took his hand and allowed him to help her into the boat. Sora stared into her eyes for a brief moment before he picked up the oars. He turned his head to look at the others. Donald, Goofy, and the King were all waiting patiently. Riku, on the other hand, looked far from patient. "Are you ready?" He asked Sora with mock impatience in his voice, betrayed only by his humongous grin. Sora nodded. "Let's get going," he said. The three boats all shoved off from the docks in almost perfect unison. They spent most of the boat ride in silence. Sora almost steered his and Kairi's boat into Riku's on multiple occasions because he was finding it difficult to keep his eyes off of the girl in front of him.

Kairi leaned back against the prow of their boat, gazing at the setting sun. "The sunset's beautiful, isn't it, Sora?" Kairi said basking in the fading light. "Yeah," Sora replied in a soft whisper, "You are." Kairi opened her eyes and looked at him. "What did you say?" she asked, her eyes boring into Sora's. _Real smooth, Romeo._ Echoed Roxas' voice inside Sora's head. _Can it._ Sora muttered mentally. "What?" He replied, a little too quickly. Kairi smirked. "Did you just call me _beautiful_?" She said placing heavy emphasis on the word.

Sora's cheeks flushed bright red. "I did- what I mean is- that's not-" Sora kept tripping over his own words, trying to form a somewhat intelligent excuse. Kairi let a peal of laughter. The other four turned to look at the pair. Kairi's laughter died slowly. "I'm just giving you a hard time Sora," she giggled, "I know you don't think of me like that." Sora let out a nervous chuckle before turning his attention back to the sea, a gloomy look dominating his expression.

_SO,_ Naminé said in Kairi's head, _Is there any particular reason why you continue to lie to Sora and, more importantly, yourself about your feelings for him?_ Kairi remained silent, focusing on the sunset rather than her Nobody. Naminé sighed, _Okay, but from what I can tell, Sora really likes you. He probably even loves you just as much as you love him._ Kairi pondered this for a moment. _Let's hope you're right then Naminé,_ she said to her Nobody. _Because that would be wonderful._ Kairi quickly found herself lost in a daydream of her and Sora, dancing at a formal ball.

Sora watched as Kairi's expression became one of absolute content and peace, while she hummed softly to herself. Sora couldn't help but feel peaceful as he watched her lose herself in a fantasy world.

_Kiss her._ Roxas said.

_What?_ Sora replied in surprise, _No way. She'd probably slap me, or throw me overboard._

_Whatever you say, dude. But something tells me she's thinking about you right now and would give anything to have you kiss her._

Roxas fell silent, leaving Sora to consider this. He turned his gaze on Kairi, who met his eyes for a long moment before she turned away, smiling softly as her cheeks turned bright red. Sora smiled and fixed his gaze on the horizon as the shore of the main Island drew ever near. _You know Roxas, I would kiss her. Hell, I'd give anything to kiss her right now._

_Go for it, dude. What've you got to lose? You've just saved the worlds, AGAIN, from the forces of Darkness. And, more importantly, you saved her. AGAIN. So just go for it, man!_

_You're right._ Said Sora to his Nobody, _I've got nothing to lose, and everything to gain._

Sora slowed his rowing unconsciously. He opened his mouth to speak when Kairi beat him to the punch. "Umm… Sora?"

"Yeah?" Sora looked at her, his heart pounding.

"The water's shallow enough now, we can just get out and pull the boat ashore."

Sora's spirit sank. "Sounds good," he said, his voice shaking almost unnoticeably from trying to hide his disappointment. Kairi's expression fell. _What's wrong, Sora?_ She asked him inside her head.

_He wanted to kiss you._ Naminé answered matter-of-factly. _Isn't it obvious?_

Kairi opened her mouth in surprise. She watched Sora carefully for a moment and noticed he was hanging his head slightly, his cerulean eyes down cast and avoiding hers. _That can't be true, can it?_ She asked her Nobody. Naminé sighed.

_Of course it is, dummy. Look at the poor boy. Maybe he's in denial about his feelings for you just like you're denying yours for him._

The more Kairi thought about it, the more she realized that Naminé was right. She had been hiding from her feelings for Sora ever since he had released her heart from his back on Radiant Gardens over a year and a half ago.

_Oh my god,_ she said to herself (and Naminé). _I'm in love with Sora. I'm in love with my best friend. When did this happen?_

_Judging from your memories that I've been watching for the past half hour or so,_ said Naminé inside Kairi's head. _It happened when he sacrificed himself to release your heart._ Kairi's eyes widened. Naminé was right. She had never forgotten the pain that nearly tore her heart as she regained consciousness, only to see her best friend tumble towards the ground, a blade sticking out of his chest.

And of course she would never forget the joy of recognizing Sora's heartless among the others that thirsted for her heart or her hugging Sora and bringing him back from the darkness with her light. Kairi's heart became a whirlwind of emotions. Suddenly, all she could think about was the boy pulling their boat onto the shore of the main Island. She watched as Sora tied the boat to a nearby post. She noticed for the first time just how much taller he had grown in those two years, how his hair was no longer a deep chocolate brown like it used to be. She absolutely loved the way the setting sun caught the caramel, gravity defying spikes. She loved his eyes and the way he would stare intently into hers with them.

"Hello? Kairi?" Kairi jumped back to reality. Sora was standing about a foot from her, a hand on her shoulder, lightly shaking her. "You in there?"

Kairi smiled at him, and he smiled back. "Present and accounted for." She said, making fun of him subtly Sora chuckled. "We've made landfall, Princess." He replied, making fun of her. Kairi glared at him slyly. "Play your cards right, and maybe I'll be more than just your Princess." She winked at him and started walking towards the others, leaving a very dumbstruck Sora behind.

_Did she just flirt with me?_ Inside his head, Roxas was gasping for breath as he tried to control his laughter.

_Yes, she did._ He paused for a second and regained his composure. _So, stop standing around, looking like an idiot and follow her._ Sora had already started walking towards the others before Roxas had even finished speaking.

_If I keep telling you what to do, you might as well give me control over our body._ Said Roxas. Sora ignored him. _Or you can ignore me. That works too. Don't forget I'm still in here. Ignore me long enough and I'll make you listen to Lady Gaga for the next week and a half._

_You wouldn't dare._

_Oh, so you aren't ignoring me._ Roxas said smugly. _And yes I would. Just try me._

Sora scowled. Kairi looked at him worriedly. "Sora? What's wrong?"

"Roxas is being an ass." Sora responded with a shrug, "But whatever."

Kairi giggled. "I can relate." She said, tapping one finger against her temple. _Thanks, Kairi._ Naminé said, her voice laden heavily with sarcasm. _You're welcome._ Kairi replied cheerfully.

Riku watched Sora and Kairi both staring off into space. He tapped his foot impatiently. "Can you two hurry up? It's almost dark, and quite frankly, I'm starving from that last battle. So let's go grab something to eat." Sora and Kairi snapped back to reality.

"Food sounds really good, now that you mention it," Donald said weakly, clutching his stomach. The King turned to look at Sora and Kairi.

"Do you two know any decent places in town to get something to eat?"

Sora glanced at Kairi; she had a twinkle in her eye that concerned him for some reason. "I know the perfect place, your Majesty." The King chuckled, "Alrighty then," he said, "Will you do the honors of leading us there, Princess?" Kairi bowed, "It would be my pleasure." She stood back up and laughed along` with the King.

They began walking towards the city. "You know, Sora," Said Goofy, after several minutes of silence, "We've been traveling together for the better part of two years now, and you know what I just realized?" Sora pondered this for a minute, trying to figure out just what Goofy was getting at.

"Not a clue," he replied, curious to see where this conversation was going to go. "You've never told us anything about your World." Donald looked over at Sora, "You know, he's right. We've told you all about ours, but the only thing we ever heard about your World were just some of your favorite memories with Riku and Kairi."

Kairi looked over at the three Other-Worlders. "Well, how about we tell you guys a little bit about the Islands on our way to the restaurant?" Sora and Riku looked at each other and sighed. Why not?

So, they spent the next half hour, walking through the suburbs of the main Island, Exin, as Kairi pointed out places of interest. She described school life at Exin High School for everybody, particularly for Sora and Riku, considering that they would be joining her there when the summer break was over.

Kairi ended up doing all of the talking and pointing out important places, mostly because so much had changed in the two years that Sora and Riku had been gone. She showed them the newly completed railway that crossed the sea to the other Islands of Eve, and Illa. She pointed out the coliseum, from which the roar of a crowd echoed for miles. She pointed out the manor where her adopted parents lived, set on a hill visible from every point in the town. King Mickey didn't seem to be quite as surprised to discover that Kairi's adopted father was the mayor of Destiny Islands as Donald and Goofy were. However, only Sora seemed to be the one to notice this.

Kairi led them through the back roads towards the main city, Fatum. The city had changed significantly since Sora had last seen it. Massive skyscrapers now dominated the skyline where there had used to be just small office buildings, illuminating the now darkened streets with a golden orange light. Sora recognized some company names that had once been small time shops. Exin Gear had been Sora's favorite place to go shopping back when he was fourteen. It had once stood nearby the shore, no larger than a seaside shack. Now, it was the tallest building in all of the Destiny Islands, according to Kairi, and was currently planning on expanding business to the mainland which lay hundreds of miles north of Eve.

She showed them around other places of interest in the city, such as Town Hall where Kairi's father worked as the mayor. King Mickey expressed great interest in seeing the inside of the building, so Kairi led them up to the front doors. The security guard let them through because he recognized Kairi and bowed as they introduced the King. "Thanks, Greg!" Kairi called back as she led the group into the heart of town hall.

She knew the tour was primarily for the King, so she focused on showing him around while the others tagged along. She showed him the council chambers, the chambers of the Island's congress, the different offices for the chairmen of the other Islands apart from Exin, and her father's office.

After the tour, they left Town Hall and proceeded down the road through the shopping district. According to Kairi, there wasn't anything particularly interesting about the rows of clothing and accessories shops, so she wound up pointing out her favorite places to go shopping on the weekends. And places she thought Sora and Riku would like to go.

"And just around this corner," said Kairi, acting like a know-it-all tour guide, "Is the biggest under-eighteen club in all of the Destiny Islands, Club Vinyl. Pretty much everyone from our school comes here to hang out on Friday and Saturday nights." Sora looked over at the club, it looked to him just like any other club, a brick building with no windows pumping out music of many different genres, and a rather large man standing next to the door, collecting payments as people trickled in and out.

Kairi grabbed Sora by the arm and started dragging him along "We should totally go sometime," she said suddenly ecstatic, "Selphie tells me that they have the best D.J.'s and bands there from across the Islands all the time." She looked up at Sora expectantly. Sora shot Riku a glance that basically screamed, "Help Me!" but Riku just laughed to himself.

Sora looked back at Kairi who was now giving Sora a puppy dog pout. Sora sighed. "If you want to, I guess I'm up for it."

Kairi's pout turned into a massive grin. "Yay!" She pulled Sora into a massive hug, "Thank you, Sora." She released him and walked on ahead of him, the others following suit. _Dude,_ Said Roxas, _You are so freakin' whipped and you two aren't even dating yet._ Sora gave Roxas a mental growl.

_Touchy are we?_

_Can it, Roxas._

_Whatever dude, you know I'm right._ Roxas then mimicked the sound of a whip being cracked.

_Roxas… _Sora growled.

_Alright, alright, I'm done. You should really see a therapist about your anger towards me when it comes to Kairi. Or because you talk to yourself, so to speak._

Roxas didn't say anything else after that, so Sora allowed himself to return to the conversation the others were having about Riku's parents.

"Long story short," Kairi said to Riku, "Your parents formed a private investigations firm several days after the Islands reformed from the Darkness. They've been primarily looking for you and Sora since only I was still here while you two were gone." Riku's eyes were downcast. The King patted his hand softly. "Fret not, Riku." He told the silver-haired teen, "You're home now. They can finally put their minds at ease." Riku nodded. "Yeah." He said, wiping a tear from his eye, "It's good to be home."

"What about my mom?" Sora asked Kairi. Kairi stopped walking and turned to look at him. They stared into each other's eyes for a minute or so while Kairi appeared to consider something. "Dinner first," She said simply, grinning mischievously, and turned to walk up a short staircase to her left that Sora hadn't noticed before. They had finally arrived at the restaurant.

The group followed Kairi inside the heavy wooden doors. Sora gave the restaurant a quick glance. There were only booths, no tables. The lights were dimmed slightly. Several televisions cast a white glow over the patrons as they displayed the Exin Grand Defender Tournament, an annual tournament held by the Destiny Islands primary law enforcement, the Defenders, to find candidates for their ranks. Despite their hilariously childish name, the Defenders were a force to be reckoned with.

Sora's attention was temporarily held by one screen that showed a boy about his age fighting off a large creature with two heads and a spike covered body with a massive long sword with a blade the color of the ocean. He swung the blade up and struck the side of one of the heads of the creature.

Sora turned back to the others when a waitress approached them. She had shoulder length black hair and lavender colored eyes. She was at least a foot shorter than Sora and dressed in a simple white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a red necktie, and a blue plaid skirt. "Welcome to Destiny's, Tavern and Grill" she said cheerfully, "My name's Kyoko and I will be your hostess tonight. How many are in your party?" Her eyes darted from Kairi to the King, Donald, and Goofy before they rested a fraction of a second longer on Sora before they moved to Riku and back to Kairi.

Kairi had noticed the lingering glance that this girl had given Sora and was fighting back the feelings of jealousy that had sprung up inside her without warning. "Just us six, thank you." She told Kyoko, her voice colder than she had meant for it to be. Kyoko stared at Kairi calmly, but anybody with any common sense could see sparks fly between the two girls for a brief moment. "Follow me, please," Kyoko said coolly, still staring at Kairi, "I will show you to your seats."

Kyoko gestured them into a booth. They all slid in slowly. Kairi grabbed Sora's hand and pulled him in after her and purposely sat closer to him than was absolutely necessary. Kyoko scowled at her before placing menus in front of each of them. "Your server will be with you shortly." She said, still keeping her cool composure before giving Kairi a quick glare and walking off.

Sora raised an eyebrow at Kairi before opening up his menu. He hadn't realized how hungry he actually was until he laid his eyes on the featured item of the month, the Island Teriyaki Burger. One-third pound, all natural beef, glazed with a mouthwatering teriyaki sauce, topped with a crisp leaf of lettuce, a perfect tomato slice, pickles, and a grilled pineapple, all nestled between two soft white sesame seed buns with a side of golden-brown French fries.

Sora's stomach growled loudly enough to cause people several booths over to look at them in disgust. There was a long pause where everyone at the table turned to look at a very embarrassed Sora. Then they all broke out in laughter. Sora chuckled along, still embarrassed.

_No comments, Roxas?_

_Nope._

_Why not?_

_Because I'm a whole hell of a lot hungrier than you are at the moment._ Roxas said weakly, _Just because I live in your head doesn't mean that I can't get hungry. I probably can't even die of starvation, which will suck for me. _

Sora looked back at the menu, feeling a small twinge of guilt that he could eat when Roxas couldn't. Then he noticed the price of the burger. "Two thousand munny?" he cried out, once again drawing attention to himself.

Riku stared at Sora in confusion. "What do you care, Sora? You've got so much munny from fighting all those Heartless and Nobodies that two thousand munny shouldn't even dent your pocketbook." Sora looked at Donald and Goofy both of whom nodded in agreement. "Hell," Riku continued before Sora could get a word in edgewise, "It shouldn't even scratch it. So," he looked around at the others, "I vote that Sora pays for everyone's dinner."

The others all turned to look at Sora, grinning widely. Sora looked back, his eyes pleading. Then he felt a hand on his upper thigh. He made the mistake of looking at Kairi's face.

She looked back at him with her lower lip trembling and her violet-blue eyes sparkling sadly.

"Please, Sora," she whispered, almost pleading.

_Oh, shit._ Sora sighed in defeat. He had no chance in hell of being able to resist Kairi when she looked at him like that.

"Fine," he said, mock sadness in his voice, "I'll pay."

The others let out cheers of victory; drawing attention from the restaurant's other customers for a third time. Somebody at one of the other tables mumbled something about grabbing the manager and left his seat.

"And since you've offered oh so kindly to pay for us tonight," Donald said mischievously, "I vote we get dessert as well!"

Sora glared at the mage. "How about you and Goofy buy dessert?" he asked coolly. Donald glared back. "I seem to recall that you two earned just as much as I did, seeing as we split the profits evenly. Am I right?" Donald responded with a barely audible "Fine."

"I'm still trying to figure out just how come we were able to split the profits evenly three ways every single time with no extra munny lying around." Goofy interjected thoughtfully. This brought a long moment of silence from everyone.

"I'm more concerned as to why Heartless of all things are going around carrying munny." Said Riku, adding his two cents, "I mean, what does a Shadow need five munny for anyways? They don't wear clothes or eat. At least, I think they don't eat."

This sparked a five minute debate on whether or not Heartless actually ate or not and why every world's currency was exactly the same when absolutely no two worlds were. Their debate ended when Riku gestured for them all to be quiet.

Sora looked at him questioningly. Riku shook his head and jerked his head towards another customer approaching their table with the restaurant's manager, a woman in her early forties with chocolate brown hair gathered into a bun on the top of her head and hazel eyes, in tow. Sora and the others stared at one another awkwardly. Kairi looked at Sora nervously. Sora looked at the manager. She seemed familiar

"Is there a problem here?" The manager said, walking up to them, looking at the King, Donald and Goofy. She looked at them curiously, obviously never having seen Otherworlders before.

"No problem at all, ma'am," the King replied, "I'm terribly sorry if we've been a bother to your other patrons."

The manager seemed surprised at Mickey's politeness. "Oh, it's quite all right," she said, a little taken aback, "Just try to keep it down, okay?" She turned to leave.

"Sure thing," Kairi replied, "Mom."

The manager froze. Kairi was smiling sheepishly. Then it hit Sora as to why she looked familiar. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy stared from the Kairi to the manager and back. Kairi's adopted mother turned back towards them slowly. She stared at Kairi in total shock. There was a long moment where neither Kairi nor her mom moved. Then, Kairi's mom let out a cry of joy and threw her arms around her adopted daughter.

Kairi returned the hug, smiling hugely. "You're back!" her mother laughed, hugging Kairi tightly to her, "Where have you been? We thought we lost you."

"Mom," Kairi began, but her mother cut her off.

"I mean, what if what happened to Sora and Riku had happened to you?" her mother continued, "They vanished without a trace. Look at what it did to Sharon and David. They were heartbroken when Riku never came home. And poor Allison, losing Sora less than a year after Brandon." She hugged Kairi even tighter. Kairi choked for breath, "But, Mom-"

"But you're home now! You're father's going to be so excited to see you! And you must introduce me to your friends." She looked up beaming at Donald, Goofy and the King. Her smile was replaced with a look of shock when she laid eyes on Riku.

"Riku?" she said in disbelief, "Is that you?"

Riku nodded and grinned at her, "The one and only. Nice to see you again after all this time, Melissa."

Melissa grinned widely, "Riku! Where have you been all this time? Do you know what happened to Sora?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at her and pointed at Sora. Melissa turned her head and completely froze. "Sora?"

"Hey, Melissa," Sora replied, casually waving his hand.

"You're home," she said, struggling to absorb the shock of finding the three missing teens turning up, unannounced in her restaurant. She stood up slowly, gazing at the trio. Keeping one hand on Kairi's back. There was a long pause as she stared at Kairi. "This isn't a dream is it?" She asked the three, her voice shaking as though she was afraid to hear the answer.

"Nope," replied Riku.

"We're the real thing," continued Sora.

"And we're back," Kairi finished. Melissa stared at them in total shock.

She reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a cell phone. She flipped it open and pressed two buttons before pressing it to her ear. "Sharon? Hey, it's Melissa. Oh, you know. Same old, same old. Listen, you and David need to come over to the restaurant right away. What? No. Look, just come down here, okay? And grab Allison on your way." Sora and Riku shot each other a glance. "Okay! Trust me; it'll all make sense to you when you guys get down here."

She hung up her phone and looked over at Sora and Riku. "Your parents are going to be so shocked when they see just how much you two have grown since you've been gone." She smiled at the pair.

In unison, Sora, Donald, and Riku's stomachs all let out loud growls. Kairi giggled as Sora blushed and placed a hand over his stomach. Melissa chuckled and pulled a notepad and pen from her apron. "Sounds like you all could use some food."

_You've got no clue._ Said Roxas. Sora grinned at that.

_Sucks to be you buddy._ Sora inhaled deeply, enjoying the smell of burgers and hot oil drifting from the kitchen. _Mmmmm, smells good, doesn't it Roxas?_ Sora said evilly.

_Stuff it, spiky._

Sora laughed softly to himself while Roxas grumbled and gave Melissa his order. He was a little surprised when Kairi ordered the exact same thing that he had. He looked at her questioningly. She responded with a smile and a shrug.

Melissa ran their orders to the kitchen and came back with a tray of her drinks. "So you three," she said to Sora, Kairi and Riku as she passed out their drinks. She set the tray down and pulled a chair for herself up to their table, "Why don't you introduce me to your friends?" She glanced over at Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey. "Of course," Kairi replied, "This is Donald, Court Magician of Disney Castle." Donald bowed and removed his hat. Melissa bowed back, smiling.

"This," said Sora, "Is Goofy, Captain of the Royal Knights of Disney Castle." Goofy also bowed to Melissa, "Pleased to meet you, ma'am." Melissa bowed to Goofy as well, "Pleased to meet you too, Goofy."

"And finally," said Riku, gesturing at the King, "Is his Royal Highness, King Mickey Mouse of Disney Castle." Mickey bowed his head at Melissa, who seemed stunned that there was royalty in her restaurant. She gave a low bow, "Your Majesty," she said humbly, "It is truly an honor to have you grace my restaurant with your presence."

The King chuckled softly, "Thank you, ma'am," he bowed to her again, "I am honored to meet the woman who raised Kairi to be the wonderful, friendly, loving young woman she is." He smiled at Kairi, who blushed crimson at the compliments the King had given her.

"Don't forget about me!" exclaimed a voice from Sora's hood. Out popped a small cricket, dressed in a suit and top hat, complete with a cane. The cricket hopped up onto Sora's shoulder. "Cricket's the name. Jiminy Cricket." Jiminy took his hat off as he addressed Melissa, "I am the Royal Chronicler for Disney Castle." Melissa smiled back at him. "Pleased to meet you, Jiminy."

"And the same to you, ma'am," replied Jiminy.

Kairi glanced over at Sora, who was smiling at her. She smiled back, her eyes sinking into his for a fraction of a second before they both looked away, their faces burning red.

Only Riku seemed to notice the brief exchange between his two best friends. He smiled knowingly. He found it laughably obvious that those two were in love with one another and had still had absolutely no clue. He barely acknowledged the twang of jealousy that sprang up at this thought. He was happy for them and jealous of them at the same time. They had each other to love. He had no one.

Riku closed his eyes and took a calming breath to repress the darkness rising in him. _No._ He told himself. _Not now. Not ever._ The darkness receded reluctantly into the depths of his heart. He let out a silent sigh of relief and opened his eyes to find Sora and Donald placing bets on the man fighting on the nearby television.

"Five hundred munny says the shorter one loses," Said Donald, grinning slyly at Sora as he placed said munny on the table.

Sora grinned greedily at the anthropomorphic duck, "You're on." He slammed his munny on the table and everyone turned to stare at the screen. A startling tall man with a thick handlebar mustache and muscles thicker than Sora's entire body, wielding a large battle axe charged at his opponent, a man with shoulder length, bronze colored hair, who was pulling on black leather gloves. The axe man swung at his opponent, but the shorter man had vanished and reappeared on the opposite side of the arena.

The large man let out a roar of frustration and charged once again. The shorter man raised his fists in a defensive pattern as the axe man drew nearer. The axe man grinned as he brought the axe crashing to the ground several yards away from his opponent. Massive shockwaves shook the ground knocking down the bronze haired man. The axe man leapt high into the air, raising his axe above his head, ready to deliver the finishing blow.

"Looks like I win," said Donald, already beginning to gloat. He grinned at Sora victoriously. Sora smiled back, "Don't be so sure." He pointed back at the screen.

The bronze haired man had suddenly appeared on the axe man's back. The axe man tried to spin midair, to no avail. The bronze haired man clutched one of the twin blades of the axe. Shards of metal rained down as the blade shattered into a thousand pieces from the bronze haired man's grip.

The axe man let out a shocked cry. The bronze haired man leapt off the axe man's back with excessive force, sending the man crashing face first into the ground next to the shards of his axe. The bronze haired man descended to the ground slowly, his feet touched down lightly and gracefully. There was a beat of silence and the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. Donald groaned in frustration.

Sora cried out triumphantly. The bronze haired man bowed to the crowd. The camera zoomed in on his beaming face. Then stopped, the man's eyes were glowing silver as he stared directly into the camera. "That's not creepy at all," said Riku as he watched the screen. Kairi looked at him quizzically. Riku pointed at the screen. "Look at his eyes."

Kairi looked back at the man on the screen and gasped. The man's silver eyes seemed to stare past the screen and directly at her. "What the-" Riku nodded, "Whoever he is, he isn't normal." Sora nodded in agreement, and then turned to face Donald, who was fuming. Sora grinned victoriously and snatched the munny up from the table. Donald just glared at Sora. Riku couldn't help but laugh at Donald's expression.

"Anyone else feel like contributing to tonight's dinner?" Sora asked, looking around at the others, "Or my wallet? I'm not picky." Everyone immediately started shaking their heads. Everyone present (with the exception of Donald) knew better than to make any sort of bet with Sora. He rarely ever lost any wager. Sora laughed at their expressions. "Come on," he taunted, "Nobody?" He laughed a tiny bit harder.

"You're on."

Sora's laughter died instantly. Everyone turned to give Kairi looks that basically screamed "ARE YOU NUTS?" Sora stared at her in complete surprise. "Really?" Kairi smiled back smugly, "Yeah, really."

Sora grinned back at her. "Alright then, what do you want to bet on?" He turned towards the television and immediately began analyzing the newest match. Kairi's smile broadened mischievously. "You don't get to know."

Everyone stared at Kairi in confusion, particularly Sora, who turned slowly to face Kairi, who was continuing to grin mischievously back at him. Sora cocked an eyebrow at the redhead.

"Huh?"

"Sorry, but you don't get to know," Kairi repeated.

"What? Why?" Sora's expression grew more confused, causing Kairi to giggle at him.

"It makes the bet more interesting."

"How on earth does that make the bet more interesting?" demanded Sora, "It sounds more like you're trying to torture me by making me go insane." Kairi's mother smiled as she caught onto what her adopted daughter had planned and quickly got to her feet to go answer the now ringing phone behind the bar. Then another thought occurred to Sora. "If I don't get to know what we're betting on, then how will I know when one of us wins?"

Kairi smiled slyly at him. "Oh trust me, Sora, you'll know," she winked at Sora and immediately turned to watch the current battle. Sora stared at Kairi, still horribly confused. Was it his imagination, or was Kairi just flirting with him?

_You expect me to know the answer to that?_ Said Roxas, adding his voice into Sora's musings. _Or do you just want my opinion?_

_I was hoping you would know._ Replied Sora, _and yes, I would very much like your opinion._

_Was that sarcasm?_

_Just a little._

_Well, if you ask me, she was flirting with you dude. Maybe she does like you like you like her. After all, her heart spent a couple of months inside you. That's bound to have some effect on how you two feel about each other. Right?_

_Is that your excuse for liking Naminé?_

_I have no idea what you're talking about._

_Excuses, excuses. _

_Stow it, Spiky. _

Sora smiled. _Need I remind you that you also have spiky hair?_

_Oh, shut up and pay attention to the real world for once._

Roxas fell silent and Sora returned his thoughts to the physical world, just as Melissa returned to the table. "That was your father," she said, addressing Kairi. Kairi immediately perked up. "I managed to convince him to come over and join us all."

Kairi smiled widely and leaned against Sora as she returned her attention to the television, which was now showing an advertisement for Kenda's Moogle Shop.

Kairi sighed inaudibly as Sora tenderly wrapped his arm around her. It was then that Naminé decided to intrude on her peace.

_You like him._ Naminé taunted.

_And you like Roxas._ Kairi retaliated, although the jab lacked any negative emotions, she was just too content in Sora's arms.

_And? I am you. Roxas is Sora. Get the picture yet? Besides, it's obvious that Sora likes you like you like him._

Kairi tensed up at this statement. Sora glanced down at her in concern. She smiled back up at him reassuringly. She turned her attention back to the television. Sora continued to stare at her with a mildly worried expression.

_Like I said,_ Naminé continued, _He obviously likes you a lot more than he's letting on._

_How would you know?_

_His arm around your waist, that's how._

_That makes absolutely no sense, Naminé, would you care to explain?_

Naminé sighed. _There is nothing but love in the way he's holding you. Don't you even try to tell me that you can't feel it._

Kairi considered this for a moment. She could feel how gently Sora's arm wrapped around her waist. She could also feel the firmness in his grip as well. It felt as though he was ready to take a shot for her at a seconds notice. Kairi felt her face turn red as she realized it.

_Oh my god!_ She exclaimed mentally, _Do you really think that he loves me?_

_Of course I do, sweetheart._ Said Naminé, _I've never been more positive about anything, except for my feelings for Roxas._

Kairi smiled at this statement. _Thanks, Naminé._

_No problem. I'll leave you two alone now._

Naminé fell silent and Kairi turned her focus outward to her surroundings. Their server, Kyoko, had returned, carrying their dinner. She sat up, releasing Sora, who sat bolt upright at the sight of the burger he had been craving so much.

"Enjoy your meal," Kyoko said sweetly to Sora, who mumbled something that sounded like "You too." She gave Kairi a brief death glare and walked off. Kairi glared after her. _Naminé, you better be right about Sora liking me, otherwise I could have some competition._

Naminé snorted in a very unladylike fashion. _Have you seen Sora? Of course other girls are going to be attracted to him. He's actually pretty handsome. _

_Hey,_ Kairi half growled, _That's my man you're talking about there._

_Your what now?_ Naminé said, taking on an I-Told-You-So tone of voice.

_Wait! I mean- _Kairi stammered at her Nobody, who just laughed at her_._

"Thanks Kyoko," Melissa said, as everyone began to eat. She couldn't help but laugh at Sora and Donald, who were consuming their food at an alarming rate. Jiminy was sitting next to Sora's plate, munching on some of his French fries. Riku, surprisingly enough had only ordered a Caesar salad. Sora looked at him questioningly.

"Blame DiZ for-" he paused suddenly and corrected himself, "Ansem, for this. When I was with him, he forced me to eat healthier." Sora nodded in understanding and resumed consuming his burger.

Sora took a large bite from his burger, savoring every bit of flavor. "Hmmm," he moaned, "This is the best burger I've had in ages." He grinned in satisfaction as he heard a low growl in the back of his mind.

_I swear to god Sora,_ Roxas growled, _You better pray that I never find a way to get my own body. Because if I do, the first thing I'm doing is ordering a burger._

Sora stopped chewing for a moment. _Was that supposed to be a threat? Because if it was, it wasn't a very good one._

_And then I'm going to beat you into next month with a spoon._

_There it is._ Sora replied as he took another bite. _This really is a very good burger._

Roxas growled again, and then began to laugh evilly.

_What?_ Asked Sora, mildly concerned.

_If you make one more comment to torture me, I will do worse to you?_

_How?_

Sora could've sworn that Roxas was smiling. _What Lady Gaga song would you never be able to get out of your head if I sung it for three weeks straight with no breaks?_

Sora's eyes widened in fear. _You wouldn't dare._

_Like I said, try me. I've got nothing but time to kill in here. And redecorating. You have a lot of unused space in here._

_Shut up. You win this round. _Sora said, defeated. Roxas laughed evilly inside Sora's mind.

"Sora?" Kairi's whisper grabbed Sora's attention. She was looking at him confusedly.

"Yeah?" he whispered back.

"What are you and Roxas talking about?"

Sora was taken aback. How did she know that he was talking to Roxas? "How did you know that I was talking to him?"

"Naminé told me."

"How did she know?"

_Naminé and I can talk to each other anytime you and Kairi are near each other._

"Never mind," Sora said, "Roxas just answered my question."

The King looked up at the two as they whispered back and forth. "So, you can both communicate with your Nobodies?" Sora and Kairi looked up at him and noticed that everyone was watching them. Kairi blushed a little and Sora replied with a simple "Yup."

Riku rolled his eyes and returned to his salad, muttering "That's gonna be real annoying."

Sora gave Riku a brief, half-hearted glare, before listening to the King as he, Donald and Goofy told Melissa about their home world. Sora had only ever seen a startling small portion of the Castle. He had never been to the town outside the gates, or to the rolling green hills or crystal clear ocean that lay just less than a mile beyond the castle perimeter. He told them all about the many festivals held in town and the amazing fireworks shows during the summer months.

By the time they were done describing their world, everyone had finished eating and were relaxing. The restaurant had emptied and the only employee left was Kyoko, who was leaning against the front door, glaring daggers over at Kairi, who was using Sora's lap as a pillow.

Sora was leaning back comfortably when a voice he hadn't heard in almost two years reached his ears. "Melissa! We're here!" Sora jumped violently at the sound of the voice, startling Kairi in the process.

Melissa quickly got to her feet and rushed to the front door to greet the other parents of the three youth. Riku and Sora shared a nervous glance. They had no idea how their parents were going to react. They had both left without a word on the night the Heartless overtook the Islands. That had been almost a full two years ago at this point.

Kairi smiled at both of them. Sora could feel his nerves starting to act up as he heard the adults drawing closer. They only grew worse when he heard Jonathan, Kairi's adoptive father, let out a cry of joy at the sight of her. "Kairi!"

Sora turned around in his seat to get a better look. Jonathan had rushed forward and pulled Kairi over Sora and out of the booth and into a tight hug. He definitely seemed more intimidating than Sora remembered, even when he was hugging his daughter. He had shoulder length blonde hair that he had tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He had a relatively slim, yet muscular build. When he released Kairi and stood straight up with near perfect posture, he was still half a head taller than Sora. Even when smiling, he had a mildly stern expression on his face.

He looked up from Kairi towards the only occupied table in the restaurant. For a brief moment, he stared at the other-worlders. Then he froze as he saw Riku and Sora, "Is that-" he began, but was cut off by cries from Sharon and David , who bolted past them to embrace their silver-haired son. Riku edged his way out of the booth and was almost knocked flat as his mother threw her arms around him, sobbing. "Hi Mom," Riku said, tears shining in the corner of his eyes, "Hey Dad."

Riku's father pulled him into an even tighter hug than his mother had. "Thank god, you're back," he whispered, silent tears flowing down his cheeks, "Your mother and I have been so worried about you. We never gave up hope that you would come home one day." Riku tried to speak but couldn't find the words through the lump in his throat. 'I've missed you both so much." His parents pulled him into a tighter hug.

Sora had never noticed before how much Riku looked like David. They had the same pale complexion and the same aqua eyes. David was only an inch or two taller than Riku and was slightly more muscular. Riku had inherited his mother's slender face and silver hair. Sharon was several inches shorter than Riku, about the same height as Kairi was.

Sora smiled at Riku and his family before turning around to face the only person left standing by the door. Allison, Sora's mother, seemed frozen in place in the doorway. She was staring at her son, her hand over her mouth, tears rolling down her face. Sora stared back at her with the indigo eyes he had inherited from her. "Hi Mom."

_LD_

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_Hope you like it so far and want to keep on reading. I do welcome reviews and criticism as well as questions. Chapter Two is on its way soon!_

_-Shadow Horizons_


	2. Memories Part I

_Hello again, Shadow Horizons here._

_My apologies for taking so long to update but hopefully the double release more than makes up for it. Thanks to __**janus-juan**_ _and __**Kingdom of Zetalnarury-88**__ for reviewing last chapter! I only ask that you bear with me through this chapter and chapter three, because I promise they will be a couple of the very few slow chapters. Hopefully all of you out there enjoy them though!_

_Disclaimer: As I've said, I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, but I do own my own original characters and the plot to this story._

_Hope you enjoy! _

_**EDIT: **__Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. Details about Sora's Father updated._

* * *

Chapter 2: Memories Part I

_Sunday, May 16th 4794 P.C._

Allison let out a sob and rushed forward to embrace her son. Sora was vaguely aware that all eyes were on him and his mother. He pulled her into a tight hug. Two years ago he had been as tall as her, now he was at least a foot taller than her. Allison clutched tightly to her son as she let the tears fall slowly onto his chest. "I'm home," Sora said, half choking on his words as he struggled to hold back his tears.

Allison released Sora and stepped back, looking her son up and down. "Oh, Sora," she sighed happily, "You've grown so much since I last saw you. You look so much like your father did when he was your age." Sora smiled sadly at the mention of his father. No one knew what really happened to him. He was a fisherman and when he set out to sea one day, he never came back, just a few months before Kairi had washed up on the Islands. He had been missing for over ten years now. Sora always felt a twinge in his heart every time someone told him just how much he reminded them of his father.

"You're so handsome," Allison said gently, before her tone and expression became suddenly stern. "I think you all owe us an explanation as to where you've been these past two years." Sora tensed at the sudden change of tone in his mother's voice. "I agree," Jonathan said from over by Kairi, staring at Sora seriously, "Especially after all the worry you put your parents through." He glanced back and forth between Sora and Riku. "Yes," added David, who was now staring at the other-worlders, "And perhaps introduce us to your friends."

Several minutes later, after introductions had been made, and parents had been shocked to discover there was a king present, they all sat around several tables that had been pushed together. All of the parents sat on one end while Sora, Kairi, Riku and the others sat opposite of them.

"Umm," Sora stared nervously at the adults, Jonathan sat directly across from where Sora and Kairi were sitting together, eyeing Sora carefully, "Where do you want us to start from?" The parents all looked at each other and then back at their children. "Start from the beginning," said David, "Let's start with how you two vanished."

The other parents nodded in agreement. Sora considered this for a moment. "Alright, how about we tell you about what happened before we vanished." And so, Sora, Kairi and Riku told their parents about the days leading up to the destruction of the island. They explained about the raft they had been making to travel to other worlds, the door in the Secret Place, and the cryptic warning left to Sora by the Mysterious Man in the brown cloak, "This world has been connected. Tied to the Darkness. Soon to be completely eclipsed." Sora recounted about heading to the play Island the night of the storm that the Heartless arrived in. He told them about attempting to fight the Heartless with a wooden sword, only to discover it had no effect on them at all, running into Riku, who had opened his heart to Darkness, the appearance of the only weapon that could truly destroy a Heartless, the Keyblade. He recalled fighting his way to the Secret Place just in time to see the wooden door there open as the Heartless took the Heart of the World, and Kairi vanishing in front of his eyes. He told them how he fought the Darkside Heartless before the world was completely consumed by the Darkness.

He continued his story by telling them about waking up in Traverse Town, meeting Leon, and Leon's warning before fighting Sora. "'They'll come at you out of nowhere. And they'll keep on coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade.' He told me." explained Sora. He went on to tell everyone present, except for Donald, Goofy and Jiminy, about meeting up with said trio before fighting and defeating the Guard Armor Heartless together, and how Leon had told Sora to go with the three from Disney Castle if he wanted to find Riku and Kairi.

And so, Sora, with the occasional side notes from Jiminy, Donald and Goofy, conveyed the story of his first adventure, travelling from world to world, making new friends, fighting off the Heartless, sealing the Keyholes to the worlds so the Heartless couldn't take the hearts of the worlds. Allison couldn't but beam with pride at her son.

The other parents also seemed proud of Sora for his determination to find Riku and Kairi. They seemed surprised when Sora told them the story of meeting Riku in Neverland. This was the part of the story Riku had been dreading the most. He looked at his hands folded in his lap shamefully, feeling the stares of the parents turn to him as Sora explained to them that Riku had opened his heart to powers of Darkness, just to save Kairi. Riku hated being reminded of the fact that he had given in to the temptations of freedom and power.

Sora called attention back to himself as he went on to explain about arriving in Hollow Bastion in time to see Riku defeat the Beast, and how Riku made Sora believe he was, as Riku had said at the time, a "delivery boy" for the Keyblade. He told them of how Riku summoned Sora's Keyblade to him, calling himself the Keyblade's true Chosen One, leaving Sora with only a wooden sword as a replacement. Donald and Goofy bowed their heads, obviously ashamed at the fact that they had abandoned Sora to go with Riku.

Sora continued the story, obviously impressing the parents when he told them that he and the Beast charged after Riku, how he took the Keyblade back and defeated Riku, who fled through a Corridor of Darkness. Riku interrupted at that point and explained that after being defeated by Sora a voice spoke to him, promising him the power to defeat Sora and protect Kairi. All he had to do was accept the Darkness. Riku bowed his head in shame as he admitted to opening his heart for that kind of power, allowing "Ansem", who was actually Xehanort's Heartless (but they were going to leave that part out until later, as any good storyteller would), to possess him.

Sora recounted about how he, Donald and Goofy fought their way through horde after horde of Heartless, up through the castle's many floors to the Chapel, where they faced off against and defeated Maleficent, who fled through a Portal of Darkness to another part of the castle, but made the mistake of leaving the portal open. Riku told them of how "Ansem", who was possessing Riku at that point, appeared before Maleficent and unlocked her heart with a Keyblade made from the hearts of six of the seven Princesses of Heart, The Keyblade of People's Hearts, as Riku called it. The Darkness that had been seeking Maleficent consumed her, transforming her into a massive dragon.

Sora, with the help of Donald and Goofy, described their final battle against Maleficent in great detail. Sora proudly showed them the burn scar Maleficent's fire had left on his left shoulder. Allison and Kairi let out gasps of sympathy at the sight of the shiny blood red skin, permanently disfigured by that evil woman. Sora continued the story. He told them how he and his anthropomorphic companions fought their way deeper into the bowels of the castle, until they finally came to the place where the Keyhole to Hollow Bastion lay.

Sora recalled the mixed feelings of joy and absolute panic he experienced upon seeing Kairi's body lying in front of the incomplete Keyhole. He described his battle against the possessed Riku, now calling himself Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. He told them how "Ansem" told him that Kairi was the seventh Princess of Heart (soliciting dumbfounded looks and cries of shock from Johnathan and Melissa), and how her heart had taken refuge in Sora when the Islands were consumed by the Heartless., and the only way that Kairi would ever wake up was if Sora released her heart from his.

"Well," Johnathan interrupted, "She obviously has her heart back now. How did you release it?" Everyone who didn't know turned to face Sora, who was smiling softly. "I took the Keyblade of People's Hearts," he said distantly, as he stood up. The memory of that moment flooded through Sora so that all he could see was that moment over a year ago. He lifted his shirt, "And pierced myself with it." Across the center of his chest was a long silver scar from where he had impaled himself to free Kairi.

Everyone gasped. Donald and Goofy looked at each other in surprise; Sora had never shown them the scar before, even after a year and a half. Kairi, Melissa, Sharon and Allison all looked as though they were about to cry. Sora put his shirt down and sat. "Although, freeing Kairi had its side effects," He said, looking only at Kairi. "Such as?" asked an ecstatic David, obviously absorbed in the story.

"I had to release my heart as well," Sora said, even more distantly than before, "And I turned into a Heartless as a result." There was a collective gasp from the parents. Sora smiled grimly. "Oh, Sora," Allison said, tears flowing from her eyes. Johnathan was glaring at Sora suspiciously, as if he expected him to suddenly transform into a black creature with yellow eyes and a hunger for the hearts of the people gathered at the table. "If you were turned into one of those Heartless, then how come you're just fine now?" The other parents looked back at Sora, who was now smiling widely.

"I probably wouldn't be if it weren't for Kairi," he said, turning to smile gratefully at her. Kairi smiled back. Sora turned back to the parents who were looking at him confusedly. "When I turned into a Heartless, I forgot who I was, who my friends were, and I was sinking into the depths of the Darkness. But then, my Heartless found Kairi, Donald and Goofy as they tried to escape the Darkness that was beginning to flow out of Hollow Bastion's Keyhole from when I released Kairi's heart, which completed the Keyhole."

Sora looked over at Kairi. "Kairi was the only one who could tell that it was me inside the Darkness," he said softly. Kairi smiled back at him. "Without her Light, I would've been lost in the Darkness forever. But she saved me from that fate."

"Okay," said Johnathan, clearly made slightly uncomfortable by the way Sora and Kairi were looking at each other, "How exactly is it that Kairi saved you? I'm afraid that I don't quite understand." Sora looked back at him, "As a Princess of Heart, she doesn't have any traces of Darkness in her heart." He explained, "She has one of the seven purest hearts in all of the worlds. So her light pulled me out of the darkness and allowed me to regain my body." Allison looked over at Kairi, "Thank you for saving Sora," she whispered. Kairi smiled at her and subtly inched herself closer to Sora.

Sora resumed his story. He told them how they fled Hollow Bastion and regrouped back in Traverse Town, where he made sure Kairi would stay and be safe while he, Donald and Goofy returned to Hollow Bastion to seal the Keyhole and stop the Darkness from overtaking the world. He described fighting and defeating the Behemoth Heartless, sealing Hollow Bastion's Keyhole to stop the Darkness from consuming the world, traveling to the remains of the worlds that had been taken by the Heartless and fighting their way through hordes of powerful Heartless.

He went on to recall opening the Door he had seen in his dream back on the Islands and finding himself on the Islands once again. He told them about how Riku turned into Xehanort's Heartless while telling Sora the same thing that the mysterious man in the brown cloak had told him on the Islands several months before. He described fighting and defeating Xehanort's Heartless, who opened the Door to Darkness.

He told them about how "Ansem" believed Kingdom Hearts to be Eternal Darkness, and how he was destroyed when the Door to Darkness opened and it was revealed that Kingdom Hearts was light. He told them about how he, Donald and Goofy fought to close the Door to Darkness to prevent the Heartless from taking the Heart of all the worlds and how Riku and the King appeared on the other side of the door, helping Sora and the others close and seal Kingdom Hearts with the two Keyblades. Riku's parents smiled at him proudly, glad that their son had redeemed himself.

Sora told them about how Kairi suddenly appeared there with them, and how the Islands began reforming beneath her. Though he felt embarrassed about admitting it, he let them know about his promise to Kairi to return to her. Kairi couldn't help but stare at Sora as he told that part of his story, an action that didn't go unnoticed by her father, who crossed his arm and watched Sora with narrowed eyes carefully.

"And then," Sora continued, "The only thing I remember before waking up a few months ago in Twilight Town was this big, oddly shaped brown castle." He smiled sheepishly, "Everything that happened during the year in between is blank." He looked around at Donald, Goofy and Jiminy all of whom shrugged. "Sorry, Sora," Goofy said sadly. "That's the last thing any of us remember as well," Donald added.

"You're talking about Castle Oblivion."

Everyone turned their attention over to Riku, who was staring at Sora with a slightly amused expression on his face. Sora cocked an eyebrow at his silver haired friend, "And just how would you know?"

"I arrived in the castle's basement shortly after you came to the castle."

Sora narrowed his eyes at Riku, "If that's true, then how come none of us remember anything about that place?"

"I believe that would be my fault," said a voice, echoing around the restaurant. Everyone jumped as Kairi glowed with a golden light. The light condensed into a golden orb of light that floated several feet behind Kairi. The light changed shape, quickly transforming into the form of a teenage girl with shoulder length blonde hair that curled slightly at the tips. She was dressed in a strapped white dress that ended mid-thigh. She was as tall as Kairi and had eyes that were the same shade of Kairi's violet-blue ones.

The adults all let out cries of shock at the appearance of a transparent girl. "What the hell?" shouted Jonathan, a look of pure disbelief on his face. "What's going on here?" Naminé turned to face him. "Allow me to introduce myself," she said, placing her hand over her heart, "My name is Naminé. I am Kairi's Nobody."

Sora had never heard a louder silence in his entire life.

"Kairi's what?" was the response from Jonathan and Melissa.

"Her Nobody," Naminé replied.

The parents just stared at her blankly. "And a Nobody is…?" Jonathan inquired.

"A Nobody is created when a person with a strong will loses their heart," the King explained. Naminé nodded, "He's right," she said, "Roxas and I were created when Sora impaled himself on the Keyblade of People's Hearts to release Kairi's heart from him."

"Who's Roxas?" Melissa asked.

"I am," said a male voice that echoed around the restaurant. The parents let out another round of shocked cries as Sora glowed with a blue light which floated out of him and took on the shape of a transparent teenage boy with short spiked blonde hair. "Hi there. I'm Roxas, Sora's Nobody." He waved at the parents before turning to face Naminé. "Hey you," he said softly before pulling the blonde Nobody into a hug. Sora cleared his throat and the Nobodies broke apart and glared at Sora.

"How exactly is it your fault we don't remember what happened at Castle Oblivious, Naminé?" Goofy asked.

"Oblivion," Donald corrected him.

"That's what I said," said Goofy, "Castle Oblivion."

"It's what I did to you," Naminé said, looking at her folded hands sadly, "But I think it'll be easier if I help you remember." Sora stared at her confusedly.

"Help me remember?"

Naminé nodded, "Before you, Donald and Goofy went to sleep; you and I realized one important thing about memories."

Sora continued to stare at the female Nobody blankly. Naminé sighed, "Even though we may forget some memories, the memories themselves are never truly gone. They are just lost, hidden deep within the confines of our hearts. However, remembering them is simple; all it takes is remembering one memory. From that memory, another. And another, and another, similar to links in a chain." She held out her right hand and extended her pinky finger towards him.

Sora looked at her questioningly before intertwining his pinky finger with hers. "So is something supposed to happen, 'cause this seems pretty anti-climactic." said Sora, who was clearly unimpressed. Naminé smiled back at him. "Any second now," She muttered under her breath. Sora opened his mouth to speak, but it slammed shut as his eyes went wide with shock. Sora collapsed backwards, clutching the sides of his head. "Sora!" exclaimed Kairi. She knocked her chair aside and threw herself next to Sora.

There were additional cries of shock from Donald, Goofy and Jiminy. "What's going on?" demanded Jonathan. "I helped them unlock the memories bound in their hearts," Naminé replied calmly. Kairi watched Sora with a worried expression.

Behind his eyelids, thousands of images rushed across Sora's vision. His ears were filled with the rushing noise of hundreds of conversations overlapping each other. Then, silence. Sora's eyes snapped open and he stood up slowly. He smiled at Naminé. "Thank you, Naminé."

Naminé smiled back. "It's like you said, memories lost, but not forgotten."

Sora nodded, set his chair upright and sat back down. "I think I remember now. Where were we?" And so, with their memories once again intact, Sora, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy told the parents and Kairi about arriving at Castle Oblivion, the man in the black cloak and the warning he left, repeatedly. "'To lose and claim anew, or to claim anew only to lose,'" Jiminy recited. Sora explained how the man in the black cloak "sampled" Sora's memories and created a card from it.

"We used the card to open the doors to the first floor," Jiminy explained, "and we found ourselves in Traverse Town. There, the man in the black cloak appeared again and told us that the town wasn't real. 'This town is an illusion created by your memories ingrained in that card.' He told us, and right before he vanished into a dark portal, he said 'Walk the avenues of latent memory, and you shall meet someone dear to you.'

We assumed he was referring to the King and Riku, so we pressed on. After that, we ran into several of our friends that we had met on our first adventure. However, despite remembering our names, our friends had forgotten everything else about us. But they still helped us try to search the town for the King and Riku. When we didn't find them, we made our way out of the first floor and into another white hallway."

Sora took over the story again, "When we got out of Traverse Town, we found the man in the black cloak waiting for us. He asked us if we enjoyed meeting our memories. Before we could get him to tell us anything, another man in a black cloak showed up, and introduced himself as Axel."

Roxas' head whipped around to stare in disbelief at his Somebody. "Axel?" He asked incredulously. Sora nodded and resumed the story.

"He proceeded to attack us as a 'test'. We barely survived the flurry of flames he had sent our way and won. We thought it was over, but Axel barely seemed worn out or injured from our fight. He told us that we had passed the 'test', and told me to trust what I remembered and to seek what I forgot. If I did, I would find someone very special. We thought he was talking about the King and Riku and he told me to give more though to who was most important to me."

Sora shot a brief glance at Kairi (An act that somehow escaped notice by all present) before continuing. "Axel told me that I had lost sight of the Light within the Darkness, and he warned me 'When your sleeping memories awaken, you may no longer be who you are now. ' And he left behind several cards for us that were almost identical to the one we used to open up the door to our memory of Traverse Town."

He explained that every time they used one of the cards to open the doors to the next floor in the castle, they would find themselves travelling through the worlds they had visited on their first journey, each world having been crafted from Sora's memories, and how as they climbed from floor to floor, they slowly started forgetting details about their first journey. "And even though I was losing my memories, I started having other memories return to me," Sora explained, "I started to remember another girl who played with me, Kairi and Riku on the play Island."

Kairi shot him a confused look. "There wasn't anyone else, Sora; it was just you, me and Riku who played together there."

"I know, Kairi," he explained, "The girl I was starting to remember was Naminé."

All eyes turned in unison to stare at the Nobody in question, who hung her head in shame.

Donald quickly took over the story, bringing attention away from the female Nobody.

"After we exited the sixth floor, we ran into the only female member of Organization XIII, Larxene, and she-" Jonathan quickly interrupted the magician, "Organization XIII? Who are they?"

"The Organization was a collection of thirteen Nobodies, who were attempting to unlock the mysteries of the Heart. The man in the black cloak, Axel, and Larxene were all members of the Organization," Riku quickly explained with a tone that made it sound as though what he just said should have been obvious.

Jonathan glared at him suspiciously, "What do you mean by 'were'?"

Riku smiled slyly, "Why ruin the good parts of the story?"

Donald cleared his throat, grabbing everyone's attention again, "Anyways, Larxene was waiting for us when we left the sixth floor. She made it clear that Naminé was being held captive in the castle. Then she attacked us and a star shaped charm fell out of Sora's pocket. Then she used the charm to get Sora to remember Naminé's name. She reminded Sora that Naminé had given Sora the good luck charm, and when she threatened to destroy it, Sora got real angry at her and started fighting her."

Allison looked from Sora, who had fallen silent, to a still shamed-looking Naminé. "But Sora had never met Naminé before, how could he have a good luck charm from her?" She asked. Donald smiled at her, "We'll get to that soon."

"Larxene left us with some more of those cards created from our memories," Goofy explained, taking over the story, "and we went on to the next floor, where we found Riku."

Everyone's eyes turned towards Riku. Riku looked flat out confused. "That's impossible," he said, "I never met up with you guys in Castle Oblivion. I never went through any of the above ground floors; I only traveled through the basements."

"We know, Riku," Said Jiminy, "It wasn't the real you. It was a replica of you created by Vexen."

"Who's Vexen?" Sharon asked.

"He was another member of Organization XIII, a scientist and wielder of blizzard magic," Goofy explained.

"Your replica kept fighting with us from floor to floor, always saying horrible things to Sora," said Donald, "He even threatened to protect Naminé from us."

Kairi glanced sympathetically at Sora, who was staring at his folded hands sadly, clearly lost in the memory of facing Riku's replica. _Sora…_

Jiminy quickly related their journey through the next few floors of the castle.

"When we exited the tenth floor," he said, "Vexen, the person who made the Riku replica, appeared before us and said he had come to collect a debt from Sora for reuniting him with Riku. We had a brief battle against him, and afterwards, he presented us another card. This one, according to Vexen, was created from the memories that were locked in the other side of Sora's heart."

"The other side of Sora's heart?" Allison asked, looking a little lost.

"We didn't understand it either," explained Sora, "When we used the card to open the door to the eleventh floor, we found ourselves in Twilight Town, a world we had never been in before."

"I'm confused," Jonathan interjected, "How could this Vexen person create a world from your memories if you've never been there before?"

"The world was created from the **other side** of Sora's heart," Jiminy repeated.

Jonathan shot a glare at the cricket, "Yes, but what does that mean exactly?" he asked, "What is the other side of Sora's heart?"

Roxas cleared his throat and everyone turned their heads towards him. "I believe that would be me," he said matter-of-factly, "When Vexen was talking about the other side of Sora's memory, he was referring to me. As Sora's Nobody, I'm his other half, so to speak, and therefore could be considered the other side of his heart. When I was first 'born' I appeared in Twilight Town, and that's where I went on most of missions during my time with Organization XIII."

At this revelation, all of the parents, Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy leapt from their seats with gasps and exclamations of shock. "YOU were one of THEM?" David and Jonathan demanded angrily, both glaring daggers at the male Nobody.

Roxas smiled sadly, "For a time, yes."

Roxas closed his eyes and was bathed in a blue light which quickly faded, revealing himself to be garbed in his Organization XIII cloak, eliciting gasps from the parents. "See?" said Roxas with a chuckle at the reactions he had just gotten, there was another flash of blue light and Roxas was dressed as his normal self again and looked over at Sora, "Back to you, Sora."

Sora grinned and picked up from where he had left off.

"When we walked into Twilight Town, we instantly knew that none of us had ever been there before, but by the time we arrived at the memory creation of an old abandoned mansion, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I HAD been there before, even though I knew I never had been. Then, Vexen showed up and asked me which was more real, my memories of Naminé or my feelings about that place. I told him it was my memories of Naminé, and that what I was feeling was one of his tricks.

Vexen just laughed at me and told me that 'the memories wiles can be cruel. In its silence, we forget. In its obsession, it binds our hearts.' He reminded me that Twilight Town was created solely from another side of my memory. He said 'It is on the other side of your heart that the memory of this place exists.' I told him that he was wrong."

Jiminy took over the story from there, "Vexen smiled at us and taunted Sora, saying 'If you remain bound by the chain of memories and refuse to believe what is truly found inside your heart, then throw it away. You are not a Keyblade master, just a slave to twisted memories.' He then said confusing things about Riku, calling him his."

"I was confused, and Vexen was infuriating me with his riddles," said Sora, a dark look crossing his face as he stared at his now clenched fists, "I just exploded and accused him of lying and changing Riku. Then we fought him and brought him to his knees. Vexen warned me that if I if I continued trying to save Naminé, the shackles of memory would tighten, I'd lose my heart and become Marluxia's pawn. I tried to get him to tell me what he meant, but then Axel arrived and attacked Vexen to keep him from talking."

"'Now you can be nothing, instead of just being a Nobody. You're off the hook.' Axel said to him," Jiminy explained, "Vexen begged Axel to spare his life, but Axel simply told Vexen 'Goodbye.' and immolated Vexen with a burst of flame, causing Vexen to fade into darkness."

The parents and Kairi all looked shocked, but Roxas looked outright dumbfounded. "He- he killed Vexen?" he asked, seemingly unable to believe that his best friend was capable of doing so. Sora nodded sadly at him. Roxas hung his head sadly.

"When we left Twilight Town, we found Riku's replica waiting for us," said Donald, taking up the story, "And we found out that both Sora and the replica had the same memory of promising to protect Naminé and that they both had the exact same good luck charm that they both claimed Naminé had given them."

Naminé looked guiltily at Sora, "Both memories were fake Sora," she said sadly, "Neither of you ever made that promise to me for real." Sora looked back at her.

"I know that now, Naminé," he said, forgivingly, "but I was so convinced that my memory was the real one and I ended up fighting against the Riku replica again. When I beat him, he took off but dropped his good luck charm which turned into a card for Destiny Islands. I tried to get Donald and Goofy to hurry up, but I got angry at them when they stopped to think over the entire situation. I basically told them that I didn't need them and I went onto the twelfth floor with just Jiminy, who I told to keep quiet."

"That was about the time when Axel came to me," Naminé chimed in suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her. "He told me I was the only person who could stop what Marluxia was doing to Sora and implied that he wouldn't stop me if I took off, and turned his back as I ran off to meet up with Sora."

Kairi interrupted at this point, "Hold on a sec," she said, glancing between Sora and Naminé, "How come Sora only remembered playing with you and Riku on the Islands, Naminé?" Naminé's eyes filled with guilt and she lowered her gaze to stare at her hands. "I made Sora forget about you, Kairi," the Nobody responded shamefully. A look of shock mixed with hurt crossed Kairi's face. "And I replaced the memories of you with memories of me."

"I met with Sora and the fake memory of me in the memory of Destiny Islands," Naminé resumed, "I told him that I truly didn't exist in his heart or anyone else's heart. I had never been on the Islands before. I told him that I wasn't the person who was the most important to him. When I asked Sora to remember who was most special to him, he looked at the good luck charm I had given him in his false memories and it turned back into its true form."

"Which was…?" Kairi asked, although she was beginning to think that she already knew the answer.

Naminé turned to look at her Somebody. "It changed back into the charm _you_ had given him. Sora, confused, looked up at the memory version of me which immediately turned into the memory of _you_," said Naminé. Kairi let out a barely audible gasp as her Nobody confirmed her suspicions.

_I'm the one who's most special to Sora._ Her stomach filled with butterflies at the thought and her cheeks turned a bright pink. Kairi looked past her Nobody to Sora, who was determinedly keeping his eyes on one of the windows across from him, his cheeks flushed red.

"When I left the twelfth floor," said Sora, still staring out of the window, "I couldn't remember Kairi's name. I ran up to Naminé and asked who Kairi was and why I couldn't remember her.

Then Riku's Replica showed up and fought against me for the last time and lost. I was still convinced that he was the real Riku, so I rushed to help him. But he turned on me and tried to finish me off. Naminé told the replica to stop and used her power to break the fake heart of the replica."

"Then Larxene appeared," said Jiminy, "And told me and Sora about Naminé's powers over memory. She explained that the Riku we had been fighting was a fake and that the memories he and Sora had been fighting over were never real for either of them. Sora still fought to keep his promise to protect Naminé, even though it was a fake promise, because it was real to him."

"And then we caught up to Sora!" said Goofy, "And together, Donald, Sora and I brought down Larxene. Then, Naminé told us about how she'd been all alone since she was 'born' and that Marluxia had threatened to lock her away in the Castle forever if she didn't help him mess with Sora's memory."

"I just couldn't stand the thought of being alone again," said Naminé, Kairi looked at her sympathetically.

"And so," said Jiminy, "We promised Naminé that we would bring down Marluxia and we went onto the thirteenth floor. We fought our ways through hordes of Heartless before we entered a room where Axel was trying to kill Marluxia. Axel had figured out that Marluxia and Larxene planned to use Sora and Naminé to take over Organization XIII and was attempting to do away with the traitor. Marluxia had kidnapped Naminé and was using her as a shield."

Naminé spoke up, "And Sora, Donald and Goofy fought Axel to protect me, even though I knew from the look in his eyes that he wouldn't have hurt me. But before I could tell them that, Marluxia whisked me away to another part of the thirteenth floor."

"So we battled and defeated Axel," Sora said, "But instead of disappearing into darkness like Vexen and Larxene, he opened a dark portal and escaped through it instead. Then, we hunted down Marluxia, and beat him with some help from Riku's replica. Donald, Goofy and I left Naminé and the Riku replica behind while we went through the final set of doors on the floor to face Marluxia when he was at his most powerful. When we brought him down, I sealed the room with my Keyblade and rejoined everyone else.

Naminé gave me two choices; we could keep the memories she had created or she could give us back our original memories at the cost of forgetting all about what happened to us in Castle Oblivion. I asked her to put us back the way we were. I wanted to remember all of my friends and Kairi. And while she rearranged and fixed our memories, Naminé had us sleep in pods that were shaped like flower buds. And before I went to sleep, Naminé helped me remember Kairi's name."

Sora finished up and reached for the water glass in front of him with trembling hands, watching Kairi out of the corner of his eyes. She was watching him with a small smile.

Allowing Sora to take a break from the story telling, Riku told his story about what happened to him in Castle Oblivion. He recalled drifting along in the darkness after he and Mickey had helped Sora seal the door to Kingdom Hearts, and how a voice reached out to him and brought him to Castle Oblivion. He described fighting with Ansem and the darkness in his heart, as well as contending with Vexen, Lexaeus and Zexion, all three of whom were members of Organization XIII.

He talked about defeating Ansem, meeting Naminé and a man who called himself DiZ, and his agreement to help them out while Naminé put Sora's memories back together. Then he went on to tell them, with Roxas' help, about how he fought and captured Roxas in The World That Never Was giving in to the darkness in his heart to do so and taking on the appearance of Ansem while still having control over himself.

Roxas joined in the story telling briefly and told everyone about his time in the virtual Twilight Town that DiZ had created to hide Roxas from the Organization while Naminé finished up Sora's memories so Roxas could be rejoined with Sora. He informed them about how every night in his last few days in the virtual world, his dreams had been Sora' s most recent memories, ending with the memory of Sora's arrival at Castle Oblivion. He explained about fighting and winning the Struggle match, and how he fell off of the clock tower when celebrating with his friends. He explained that he had reached out to Naminé but instead connected with Kairi's heart instead.

"I remember that!" Kairi interrupted excitedly, "That was when I was trying to remember Sora's name, and I suddenly heard your voice in my head, calling for Naminé. You told me-" and then she cut herself off with a gasp of realization. The memory of that day hit Kairi swiftly as she remembered the most important thing she had ever heard from Roxas

"_Kairi… I know you. You're that girl he likes."_Roxas had told her. When Kairi asked Roxas for Sora's name, Sora, despite being asleep, had spoken to her through Roxas. _"You don't remember my name? Thanks a lot, Kairi! O-kay, I guess I can give you a hint. Starts with an 'S'!"_

Kairi smiled at Roxas, who looked at her in confusion, and then at Sora. _Thank you, Roxas,_ she thought, _now I know for sure that he likes me._ Roxas winked at her.

Roxas resumed his story, drawing attention away from Kairi's sudden interruption. He described his encounters with Naminé and Axel, finishing up with his final battle against Axel before he rejoined with Sora, allowing Sora's memories to finish being restored.

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy took up the storytelling from this point. They recollected about waking up in the basement of the abandoned mansion in Twilight Town a year after their time in Castle Oblivion, although they didn't remember any of the events that took place in Castle Oblivion or how they ended up in Twilight Town. They explained that the only clue they had, was a note in Jiminy's journal that said "Thank Naminé".

They told everyone about how they explored the town, looking for Riku and the King, and how after talking with the real versions of Roxas' friends, Hayner, Pence and Olette, they went to the train station to find the King, and how when they got to the station, they were suddenly attacked by a large group of Nobodies, and were saved at the last moment by the King who told them to board the train in the station and leave town.

Sora explained about how they had boarded the train which took them to a mysterious tower someplace else in Twilight Town. There they encountered Pete, who was lurking around outside the tower. Pete had told them that he planned on turning the master of the tower into a Heartless, and how he was going from world to world, building an army of Heartless specifically for Maleficent. Pete tried to attack them with Heartless but they quickly stopped him and Pete took off after telling them that the master of the tower was also the King's teacher, Master Yen Sid.

They told about their meeting with Yen Sid, Yen Sid's explanation of the Nobodies and Organization XIII, Sora getting new clothes from the three good fairies; Flora, Fauna and Merryweather.

They went on to explain reuniting with their friends in Hollow Bastion, finding out that in the year they had been asleep everyone had forgotten them, only to suddenly remember them all at once. Sora explained how he, Leon, and the town's defense system fought of a group of Nobodies trying to get into town, and then, how six of the remaining members of Organization XIII appeared before Sora and taunted him before leaving.

They told about their journeys through various worlds. Goofy told the story of the time they spent in the Land of Dragons and how they met their old friend, Mushu, who had his heart and spirit turned into a summon during their first journey, and how Mushu was teaching his friend Mulan how to act like a man so she could join China's royal army under the disguise of a boy named Ping.

Goofy spent a couple of minutes making fun of Donald and Sora for not realizing that Mulan was a girl. Then he continued the story by telling about how they traveled to the nearby army encampment and persuaded the captain, Li Shang, to allow them to join after he made them go through some group training.

He describing how Mulan caused an avalanche to stop a bad guy named Shan-Yu from storming the imperial palace with an army of Heartless, and how when Shang discovered she was a girl, he kicked her, Sora and the others out of the army. He continued on to reveal that Shan-Yu was still alive and about how they went as quickly as they could to warn Shang.

He concluded his story by telling the parents about Mulan fighting alongside Sora and the others to finish of Shan-Yu once and for all, and about the Emperor giving Mulan Shan-Yu's sword as proof of her bravery.

Sora told the gathered parents about their trip to the Beast's Castle. When they had arrived, they had heard the Beast roaring in the distance and were excited to meet with their old friend and ally. They had suddenly found themselves surrounded by Heartless and the Beast came to their rescue, single-handedly vanquishing all of the Heartless. Ignoring Sora and the others, the Beast had pushed them aside, only being interested in saving a single rose contained in a bell jar.

Sora explained how they went searching for the Beast but instead found Belle, who told them that the Beast had become withdrawn and had even locked his servants up in the castle dungeon. Sora then went on to tell about fighting their way through the West Hall of the castle, sneaking into the dungeons and fighting off a locked door possessed by a Heartless.

Sora described how worried the servants were about their master's behavior and how one servant, a small clock by the name of Cogsworth, went with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to the Beast's room, where they found Xaldin, number III of Organization XIII, feeding the Beast lies about his servants and Belle, claiming that they only wanted to steal the Beast's precious rose. Sora and the others told about how they burst in and saw Xaldin flee, leaving Sora and the others to fight an enraged Beast.

Sora explained that when they had finished beating sense back into the Beast, the Beast explained to them that Xaldin was the one behind his behavior. Sora went on to explain that the Beast wanted to apologize to Belle, but as he left to do so, they had heard Belle scream for help from the ballroom. Sora, the Beast and the others had rushed to Belle's aid, and discovered that Xaldin had set a powerful Heartless on Belle. Sora briefly summarized the battle for the gathered group and went onto explain the curse that the castle was under and why the rose was so important to the Beast.

Jiminy took over the story telling next and told about their return to Olympus Coliseum. "When we got to Olympus Coliseum," he said, "We found ourselves somewhere in the world we weren't familiar with. We found out later that it was the Underworld, where Hades had supreme command over everything dead. We were just about to leave the Underworld, when we saw a woman named Meg, who was a friend of Hercules running from Heartless.

After we helped her, she asked us to go to Hades and ask him to lay off Hercules for a while. Apparently, Hades had been sending monsters almost daily to fight Hercules, and Herc was wearing out. So we traveled deeper into the Underworld and spoke to Hades. Hades had summoned up a warrior, Auron from the dead to attack us, but Auron joined us and help us fight against Hades.

We fought him for a couple of minutes but nothing we did affected him, which was a side effect of being in the Underworld. So we did the only logical thing anyone would do in that situation. We ran. Right as we were about to escape, Hades sent his pet Cerberus to attack us and Sora and Auron were forced to fight alone when the Underworld's magic prevented Goofy and Donald from coming to their aid.

Needless to say, Sora and Auron defeated Cerberus and we escaped to the Coliseum, where we found out that the only way to stop the powers of the Underworld from draining our power was with an item called the Olympus Stone. But the stone had been stolen by number IX of the Organization, Demyx, a master of water magic who used a sitar as his weapon. Then Hades showed up and told us that Meg had gone and got lost in the Underworld, even though we knew in our hearts that he had kidnapped her. Herc was ready to go charging head first into the Underworld to rescue her, but he sent us instead when Hades sent the Hydra to attack. So we went into the Underworld after Meg.

While we searched for Meg, we ran into Demyx, who called Sora Roxas for some reason. We had no idea what he was talking about. Nonetheless, we fought and beat him. Demyx took off through a portal of Darkness, leaving the Olympus Stone behind. We went further into the Underworld and found an image of Meg engraved around a keyhole. Sora used his Keyblade to open the lock and we jumped into the hole where Meg was being held prisoner.

There, we found Pete waiting for us with a large group of Heartless. We fought Pete for a while, and just when things were beginning to look bad for us, Herc showed up and with his help, we took down Pete.

When we returned to the surface, we discovered that the Hydra Herc had thought was dead was still alive and had completely wrecked the Coliseum. Herc was downtrodden; he thought he had failed everyone. So we took on the Hydra for him."

"That was one of our most difficult battles ever," Sora interrupted, "Every time we cut off its head, two more would grow in its place, until we finally wore it down and finished it off."

Jiminy nodded. "Herc was still feeling down, but we had to take off, and so we went to the next world."

Donald explained about their trip to his, Goofy's and the King's home world, Disney Castle. He told the gathered parents that when they arrived, they found the Castle nearly overrun with Heartless (The King let out a cry of surprise at this). He recalled about how they discovered that Maleficent had found a way to endanger the Cornerstone of Light, which prevented the forces of Darkness from overtaking the Castle, how they enlisted Merlin's help to figure out how Maleficent was getting Darkness into the Castle, how Merlin created a door to a "special world", as Merlin had put it, where somebody there was responsible for what was happening in the Castle.

He explained that when they went through the door, they found themselves in the past, long before the Castle was built, how they had looked around for clues and learned that Pete had gained access to this world and was going to destroy the Cornerstone of Light in the past so Maleficent could take over the Castle in the present. He recounted their battle alongside the past Pete against the present Pete, defeating present Pete, sealing the doors to the past world so no one could interfere there again, and returning to the present to find that the Castle was once again safe from the forces of Darkness.

"And then we went to the next world, Port Royal," Sora said, once again dominating the storytelling. "When we arrived on the world, something about the world felt-" Sora paused, trying to find the right world, "It felt different. Like the world itself was darker. And that wasn't because we arrived at night.

Anyways, we didn't have much time to think about it, we suddenly heard cannon fire, and screams coming from the nearby town. We rushed down to see what was going on and we discovered that the town was under attack by pirates. At the docks, Pete was talking to a group of pirates. We tried fighting off the pirates but nothing we did seemed to hurt them. Then the moon came out from behind the clouds and when the pirates stepped into the moonlight, they changed."

There was a pause as the parents stared at Sora. "They changed how?" asked David.

"When they stepped into the moonlight," Sora continued, "Their clothes became tattered. Their hair fell out and large sections of their skin fell off. They looked like the living dead. They had been cursed by an ancient treasure and were seeking all of the pieces to the treasure so they could rid themselves of the curse." Sora shuddered at the memory of the pirate's appearance. The parents all had looks of mild revulsion at Sora's description.

"We discovered that the only way to hurt the pirates was to use magic or attack them when they were exposed to moonlight. We defeated the pirates and Pete took off running. We ran into town to help fight off more pirates. There we met a man named Will Turner, who was being attacked by the Heartless. We helped him fight off the Heartless and he told us that the pirates had captured the Governor's daughter, Elizabeth Swann, and were taking her back to their ship, the _Black Pearl_.

We chased after them, but by the time we got to the docks, the _Pearl_ was already sailing away. We were too late. We spent the night helping the townspeople clean up after the attack, helping the wounded, piling the bodies." Sora shuddered again at the memory. Kairi placed her hand on Sora's, calming him. "The next morning," he said, "We went with Will to meet with Governor Swann, and the Commodore of the Royal Navy, James Norrington. Two of the soldiers standing guard over Governor Swann and Norrington mentioned that a pirate named Jack Sparrow had talked to them about the _Black Pearl_ before he was arrested and thrown in prison. Will suggested using Jack as a source of information and Norrington told him no, saying that it was no time for rash actions.

So we went with Will to the prison to see if Jack knew anything about the _Black Pearl_. On the way, Will explained that Elizabeth had fallen unconscious at Norrington's promotion ceremony the day before and had fallen into the water from the Cliffside ramparts. Jack, who had apparently been trying to commandeer a ship, saved Elizabeth from drowning. When Norrington discovered that Jack was a pirate, he had Sparrow arrested. Jack then threatened Elizabeth so he could escape and he hid inside the blacksmith shop. Will told us that he met and dueled against Jack for threatening Elizabeth. He told us that Jack cheated in their duel and threatened to shoot Will, saying that the shot in his pistol wasn't meant for Will. Then Norrington had shown up and arrested Jack.

When we got to the prison, we found Jack lying in his cell. He told us that he had heard of the _Black Pearl_ and that Barbossa, Captain of the _Black Pearl_ and his crew set sail from the Isla de Muerta, an island that cannot be found except by those who already know where it is. Will told Jack that the pirates had taken Elizabeth and Jack refused to help us because he saw no profit for himself, until Will offered to spring him from the cell. When Jack learned Will's name, he was more than willing to help us. So we broke him out and took off.

With Jack's help, we boarded the _Dauntless_, the most powerful ship in the port. We forced the crew to abandon ship, all to lure another ship, the _Interceptor_, over to us so we could board and commandeer the _Interceptor_, which was a faster ship than the Dauntless. Norrington took the bait and led the crew of the _Interceptor_ to the _Dauntless_. He and all of the _Interceptor_'s crew stormed the Dauntless, while we snuck onto the _Interceptor_, cut all of the climbing ropes tying the two ships together and took off.

Jack set us on a course for an island named Tortuga. On the way, we learned that Jack had known Will's father, calling him a good man and a good pirate. Will denied that his father was a pirate and Jack told him he'd have to square with the fact that pirate was in his blood one day. When we got to Tortuga, Jack and Will left us to guard the ship overnight while they went into town to find a crew. The next day, they returned with a man named Gibbs who had gathered a crew that he called faithful and as crazy to boot.

With the crew, we set sail for the Isla de Muerta. It took us a few days of sailing and two nights in a raging storm, but we made it. As we drifted towards the cove where the _Pearl_ was anchored, Gibbs told us a little bit about Jack. He used to be the Captain of the _Black Pearl_, but ten years ago, when Jack and his crew were searching for the Isla de Muerta, Jack told his first mate where it was. His crew mutinied that night and left Jack stranded on an island with only a pistol and a single shot. Jack escaped the island and he refused to use that one shot, except for one man, his mutinous first mate."

Kairi interrupted the story, "Let me guess, Barbossa."

Sora nodded. "Jack and Will rowed to the Island, telling Gibbs to keep to the Pirate's Code should the worse happen. When I asked Gibbs what Jack meant, he said that Jack was reminding Gibbs that any man who falls behind, is left behind. A little while later, Will returned to the _Interceptor_ with Elizabeth but no Jack. He told Gibbs that Jack had fallen behind and Gibbs told us to keep to the Code. We set sail, putting as much distance between us and the island as possible.

Elizabeth explained to us that she had given Will's name as her own when the pirates found out that she had the final piece of the treasure that bound them to their curse. They had kidnapped her because they believed she was the child of Bootstrap Bill Turner (one of their crew they had strapped to a cannon and sent to the depths of the ocean after he sent a piece of the cursed gold to his son, saying that they deserved to remain cursed) and as his supposed child, they needed his blood to be repaid so they could be free. Elizabeth told us that when she first met Will, she took the cursed treasure from him, not knowing what it was, under the impression that Will was a pirate. Will then realized that it was his blood the pirates needed to lift the curse.

By that point, the _Pearl_ had caught up to us. We engaged in a massive ship to ship cannon battle. While the crews fought each other, Donald, Goofy and I fought off the Heartless Pete kept sending over. The _Pearl_ disabled the _Interceptor_'s main mast and the pirates and Heartless swarmed us. The pirates ended up capturing us and brought us over to the _Pearl_, but Will had gone missing. He was apparently trapped below deck on the _Interceptor._ Some of Barbossa's crew ignited the powder magazine, blowing the _Interceptor_ to bits. Then Will showed up on the deck of the _Pearl_, told Barbossa who he was and threatened to kill himself if Barbossa didn't let Elizabeth, us, and the crew of the _Interceptor_ go free. Barbossa agreed, and left us, Elizabeth, and Jack stranded on the island that Barbossa had left Jack on to die ten years ago.

There we found out that Jack spent three days lying on a beach drinking rum until he was rescued by spice smugglers who were using the island as a cache. The next day, Elizabeth encouraged us to help her burn all the rum, food and shade to make a smoke signal because there was no doubt in her mind that the entire Royal Navy was out looking for her. Within hours, Commodore Norrington showed up on the _Dauntless_ and rescued us. Elizabeth told Norrington she'd marry him if he helped save Will. Norrington agreed. We sailed to the Isla de Muerta and arrived there shortly after Barbossa. Jack convinced Norrington to send us into the caves with him so we could trick the pirates into coming out of the caves and into an ambush led by Norrington.

So Norrington sent us and Jack into the caves. Jack tricked Barbossa into thinking we were on his side and into forestalling Will's death until Barbossa's crew had defeated Norrington's men. Barbossa sent most of his men and several Heartless out to fight Norrington. After Barbossa's men had left, Jack freed Will and began to duel with Barbossa, Will fought off the pirates and Heartless with me, Donald, and Goofy helping him. Barbossa ran Jack through with his sword, and Jack revealed that he had stolen a piece of the Aztec treasure, cursing himself. Barbossa called out for Pete's help and Pete summoned a powerful Heartless that took away all light, making Barbossa impervious to our attacks.

So Donald, Goofy and I fought and defeated the Heartless while Jack dueled Barbossa and Will, with help from Elizabeth finished off the last of the pirates in the caves. During their duel, Jack cut his hand and smeared his blood on the piece of Aztec gold he had stolen, which he tossed to Will. Barbossa went to shoot Elizabeth but Jack shot Barbossa first. Barbossa laughed at Jack, reminding Jack that the curse prevented him from dying. Then Will revealed that he had also smeared his blood on the gold and returned the last pieces to the chest. Barbossa died with a look of complete shock on his face. When we left the caves, we found out that Jack's crew had taken off with the _Pearl_ during the confusion of the battle. We returned to the town of Port Royal before we left the world, where we helped Will stop Jack's execution and confess his love to Elizabeth."

Sora took deep breath and a huge gulp of water, choking a little as he swallowed too quickly. Riku laughed and slapped Sora's back, helping him clear the water from his lungs. "That's what you get for going into too much detail, dude," he said, "Just the key points would've been fine." Sora grinned at him and managed to retort with "Where's the fun in that?" before he broke out into another coughing fit.

_LD_

_"I keep forgetting, don't mess with Keyblade wielders. But you know what? That just means I made the right choice."_

Darkness. Endless Darkness. How long had he been floating here? Minutes, hours, days. They all felt the same to him. How boring. Boring? He was actually bored? The man laughed and slowly opened his left eye. His only eye and stared around at the Endless Abyss. He could feel. The man let out a cry of joy as emotions coursed through him. He wasn't a Nobody anymore. He had become a Somebody again. He had found his heart. Dilan, Even, Aeleus, Ienzo, and of course, Xehanort. How many of the others had found their hearts?

He raised his hands to his face. An eye patch covered his right eye. The scar on his left cheek still burned from where a Keyblade Wielder once attacked him with a burst of Darkness. _"I mean, what's a little scratch on my face. All things considered. I'm just glad he didn't steal my heart like Princess Whatever-It-Was. That'd ruin my week for sure."_ Anger burned in his newly reformed heart at the memory of the fight that scarred his face and lost him his right eye.

_Braig_.

The man smiled. It had been a really long time since he had gone by that name. "That's my name?" He asked the Darkness. He ran a hand through his black hair streaked with grey that had been tied back into a ponytail. "As if. I don't go by Braig anymore. Now it's Xigbar."

_LD_

* * *

_Hope you're enjoying the story so far and I certainly hope all of you out there are still willing to keep on reading and that I haven't scared you off. Chapter Three is up and running as well as of tonight. So I hope you enjoy that one as well!_

_P.S. I've dropped hints about some worlds I'll be revisiting during this chapter and Chapter Three. Happy hunting!_


	3. Memories Part II

_Hope I haven't lost anybody yet; and I hope I kept it interesting enough to keep you wanting more. _

_Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, but at least I still own my own characters and ideas._

_Hope you enjoy! _

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Three: Memories Part II

_Sunday, May 16__th__ 4794 P.C._

While Sora was gasping for breath from the excitement of telling the last part of the story, Jiminy told everyone about their time in Agrabah. "When we arrived," he said, "We were hoping to catch up with Aladdin and Jasmine. But instead, we ran into Iago, Jafar's former pet parrot. Iago wanted our help with apologizing to Aladdin and Jasmine for helping Jafar during our first adventure. Then the Heartless showed up and attacked us. They just kept coming at us. Iago knocked some crates over onto the Heartless and helped us escape.

Because he helped us, we told Iago that we would help him apologize. We went to the Palace to see if they were there and we found Jasmine without Aladdin. She told us that Aladdin hadn't been himself lately and was acting strange, always disappearing into town.

So we went into town, looking for Aladdin. We found him and a peddler chasing Aladdin's monkey, Abu (who was trying to steal a black lamp), through the streets. Aladdin caught Abu and returned the lamp to the peddler.

Aladdin told us that the reason he'd been so sad lately was that after gaining his freedom; he and the Magic Carpet had gone off sight-seeing around the world. Iago interrupted our reunion with Aladdin by informing us that the lamp that Abu had been trying to steal was the same one that had imprisoned Jafar.

We quickly rushed to the peddler's shop and tried to buy the lamp off of him. When he saw just how much we wanted the lamp, he told us that he would only sell us the lamp for a treasure fit for a sultan. Aladdin didn't want to worry Jasmine, so we went to the Cave of Wonders to find a suitable treasure.

After fighting our way through dozens of Heartless and facing two incredibly difficult challenges created by the Cave itself, we found a suitable treasure, only to be attacked by an awful lot of fairly strong Heartless. We defeated the Heartless and took the treasure to the peddler.

When we got to the peddler's shop, we found the man being chased by Pete, who was after the lamp so he could free Jafar and turn him into a Heartless. We followed them to the Palace gates where the peddler and Pete kept taking the lamp from each other until Iago swooped in and Pete finally got it. Then Genie arrived and mistook Pete for Aladdin. Pete got really mad and summoned two really powerful Heartless to fight us. We barely managed to win that fight. Then we helped Aladdin seal Jafar's lamp deep underground beneath the Palace. Aladdin was finally back to his usual self when we left since Genie and the Magic Carpet had returned. And we left for the next world, Halloween Town."

Goofy briefly told them about their journey to Halloween Town. He explained about Jack Skellington's obsession with Christmas, meeting Santa Claus, hunting down the late Oogie Boogie's lackey's Lock, Shock and Barrel, defeating the trio, learning about Santa Claus' capture and Oogie's rebirth at the hands of Maleficent, Maleficent's plan to turn Santa into a Heartless, fighting and defeating Oogie once and for all, and saving Santa.

After Goofy finished, Sora turned to Riku and grinned, "By the way Riku," he said, "Santa sends his regards." Riku turned crimson. "So he's real?" he asked Sora, seeming almost hesitant. Sora just grinned and listened as Donald went on to tell the parents about their trip to the Pride Lands.

"The next world we visited was the Pride Lands. When we got there, we all changed our appearance according to the laws of the world. Sora became a lion cub (Kairi let out a squeak, which drew several looks from the parents and Sora, and hid her face to stifle a fit of giggles), Goofy became a turtle (everybody laughed), and I turned into a tropical bird of some sort (everyone just stared at him)." Donald cleared his throat and continued, "Anyways, these three hyenas decided they were going to eat us for dinner but took off when they heard a lion roar in the distance.

We went to follow them and met a lioness named Nala, who was being attacked by Heartless. We helped her fight off the Heartless and she took us to a mandrill shaman named Rafiki to see if Sora had the qualities to be the next King of Pride Rock (Kairi and Allison both giggled at the idea, Sora just blushed) and he told us no. Then Scar, the current King, surrounded us with a bunch of hyenas and a lion version of Pete. When Scar tried to attack us, Nala stopped him and helped us escape.

We asked her who might be able to stop Scar, and she told us the son of Mufasa, their last king might be able to, but Simba was dead. We told her that Simba was still alive and that he had been one of our allies on our first journey. Nala helped us look all over the Pride Lands for any sign of Simba and we finally found him in an Oasis several miles away from Pride Rock, where he was living with a warthog named Pumbaa and a meerkat called Timon. When Nala tried to talk Simba into returning to Pride Rock and driving away his uncle, Scar, Simba refused. Simba still blamed himself for his father's death.

That night, Simba called out to the night sky, asking his father to guide him. The Spirit of Mufasa appeared before Simba and told him to take his rightful place in the Circle of Life. We returned to Pride Rock with and Simba confronted Scar. Scar made Simba believe that Mufasa died because of Simba. Just when Simba was about to fall to his death, Scar confessed to the murder of Mufasa. Angered by Scar's words, Simba forces him to tell the truth to everybody. Scar and Simba then fought at the top of Pride Rock while Sora, Goofy and I protected Timon and Pumbaa from the hyenas.

Then we watched as Simba defeated Scar, only to have Scar return immediately as a Heartless. We helped Simba defeat Scar's Heartless and saved the Pride Lands."

"Next, we decided to repay a visit to Twilight Town," said Sora, Kairi sat up straighter at this, as if she wanted to say something, but continued listening. "When we got there we found a bunch of Nobodies attacking the locals, so we fought them off and a member of Organization XIII then appeared and asked us if we had seen Axel, who had apparently gone against the Organization. When he left, this guy, Seifer, gave us a trophy that he said belonged to the strongest guy in Twilight Town After he took off, we ran into Pence again who asked me if I knew a girl named Kairi."

Everyone turned to look at Kairi. "That was after Axel kidnapped me."

Melissa and Jonathan both let out cries of shock and rage at this and immediately began fussing over Kairi's well being and making death threats about Axel. "Jon, Melissa, calm down," David said, placing a hand on each of their shoulders, "Obviously Kairi's fine or she wouldn't be here talking about it so calmly. Let's hear what she has to say." Jonathan and Melissa both sat down, still looking worriedly over at Kairi. David smiled at them and back at Kairi. "Okay Kairi," he said as he sat back down, "Go ahead."

Kairi smiled at her adoptive parents and David. "About three months ago, I was standing on the beach, tired of waiting for Sora to come home, and I was trying to come up with some way to go find him. When I was thinking out loud about how maybe waiting wasn't good enough, a voice spoke to me. It said 'My thoughts exactly! If you have a dream, don't wait. Act. One of life's little rules. Got it memorized?' and then a man with red hair and green eyes, dressed in a black cloak appeared across from me on the beach through a black portal.

I asked him who he was and he told me his name was Axel and that he was an acquaintance of Sora's. He offered to take me to go see him and I wanted to see Sora so badly that I was about to take him up on his offer when this yellow dog appeared and distracted me. Then a bunch of Nobodies surrounded me to prevent me from escaping. I heard a whistle and another black portal opened up behind me, away from Axel and the Nobodies. The dog ran to the other portal and started barking at me. Axel told me that 'We've got something in common, Kairi. You and I both miss someone we care about.' He told me that he felt like we were friends already. I told him that he wasn't acting very friendly and I ran through the other portal.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up in Twilight Town. There, I met Hayner, Pence and Olette. I told them as much of the story about what happened to the Islands and to me before Sora left again, promising to come back, and how guilty I felt about forgetting him for a year. They told me I could stay with them and wait for Sora since he had told them that he'd be back.

Then Axel appeared and he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into the dark portal even though Hayner and Pence tried to stop him. Then a Nobody from Organization XIII named Saïx appeared and took me from Axel. He tried to destroy Axel then, calling him a traitor and Axel fled. Saïx then took me to the Organization's Castle and locked me up in a cell. He kept me there for almost three months, having Nobodies bring me food and water twice a day before I finally escaped. Aside from that, I never saw another being. He only stopped by once, calling me the fire that feeds Sora's anger."

Sora glared at his fists. "The worst part of that story is that Saïx was right. As I was saying, we went with Pence to the train station where we had a brief reunion with Hayner and Olette. They told me that Kairi had been there looking for me before she was kidnapped by Axel. They blamed themselves for her disappearance. When we left Twilight Town, I was really depressed. I had lost the King and Riku, only to lose Kairi again too. Donald and Goofy were trying to cheer me up when the radar on the Gummi Ship detected a massive amount of Darkness enveloping Hollow Bastion."

"When we arrived at Hollow Bastion, we found the place crawling with Heartless and Nobodies," said Donald, "We went to find Leon and the others to find out what was going on. First, we ran into Cloud, who told us he was looking for a man named Sephiroth, a person who embodied the darkness in Cloud's heart. Cloud made us promise to tell him if we saw Sephiroth and we told him we would.

Next, we met with Cid and Merlin who told us that Leon was in the castle, going through Ansem's study. We fought our way through dozens of Heartless to get to the castle, only to find that the inside was in disrepair. Entire walls had crumbled, sections of the walls, ceiling and floors had been removed or were heavily damaged. And to top it all off, the inside of the castle was like a maze. We finally found Ansem's study, which was in almost in as bad as shape as the rest of the castle, but no Leon.

We met a woman named Tifa who said she was looking for a guy with spiky hair. At first we thought she meant Sora, but she told us that the guy that she was looking for had spikier hair than Sora. Then she searched Ansem's study looking for a hidden switch or room. Then she took off and Leon showed up and showed us to Ansem's computer room, which was hidden behind a wall in the study."

"When we went to access Ansem's computer," Said Jiminy, "This blue alien thing fell on the keyboard. Donald got pissed off at it and jumped onto the keyboard trying to catch it. Then a voice came from the computer, calling itself the Master Control Program and warning us that if we continued to mistreat it, it would punish us. Donald accidentally stepped on more keys and the MCP told us we were under arrest. A beam of light came from the computer and turned Sora, Goofy, Donald and me into computer data and transported us into the system.

We met this program named Commander Sark, who served the MCP, and he threw us into a cybernetic prison where we met a security program named Tron. After hearing our story, and telling us about how the system we were in came into being. Tron agreed to help us get back to the real world. In order to do that, we had to go to the energy core in the canyon and turn the power back on in the cell so we could escape. We broke out of the cell and went to the canyon and fixed the energy core after fighting off a bunch of Heartless.

When we went to leave, Tron asked us to do him a favor, He wanted us to find his user and get the password to the DTD (which was the name Tron's User named the dataspace, it was where all of the original programs and data files were stored). We had no idea who Tron's User was so we asked him for a name. Tron told us that his User was Ansem the Wise.

We left Tron's world and returned to Ansem's study. We searched the entire place for the password but didn't find it until we looked behind a massive portrait of Ansem. Behind the portrait, we found a blueprint to a data system and a bunch of scribbles that told us that DTD stood for Door to Darkness.

Then, his majesty showed up, and we explained to him that we were looking for the password to the DTD. The King didn't quite understand what we were talking about and reminded us that the Door to Darkness could only be opened by the Seven Princesses of Heart. That's when we realized that the password was the names of the Seven Princesses. We wanted to stay and talk to the King because he made it sound like Ansem was still around, but Leon reminded us that Tron was waiting for us.

So we activated the computer and downloaded ourselves back into Tron's world. We didn't appear in the cell like we thought we would, but apparently Sark had intercepted the download and made us appear in this place he called a game grid. After we completed Sark's game, we broke out of the game grid and made our way to the cell where we met up with Tron.

We made our way to the dataspace where Tron tried the password and found that it worked. The MCP went to access the DTD and Tron changed the password to stop it. The MCP then loaded a hostile program into the I/O Tower to destroy the town. We quickly rushed to the tower to put a stop to the program. Tron told us the new password; he told us that we, his new friends were the password.

After leaving Tron's world, Leon helped us gain access to the DTD. We tried to find information on Riku and Kairi's whereabouts and about the Nobodies and Organization XIII. But nearly all of the data turned out to be corrupt. While we were searching, a photograph of a man came up."

"And that's when I showed up and told them that it was Ansem the Wise," said Mickey.

Jiminy nodded, "But the man looked nothing like the Ansem we were familiar with. Sora dragged his Majesty from Ansem's computer room and into Ansem's study where he reminded the King that the portrait of Ansem was Ansem, the guy we had worked so hard to defeat. Then his Majesty explained himself to us."

"I told them that the man in the picture was definitely the one who tried to take over Kingdom Hearts," Mickey said, taking over the story, "He was the one they defeated, but what they had actually defeated was his Heartless. The person they defeated wasn't really Ansem; he was just going around telling everybody that he was. I explained that I had been travelling the worlds ever since I parted ways with Riku after Castle Oblivion to look for the real Ansem the Wise. He would've known all about Organization XIII.

Then Goofy came to the conclusion that since the fake Ansem became a Heartless, a Nobody was created. I told him he was right and that the Nobody in question was the leader of the Organization." The parents all let out gasps of surprise, except David who simply had an I-Knew-It look on his face. "I had known that I had met the fake Ansem before and I'd seen the leader of Organization XIII as well, it kind of felt like being around the same person. But I couldn't remember the fake's real name or where I had met him before."

"Then I asked his Majesty if he knew where Riku is and he told me that he couldn't help," Sora said. Mickey turned his gaze downwards, his ears drooping. "So I asked him if he knew where Kairi was. When he realized Kairi had gone missing, his Majesty offered to look for Riku and Kairi with us. Before we could accept, the room lurched violently from an explosion outside.

We ran out of Ansem's study and found Armored Knight Heartless fighting against a group of Nobodies. We fought off both groups and ran as fast as we could towards the bailey. We barely made it out of the castle when a bright light shone from above us and a man dressed in black, with silver hair, carrying a long sword with a single black wing sprouting from his back, Sephiroth. We told him that Cloud was looking for him and he smiled and vanished in a burst of darkness.

We decided to worry about it later and continued towards the town. Leon told us to hurry to the bailey where the King was waiting for us. We found the bailey completely destroyed. The Heartless had blown a huge hole in the outer wall, allowing them access to the town. Thousands of Heartless were storming towards the city from the valley's great maw. We could see small patches where our friends fought to destroy as many Heartless as possible before they could reach the city.

His Majesty arrived and ordered us to go look for Riku and Kairi, saying that there was more than enough help there. We ignored his orders and ran out towards the maw to join our friends in battle, but before we could get there, Demyx from the Organization stopped us. He called me a traitor and tried to kill me. He was definitely a better fighter than when we met him in the Underworld, but we managed to defeat him and he faded away into Darkness.

Then his Majesty caught up to us and reminded us that we had lots of friends to help and admitted his orders had been hasty. Right as we were about to head to our friends' aid, an explosion on the cliffs above us sent a boulder flying right for the King. Goofy pushed him out of the way and was hit in the head by the boulder. When he didn't respond, we feared the worst. Angered, we got separated as we charged headfirst into hundreds of Heartless and with the help of our friends, we tore through them. We regrouped in a cave just above the maw and Goofy caught up to us.

We were so excited that Goofy was alive that we charged into battle again with renewed vigor. When we reached the maw, we found that the Heartless had stopped charging. They were just standing still. Then a member of the Organization appeared on the Cliffside. He removed his hood and revealed that he looked exactly like the fake Ansem. It was the leader of Organization XIII. Then his Majesty remembered the fake Ansem's name, Xehanort. Xehanort had been Ansem the Wise's apprentice when Ansem rule over Hollow Bastion. His majesty charged after Xehanort's Nobody and the Heartless surrounded me, Donald and Goofy. We split up briefly and took on the horde of Heartless by ourselves. I had to defeat about a thousand Heartless before I was able to follow the King, Donald and Goofy.

When we caught up to the King, he called out to Xehanort's Nobody, who didn't seem to remember how long it had been since he had been called that. I told the Nobody to tell me where Kairi and Riku were. He told me he didn't know about Kairi and to ask his Majesty about Riku. Then he opened a portal of Darkness and vanished with the King jumping in after him.

Axel appeared right after that, saying that we had fallen into the Organization's trap. He must've already left the Organization because he spoke about them as if he wasn't one. He told us that Xehanort's Nobody was named Xemnas and that Xemnas was using Sora to destroy the Heartless. He explained that every Heartless slain by the Keyblade releases a captive heart and that the Organization was after those hearts but he wouldn't tell us why. That's when I realized that he was the one who kidnapped Kairi. He finally told us his name and I asked him to tell me where she was. He told me that he was sorry that he kidnapped you." Sora turned to Kairi who had a look of surprise on her face.

"But then Saïx showed up and Axel fled. Saïx told us that he would make sure Axel received the maximum punishment. I told him that I didn't care and asked him to let me into the Realm of Darkness. Saïx told me if it was you I was worried about, that I shouldn't be. He said they were taking good care of you." Kairi's eyes locked with Sora's, who seemed to be telling the story more to Kairi now than their parents.

"I asked him to take me to you. He asked me if you were that important to me. I told him yes and he told me to show him how important you were. So I-" Sora paused taking a deep breath as though the memory of that day caused him pain, "I got down on my hands and knees and begged for him to take me to you." The parents, Riku and Mickey all gasped. Kairi put a hand over her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. "I bowed to my enemy and made myself vulnerable. And he told me no."

"Oh, Sora," whispered Kairi, tears beginning to run down her face. _Am I really so important to you that you would bow to your enemy? Thank you._

"I was so furious with him," Sora continued, "He asked me if I was angry or if I hated him. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of saying the truth so I just glared at him. He told me to take my rage and turn it against the Heartless, which he then summoned. He revealed that the hearts released by the Keyblade's rage would join together and form Kingdom Hearts, and that the Organization planned to use Kingdom Hearts to truly exist again. Then Maleficent appeared and declared that Kingdom Hearts would belong to her alone. She then stood between Saïx and the Nobodies he summoned and us. She told us to leave and find a way to defeat the Nobodies forever. She then sent us into the Realm of Darkness where we found a box containing a stick of Sea-Salt Ice Cream and a picture of Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Roxas from the Virtual Twilight Town that DiZ created. When I saw the picture, I somehow knew Roxas' name, even though we had never met and I didn't know he existed. "

Sora glanced over at said Nobody, "Sorry, man."

Roxas shrugged, "No big deal. You'd never met me before, there's nothing you need to feel bad about."

"Anyways," said Goofy, "The picture opened a gateway from the Realm of Darkness allowing us to escape to the Gummi ship. When we got our bearings and had rested up from all of the fighting, we decided to revisit the worlds to hunt for the Organization, Riku, and Kairi. At the Land of Dragons, we landed and immediately ran into a man in a black cloak, the man fled to the mountain summit. We gave chase and ran into Mulan who was also pursuing the man. We followed the man to the Summit only to find that he was nowhere to be seen. Then, a swarm of Rapid Thruster Heartless came over the mountain peak and attacked us we went to charge them but Sora stayed behind."

While the others went on to fight the Heartless," said Sora, "I stayed behind to fight the man in black. We fought for a few minutes before he fled, but he seemed really familiar to me. I recognized his fighting style and weapon. I was convinced that the man was Riku."

Kairi and the adults all gasped, Riku grinned and began softly whistling with an I-Have-No-Idea-What-You're-Talking-About attitude. "Then a giant Heartless burst from the snow and began flying towards the Imperial City," continued Sora, "We rushed to the Imperial Square only to find no Heartless and the doors to the Palace locked. So we broke into the Palace through a window above the doors only to find a man in a black cloak trying to break into the Throne Room. When I asked him if he was Riku, he took off his hood and revealed that he was Xigbar, the sharpshooter for Organization XIII. He summoned several sniper Nobodies and fled. We defeated the Nobodies and rushed into the Throne Room to make sure everything was okay.

The Emperor told us that another man in a black cloak had told him about the threat of the giant Heartless headed for the City. So we rushed outside and fought the Heartless and defeated it. The Emperor thanked us for saving China again and Shang told us that the man in black had told them that 'Three wise guys had arrived and they would take care of things.' That's how we knew that the other man in black was definitely Riku. The emperor then offered Mulan a chance to serve alongside Shang and protect him. Mulan accepted and before we left, I started to think that Mulan and Shang were falling for each other."

"We went back to the Beast's Castle next," said Jiminy, "When we got there, we found the Beast pacing in the entry hall. He told us that he was holding a ball for Belle, and he was really nervous. Donald decided to crash the party so we followed the Beast and Belle into the ballroom. Before the ball could begin, Xaldin appeared saying that he had come to take something the Beast held very dear. Then he summoned several Dragoon Nobodies and vanished, leaving us to fight his minions. We took down the Nobodies and followed the Beast to his room. We found that while we had been occupied by the Nobodies, Xaldin had made off with the Beast's rose.

The Beast lost his temper and blamed Belle for Xaldin's theft of the rose. The Beast then asked us to leave the castle, saying that he would always be a beast and so he should live like one, alone. Belle left for her room and Sora chewed the Beast out calling him a coward. Sora's words broke the Beast from his depressed mood. We ran out to the entrance hall where Xaldin called more Nobodies to fight us. We took them down easily and followed Xaldin out into the courtyard. Xaldin and the rose were nowhere to be found. Belle called out to us from the balcony outside her room, saying that she had found the rose. Xaldin appeared and grabbed Belle and the rose, leapt from the balcony to the bridge. We followed them to the bridge, where Xaldin offered the Beast a choice between the rose and Belle. The Beast chose Belle, who then elbowed Xaldin in the stomach and stole back the rose. She fled to safety while we fought Xaldin and his wind magic. Xaldin lived up to his rank in the Organization XIII, and unleashed all of his power on us. We ultimately proved triumphant and Xaldin disintegrated into darkness.

The Beast thanked Belle for getting the rose back. At our encouragement, the Beast asked Belle to stay with him in the Castle. Belle told him that she would and the two of them finally had their ball together."

"I wonder if they ever broke the curse," Goofy thought out loud. Sora shrugged and resumed the story, "Next we went to Port Royal and immediately found Jack and his crew fighting against cursed pirates."

"Wait a second," interrupted Kairi, "I thought you guys lifted the curse the last time you were there. How could the pirates be cursed?" "That's exactly what we wanted to find out," Sora said, "Elizabeth arrived and told us that Will had gone to the Isla de Muerta but hadn't returned. In exchange for a reward, Jack agreed to go look for Will. So we set sail with Jack for the Isla de Muerta, along the way, we found Will drifting along on a derelict ship. Will managed to wake up and tell us that a man in a black cloak and a bunch of white creatures had stolen the chest of Aztec gold. Elizabeth and the crew took Will below deck to tend to him while helped Jack prepare the _Pearl_ to sail back to the town.

Luxord, number X in the Organization, invaded the ship at that point with a powerful Grim Reaper Heartless and the chest of gold. We defeated the Grim Reaper Heartless and Jack ordered us to throw Luxord overboard, but before we could Luxord invoked the right of parley, which prevented him from being harmed until negotiations were completely. He surrendered the chest to us in exchange for taking four pieces of the gold and giving them to four Gambler Nobodies, who vanished.

Then, the Grim Reaper Heartless reappeared, this time under the curse of the gold and blew us onto the deck of the ship we had rescued Will from. Luxord set the _Pearl_ on a course away from the derelict ship before then using magic to fire all of the cannons on board the _Pearl_ at us, blowing the derelict ship to pieces. When we came to, the pieces of our wrecked ship had washed up onto a rocky outcropping in the middle of nowhere. We found that the Heartless had somehow put the curse onto Jack while we were unaffected, I assume it's because we weren't from that world, so we were made immune to the curse. Anyways, we explored the pieces of shipwreck on the rock and found a couple of the Gambler Nobodies that Luxord had given pieces of the gold to, defeated them and took back the gold.

The crew then sailed up to us on the _Pearl_, saying that they had rushed above deck when they heard the cannons fire only to find themselves trapped below deck until the _Pearl_ had sailed several leagues from the wreckage. Jack sailed the _Pearl_ to the Isla de Muerta where we found and defeated the other two Gambler Nobodies and took the gold back from them. We sailed the _Pearl_ back to the town after we realized that the Organization would most likely go to a place with a lot of people to collect hearts from, and that Luxord would be there with the chest.

At the town, we found the chest and the cursed Heartless waiting for us, but no Luxord. Jack distracted the Heartless while we returned the gold to the chest to lift Jack's curse, only to find that the gold didn't cause the curse, the Heartless did. Then the Heartless swooped in and knocked the gold from the chest, allowing it to remain cursed and invincible. With the help of Jack's crew, we returned the gold to the chest and defeated the Heartless, lifting the curse. Luxord appeared and commended me for defeating the Heartless. We went out to sea one last time with Jack, Will, Elizabeth and the crew to dump the chest of the cursed gold into the crushing depths of Davy Jones' Locker. Jack then asked for his reward, which he said he wanted my Keyblade."

"He what?" The parents and Kairi asked in unison. Sora laughed, "And I told him sure, and gave him my Keyblade."

"YOU WHAT?" exclaimed Kairi, Riku, the parents and Mickey.

Sora, Donald and Goofy began laughing at everyone else. "Don't worry," said Sora, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye, "He was only able to hold onto for about four seconds before it jumped back to me. I reminded Jack that he always had the Pearl, and he told me that one day, after he had the way to wield it, he and his 'blood-thirsty crew' are going to come for the Keyblade." Allison and Kairi shared a worried glance, "And he said that if he succeeded, he was going to ask Will and Elizabeth to join his crew, and that would be reward enough for him. And Goofy suggested that maybe someday, Jack will be able to wield a Keyblade because he thinks Jack and I are alike. But I don't see it." Donald, Goofy and Jiminy rolled their eyes and laughed at Sora. Sora glared at them and went on, "Anyways, some say Jack Sparrow's the worst pirate ever to sail the Spanish Main. No one could really mean that, because we know he's the best. I hope we get to see him again someday, I kind of do want to see if he can find a way to wield the Keyblade." Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

"We revisited Olympus Coliseum next," said Jiminy, "And found ourselves again in the Underworld, where we reunited with Hercules and Meg. Apparently Hercules still wasn't feeling like a hero. Hades showed up, announcing that Hercules was going to fight in the Underworld's own coliseum, the Underdrome. Hades threatened Hercules into fighting by kidnapping Meg again. We fought alongside Hercules through the Hades Cup and made it all the way to the finals. Our opponent was supposed to be Auron, who was having his free will controlled by Hades who had made this statue of Auron. Hercules sent us to find the statue, while he fought Auron one on one.

And so, Hercules went onto the final and we found Auron's statue in Hades' chambers and went to the Underdrome to free Auron. We arrived right as Auron was about to defeat Hercules and gave him back his free will, and ended the fight. Hades then threw Meg into the River Styx and Hercules jumped in to save her, leaving us and Auron to fight Hades. After we realized we couldn't beat Hades because it was his Underworld, Hercules showed up carrying Meg in his arms, offering the help of a true hero. By not hesitating to give his life for Meg's, Hercules realized that a true hero is measured by the strength of their heart. Sora told Hercules not to pull anymore crazy stunts now that he was his old self and he told us that people do crazy things when their in love." Nobody seemed to notice the brief glance Sora and Kairi shared at this, as well as similar ones shared by Roxas and Naminé, or David and Sharon, or Melissa and Jonathan.

"With Herc and Auron helping us, we easily defeated Hades," said Sora, who was blushing slightly although no one seemed to notice, "Hades fell into the River Styx shortly after our fight. Auron departed, looking to shape his own story. Herc and Meg thanked us and Donald and I asked Phil if he thought we were true heroes yet and he told us no, but it wasn't his call, even though he would if he could." Kairi and Allison both looked outright surprised. "After everything you've been through?" asked Kairi, "Whose call-" But Sora held up a finger to stop her, "But the gods on Olympus seemed to think otherwise, and rearranged the stars in our honor." Everybody apart from the story tellers looked shocked.

"You have your own constellation?" Riku asked, dumbfounded. Sora grinned and nodded his head excitedly. "Yup." Riku looked away from Sora and pretended to sulk.

"We returned to Agrabah next and found that the peddler we had dealt with the last time we were there had gone and let Jafar out of his lamp," Sora resumed, "Iago told us that we would find Jafar at the desert ruins. We took the magic carpet to one of the ruins where Iago told us Jafar had gone. We made our way into one of the ruins, expecting to find Jafar, but the ruins were empty. Iago told us that Jafar had forced him to lure us to the ruins so he could attack the Palace without interference. We rushed back to the Palace where Jafar had captured Jasmine and was claiming that he would rule all of Agrabah. Then we arrived and Jafar turned into his genie self and using his magic, tore Agrabah apart and threw the pieces at us. We defeated Jafar, and destroyed his lamp, ensuring Jafar would never return. Genie helped return Agrabah to the way it was and we bid the world farewell as we continued onto the Halloween Town.

During our second trip to Halloween Town, we found out from Jack that Christmas presents were being stolen from Santa's Workshop. We helped Jack find the presents and take them back to Santa. We came up with the idea of using a bunch of dummy presents to lure in the thief. We placed the fakes in a plaza in Christmas Town and hid ourselves in a really big present. When we heard the thief approaching, we burst from the present and realized that it was Doctor Finkelstein's latest experiment that had been stealing the presents. The experiment then attacked us and we destroyed it. Santa and the Doctor believed that the experiment wanted a heart and was stealing the presents to try to find a heart for itself. I couldn't help but feel bad for the experiment. Before we left, Sally explained to Jack that a present wasn't about a box, the paper, a ribbon or what was inside, but the act of giving the present. Jack and Sally finally told each other about their feelings for each other and shared a romantic moment in the snow before we left.

While we traveled to the Pride Lands, Chip and Dale picked up some strange readings on the Gummi Radar. A massive object had appeared and was becoming clearer as we travelled from world to world. And Twilight Town was beginning to show up as if there was two identical Twilight Towns coexisting in the same place. We didn't have much time to think about it as we landed in the Pride Lands shortly after and learned that Scar's ghost had been haunting the Pride Lands. Simba was troubled by the ghost and was trying to be the same king his father had been. We managed to convince Simba to follow his own path, not his father's.

When confronted with the ghost, Simba lost his courage and ran. We followed him to the Oasis, where we found Scar's ghost pestering Simba. The ghost left and Simba insisted that he would never be the king Mufasa had been, despite what we told him. So, we pretended to leave and used Donald's magic to create an illusion of Scar's ghost that we used to taunt Simba and make him realize that he needed to be king in his own way, not his father's. Simba realized that he had friends who would stand by him at that point, something Mufasa wasn't fortunate enough to have.

Then Timon appeared, crying out for Simba. Hundreds of Scar's ghost had appeared in the Pride Lands and Nala was in danger. We went with Simba back to Pride Rock where Simba told the ghost of Scar to get out. The ghosts then all formed a massive Heartless that threatened to destroy the Pride Lands. Together with Simba, we managed to defeat the Heartless and restored peace. Before we left for the last time, Simba asked me if my quest would ever be over, and I told him, that 'as long as the Keyblade stays with me, I'll have to keep fighting.'" Allison stared sadly at her son. She could almost feel the weight of such a responsibility that was weighing on his shoulders. There was a moment of awkward silence where Sora, Kairi, and Riku glanced at their parents, who averted their gazes. They all knew in their hearts that meant that one day Sora would have to leave the Islands again and none of them were sure what to say.

"Rafiki then told us to get out and continue our fight," said Jiminy, ending the silence and drawing attention to himself, "And he reminded us that the key to victory was a strong heart. We then set a course for Hollow Bastion, where we learned that the MCP had taken over the town's defense system, using it to attack residents and creating Heartless in a Heartless Manufacturer that had been built beneath Ansem's study. While Cid worked on a program to delete the MCP, we downloaded ourselves into Ansem's computer again and met up with Tron on the game grid, where the MCP was sending wave after wave of Heartless to eliminate Tron.

We fought off the Heartless, explained the situation to Tron and rushed to the I/O Tower to receive the program from Leon and Cid. We received the program and took it to the Central Computer Core, where we used it to delete both Sark and the MCP for good. Tron thanked us for helping him defeat the MCP. Tron then jumped into the Core and took over the MCP's programming, freeing the town's defense system, shutting down the Heartless Manufacturer and deleting all the Heartless the MCP created. And on top of it all, he found stored file footage of Hollow Bastion when it was first built and reminded every citizen of the world's true name, Radiant Garden.

Before we left Radiant Garden, we helped Leon and the others make sure there was no trace left of the MCP's Heartless that had been unleashed. We searched the outskirts, the Great Maw and the cliff where we had last seen the King. At the cliff, we ran into Sephiroth again. He asked us what Cloud was doing and then demanded to know who we were, threatening us with his sword. When he saw Sora's Keyblade and realized that Sora was the chosen one, he wondered aloud if the Keyblade would choose him instead if Sephiroth defeated Sora. Sora and Sephiroth fought for several minutes before Sephiroth stopped the fight, admitting that Sora was very skilled. Sephiroth didn't even seem injured or tired from the fight, claiming only Cloud could beat him. He told us to tell Cloud that he was looking to settle things. We did and we followed Cloud back to where Sephiroth was waiting. Cloud and Sephiroth clashed for several minutes in an epic sword battle. Right when the fight was beginning to reach its climax, they vanished in a flash of light, and we haven't seen either of them since."

Sora, Donald and Goofy nodded sadly. "Then we went to Twilight Town next, to find the mansion that was in the picture of Roxas we had gotten when Maleficent saved us by sending us to the realm of Darkness," said Sora, beginning to get excited that they were finally reaching the climax of the story, "And we found Hayner and the others passed out in front of the mansion. They told us they were looking for Kairi when they were attacked by Nobodies, apparently that they thought the mansion was the gate to an alternate Twilight Town. More Nobodies showed up, and so did his Majesty who helped us fight them off. He told us that he had figured out where the real Ansem was, Organization XIII's stronghold. We went into the mansion and found the gateway to the virtual Twilight Town that Ansem the Wise had created to keep Roxas.

There we found an entrance to the dark realm and took it. We quickly found ourselves surrounded by an infinite number of Nobodies. As we started to lose hope, Axel showed up and helped us fight. He told me that Saïx had Kairi prisoner in the Organization's stronghold and to go save her while he held off the Nobodies. We fought alongside Axel for a long time but there was never an end to the Nobodies. Axel put his entire being into one final attack, sacrificing himself to incinerate all of the other Nobodies." Roxas looked at Sora in complete shock. "As he began to fade into darkness, Axel told me that he was sorry for kidnapping Kairi and getting her involved. He told me that he wanted to see Roxas. Roxas made him feel like he had a heart and he told me that I had the same effect on him. Then he opened a portal to the Organization's stronghold, The World That Never Was, and faded away into Darkness."

Sora and Roxas both bowed their heads sadly in memory of Axel, before Sora went on, "We found ourselves in a city where the streets were practically a sea of Shadow Heartless. It took us ages to fight our way through them all. The only place in the city where there weren't any Heartless was at the base of a skyscraper that seemed different, in a way, from the rest of the city. Then, several Samurai Nobodies appeared to fight Donald and Goofy, while I met and clashed with Roxas inside my heart." Everyone turned to look at Roxas.

"I wanted to know why the Keyblade had picked Sora," Roxas explained, "So I summoned the Samurai Nobodies to occupy those two while I fought Sora to find out why." He gestured at Donald and Goofy. "I didn't think it was fair that I had to join with Sora to make HIM whole. I was jealous. During our battle, I realized that the Keyblade chose Sora because of the bonds he makes with his friends. Before I left him alone, I told him that I thought he made a good other."

Sora grinned, "Thanks for the compliment, anyways, we made our way through the rest of the Dark City only to find ourselves next to the Organization's Castle, but with no way in."

Naminé then interrupted Sora, "That was when I broke Kairi out of her cell. When she grabbed my hand, her light called out to yours and created a path for you to the castle so the two of you could reunite."

Sora smiled at Kairi, who blushed and looked away.

"While you fought your way through the Nobodies and the castle," Naminé resumed, "Kairi and I were making our escape when we were stopped by Saïx and a pair of Berserker Nobodies under his command. He told us that leaving wasn't an option and was about to attack us when-"

"When I arrived," said Riku, "I destroyed the Berserkers with my new Keyblade that I had just gotten and briefly fought against Saïx before he fled in a portal of Darkness. I was about to follow him when Kairi stopped me. She obviously couldn't tell it was me because I was wearing one of the black coats that the Organization wore, and when she removed my hood, she saw that I had taken on the appearance of Xehanort's Heartless."

"That must've been right before Saïx appeared before us," said Sora, "He thanked us for helping the Organization achieve its goals. He gestured to the heart shaped moon outside that was becoming Kingdom Hearts, saying all that was needed was another helping from me. So he summoned thousands of Heartless into the room for me to fight."

"And that's when Riku and I showed up," said Kairi excitedly, "Riku gave me a Keyblade and we fought off dozens of Heartless to prevent them from getting to Sora."

"Maleficent and Pete then showed up to take the Castle for themselves and left us to take care of all the fighting," said Mickey, "And while you all were fighting the Heartless, I had found Ansem. Ansem said he was obsessed with having his revenge on his former apprentice, Xehanort, and he blamed himself for Riku looking like Xehanort's Heartless. He said that Riku lost a fight against Roxas when he had sent Riku to retrieve the Nobody, and Riku realized he would have to immerse himself in darkness and took on the visage of Xehanort's Heartless. He said you were the victim of his revenge, Riku, not Xehanort."

Mickey nodded at Riku who stared blankly back.

"You were saying, Sora," Mickey encouraged.

"Donald, Goofy and I were just about to fight off the Heartless when suddenly thousands of energy bolts destroyed them for us. Xigbar appeared and called me Roxas and a traitor, saying that I wasn't half the hero other Keyblade wielders had been. I can only assume he had met some before. Anyways, we fought Xigbar and barely defeated him. As he faded back into darkness, I asked him why he called me Roxas and he just laughed at me.

We ran up to the next floor and helped Kairi and Riku finish off the last of the Heartless. Kairi and I shared a brief reunion before I confronted Riku, believing him to be Xehanort's Heartless, before Kairi helped me realize that it was Riku, just looking different. We continued to make our way through the castle. Shortly after we were reunited with Kairi and Riku, Luxord appeared and trapped the others in his cards, then challenged me to a game involving time. He tried to beat me with his tricks and games of luck using his cards. But I managed to wear him down. When I went in for the finishing blow, Luxord attempted to use his cards to protect himself, but I still managed to slice through them and end him. His last words before he faded were 'How could you…. Roxas?' When Luxord faded, the others were freed from his power and e went on into another part of the Castle where we found Saïx, waiting for us while staring up at Kingdom Hearts.

Saïx told me that only Roxas could've made it that far in one piece. I was beginning to get really annoyed at being called Roxas. Donald flat out told Saïx that my name was Sora. Saïx responded simply with 'Different name, same fate.' He then summoned his weapon, a massive berserker claymore and using sheer strength, knocked Kairi and Riku away from us. Then he erected a force field between them and us, forcing Donald, Goofy and I to fight Saïx alone. Under the influence of the Kingdom Hearts moon's power, Saïx broke his calm exterior and became wild and vicious. His constant onslaught almost killed us multiple times over but Donald's magic managed to save us, and we defeated him, despite his fierceness and power from the moon. He limped away from us and asked Kingdom Hearts where his heart was, before fading back into darkness. I felt kind of bad for him, even after all he had done. The only thing he ever wanted was to be whole again.

I asked Riku why everyone was calling me Roxas and he told me that Roxas was my Nobody. He explained that Xemnas brought Roxas into the Organization because Roxas, like me, could wield the Keyblade, but Roxas betrayed them. Riku told me that he fought Roxas and lost, forcing Riku to embrace darkness to defeat Roxas."

"But I don't think I would've had to fight you at all," Riku said to Roxas, interrupting the story, "I think you really just wanted to meet Sora, didn't you Roxas?" Roxas nodded. Sora grinned at his Nobody, who grinned back.

"While these five were fighting your way through the Castle," said King Mickey, "I was with Ansem the Wise, using a machine he had built to convert the hearts that were forming Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts into data. Just before these guys caught up to us, Ansem called himself a fool. He told me that he had spent years studying the heart and still hadn't learned anything. He told me the heart was more than a system like he had thought and that all of his research amounted to nothing compared to Sora's heart. At that point, the machine began to go haywire and Ansem explained that it was further proof that the heart cannot be contained by data. He told me to run that anything could happen when it self-destructed. Then Sora and the others arrived. Ansem told Sora that the rest was up to him and then he apologized to Roxas, even though he wasn't sure if Roxas could hear him or not.

Then Xemnas appeared and mocked his former mentor, calling him pathetic. He blamed the existence of Heartless on Ansem and blamed him for the problems across the worlds. Ansem admitted he was right but demanded to know what Xemnas really wanted, to make his own Kingdom Hearts, one that he could rule. Ansem then told Xemnas that Xemnas and His Kingdom Hearts were destined to fall. Then Ansem told me goodbye, and the device exploded."

"When we came to," said Sora, "Ansem had vanished and was nowhere to be found. His sacrifice wasn't in vain though; the burst of energy from the machine severely damaged Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts (even though this resulted in the birth of thousands of Heartless that then began to swarm the Castle), and turned Riku back to his normal self.

We charged towards the top of the highest tower when we were stopped by the Heartless pouring into the tower. We were prepared to stand and fight, when Maleficent and Pete appeared, telling us to go defeat Xemnas while they took care of the Heartless. Before we left, Maleficent reminded us that she still planned on having her revenge and that when she had destroyed all of the Heartless she and Pete would take the Castle for their own.

We left them to fight the Heartless and we ran to the very top of the Castle where Xemnas stood, waiting for us. He lamented the loss of his Kingdom Hearts and demanded that we bring him more hearts. We told him no and he asked us why we hated the Darkness."

"I told him that we didn't hate the Darkness," said King Mickey, "It's just kind of scary. I told him that everything is made of half Light and half Darkness, which actually made me wonder why we are afraid of the dark."

"And I reminded you," Riku said, "That it's because of who's lurking inside it. Then Xemnas pulled Sora into a portal of Darkness and vanished."

"Xemnas had taken me back into the Dark City and forced me to fight him one on one," explained Sora, "I defeated him and Xemnas warped me back to the others. He then began to urge Kingdom Hearts to join forces with him and destroy anyone who opposed him. We told him to stop but he ignored us and vanished as he fused with Kingdom Hearts. The will of the world's created a doorway for us to use to follow Xemnas. His Majesty said that the worlds wanted us to be the guardians of their destiny. Using our Keyblades, we charged into Kingdom Hearts after Xemnas. Inside, we found that Xemnas had taken the power of Kingdom Hearts and had reshaped it to resemble the Dark City. He told us that it didn't appear to pay to be loyal to our hearts, as he thought they had led us to our deaths. He then used his newfound power to hurl a skyscraper at us, we retreated towards the doorway to avoid being crushed and Kairi and the King ended up trapped on the other side. Donald, Goofy, Riku and I ran on to face Xemnas."

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Riku explained in excruciating detail about their fight against Xemnas, fighting their way past the obstacles that Xemnas threw at them and fighting Xemnas on his throne while he fought back with the weapons and powers of the fallen Organization members.

"When we defeated him," Sora explained, "We reappeared back in The World That Never Was. Xemnas collapsed on the ground, saying he needed more rage and more hearts. I asked Xemnas if he remembered that there was more to a heart than just anger or hate. He told me that he didn't as Darkness enveloped him and he vanished. We briefly celebrated before we realized that we had no way to escape the world as Riku could no longer create a portal of Darkness. We were beginning to wonder how we'd make it out of there when Naminé appeared and created a portal of Darkness that led us back to the Islands. Donald, Goofy, and the King all went through and before we followed. Kairi thanked Naminé who spoke to me and Roxas at the same time, saying that we had met again like we promised. Roxas emerged from me and together they realized that not all Nobodies fade back into Darkness and that they get to live on in Kairi and me. Then Naminé rejoined with Kairi and Roxas with me." Kairi glanced at Sora, noticing that he had intentionally left out hers and Sora's promise to their Nobody counterparts that they would be together every day.

_Why would he do that? It's kind of important._

Then she realized that her adoptive father had been watching Sora intently from the moment he had begun to catch on that the two teens meant more to each other than anyone else meant to them. Kairi had noticed the protective-father stares Jonathan had been shooting at Sora but hadn't thought anything of it. And judging by the nervous glances Sora had briefly given Jonathan whenever there was even a slight hint at anything romantic between Sora and herself, Sora was more than aware of the looks he had gotten from the man. Kairi couldn't help but blush.

"Then Kairi went into the portal Naminé had created," Sora was saying, bringing Kairi back out of her musings, "But before Riku and I could make it into the portal, it closed, leaving us trapped in The World That Never Was. Xemnas reappeared, having only been hurt, not defeated like we thought, and pulled Riku and I into a world made of Nothingness. He tried to make us believe that he, like Light, Darkness and Nothingness was eternal. We told him that just because those were eternal; it didn't mean that he was as well. We fought Xemnas in one final battle, where he unleashed his power over Nothingness and his weapons of Nothing in an attempt to finish us off."

"Xemnas attempted to use the Nothing to pull Sora's heart from him and claim it as his own," Riku said, "But I managed to distract him and free Sora. Xemnas then surrounded Sora and I in a dome made of darkness and sent thousands of his energy weapons hurtling at us, forcing Sora and I onto the defensive. The onslaught ended and we were worn out from the constant fighting. Xemnas closed in on Sora and attempted to deal the finishing blow to Sora, who had no time to protect himself. I deflected the first strike, shoved Sora out of the way and took the next blow for him."

"Riku collapsed after that," explained Sora, "And handed me his Keyblade as he fell and I used the last reserves of energy I had left to unleash a barrage of attacks on Xemnas. Riku and I then combined the power of our Light, channeled it through my Keyblade and finished Xemnas off with a beam of Light, once and for all. Riku was too injured to move on his own and I was too tired to heal him with magic, so I helped him walk. We wandered around the world of Nothingness and used the time to catch up. Eventually, we found ourselves on a dark beach in the Realm of Darkness. We realized that since the Realm of Light was safe, we were more than content to let peace wash over us while we sat on that beach. At least the waves sounded the same. We sat there for a long time listening to the waves, when a letter in a bottle washed up. Riku read it first and handed it to me, saying that he thought it was for me."

"My letter!" Kairi exclaimed suddenly, "You got it!"

Sora grinned and pulled said letter from one of his pockets.

"After I read this letter, the Door to Light opened up in front of Riku and me. We stepped into the Light and it took us back here, to the Islands. And here we are now." Sora said, finally finishing the story.

There was a long moment of silence while the parents absorbed the story. Sora, Kairi and Riku exchanged worried glances, wondering just how their parents were going to react. Their parents were all looking back and forth between in each other. Finally, David cleared his throat and said. "I guess I'll be the one to say it. It's a nice story and all, it'd probably make a bestselling book or a fantastic movie, or even a top selling videogame franchise, but where's the proof? It sounds like most of this was just fantasy." The other parents nodded in agreement, except Allison and Melissa who seemed to disagree.

Sora, Kairi, Riku and King Mickey all stood and held their right hands out in front of them where their Keyblades flashed into existence. Their parents gasped in surprise. "So it's all true then?" Sharon asked, her hand resting over her heart. Riku nodded.

"Yes, Mom," he said, "Every word of it is true." They all dispelled their Keyblades and sat back down to a barrage of questions from their parents about the Heartless, Nobodies, how the Keyblades worked, and more about the friends they had made in various worlds (David and Kairi wanted to know more about Captain Jack Sparrow than anybody else). Allison (Being a clothing designer) insisted that Sora show off his different Drive Forms for them, to which Sora happily obliged. And, at the insistence from their parents, Sora and Riku had a mock duel in the middle of the restaurant, using weak spells and not as many powerful attacks so they wouldn't damage the restaurant.

_LD_

No one seemed to notice that while they had thought the restaurant had been empty, the girl Kyoko had been listening while standing in the shadows by the front doors. While Sora and Riku showed off some of their fighting skills for everybody, she slipped out the doors and pulled out her cell phone. She flipped it open and quickly typed in a number from memory and hit SEND. She heard the other end click when the person she had dialed answered. "They're back," she said with a smile, "It's almost time."

_LD_

Back inside the restaurant, things were beginning to settle down. Melissa had dragged her husband into the kitchen to grab drinks for everybody. King Mickey was checking a device for calling the Gummi ship to the world to see when they would be able to leave. Allison was beaming with pride for her son as she, David and Sharon discussed, in hushed voices, about their children's story. Kairi pulled her chair right next to Sora and hugged him. "Thank you," she whispered into Sora's ear. Sora looked at her quizzically. "For what?"

Kairi nuzzled her head into his shoulder and glanced up at him, "For keeping your promise and coming back to me." Sora smiled back at her. "No problem, Kairi." He hugged her back. Kairi glanced around before looking back up at Sora and gave him a swift kiss on the cheek to show her appreciation. "Thanks again," She whispered, her cheeks flushing a bright shade of pink.

Sora's cheeks turned a deep crimson as he touched the spot where Kairi had kissed him. He glanced around the table. The only people who had noticed Kairi's sudden display of affection were Donald and Goofy, and judging by their expressions, Sora knew that they were going to never let him live it down. Sora shot them a No-One-Word look.

Melissa and Jonathan watched from the kitchen as Kairi planted a kiss on Sora's cheek. Melissa sighed, "I remember when you and I were like that, John."

Jonathan smiled at his wife and pulled her into a tight hug, kissing her on her forehead. "So do I," he said softly, "It took us months to realize how we felt about each other. And then no one could keep us apart afterwards." Melissa rested head on Jonathan's chest as he held her.

"You're not going to give Sora the typical scare most fathers give to the boys who like their daughters, are you?" Melissa asked as she swayed back and forth with her husband. Jonathan was silent as he considered it.

"Only a little," he said slyly. "But just for fun." Melissa hit him on the shoulder playfully. Jonathan pretended that it hurt more than it did, drawing a laugh from his wife before kissing her passionately. "But it is Kairi's choice on who she dates," he said on a slightly more serious note, "As long as she's safe and truly happy, I'm fine with it. Besides, we know Sora can take care of our little girl."

"Good boy," Melissa said, giving him a quick kiss before taking several glasses of water back to the table to hand out. Jonathan followed her back and helped her ensure that everyone got a drink. The talks continued for a couple more hours. Allison insisted on seeing the scars Sora had received. Sora showed them the silver scar from where he had impaled himself to free Kairi's heart for the second time that night, the countless, almost invisible scars across his back from where his enemies had managed to get behind him. Allison hugged her son while tears streamed down her face. Sora hugged her tightly, assuring her he was alright, and that he had suffered no permanent damage before he had to suffer through several minutes of Donald and Goofy adding up the number of times Sora had taken a blow to the head (it ended up totaling one thousand, four hundred and twelve times). Sora retorted that they had no right to talk as they had been hit in the head more times than that each (Donald: three thousand seven hundred fifteen times. Goofy: seven thousand, thirteen times).

When two in the morning finally rolled around, and everyone was starting to doze off, Kairi having fallen asleep in Sora's lap around one a.m., King Mickey finally announced that the Gummi ship had arrived to take him, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy back to Disney Castle. Melissa locked up the restaurant and they all headed to the beach were the Gummi ship had parked itself. After a long farewell, King Mickey and the others from Disney Castle took to the skies and vanished in a flash of light.

Riku and his parents followed suit shortly after, wishing Sora, Kairi, and their parents a goodnight. Allison, Melissa and David were briefly absorbed in typical end of the night chatter, leaving Sora and Kairi completely alone for the first time since they had gotten back.

"You know," said Sora as he and Kairi gazed up at the stars, "I sure did miss this place."

Kairi smiled softly at him, "Don't worry, Sora," she said, "I'm sure it missed you too." Sora rolled his eyes and gave Kairi a playful shove while she laughed at her smartass comment.

After their laughter died down, Kairi stared intently at Sora, who stared back at her.

"Do I have something on my face?" he asked, running his fingers all over his face. Kairi shook her head. "Then what's up?"

"So, I'm the most important person in all of the worlds to you?" Kairi asked. Sora began stammering immediately, trying to form any sentence but only getting a few words out, all while blushing a deeper red then Axel's hair had been. Kairi giggled, and placed a finger over Sora's mouth, getting him to stop his attempts at forming a sentence.

"It's okay," she said, "Just tell me when you're ready." She hugged Sora tightly for a long moment. Sora couldn't help but smell her perfume, black raspberry vanilla, before she pulled away. "Thank you again, Sora." She gave him another kiss, this time on the opposite cheek than the one before. Sora felt his heart pound and his face turn hot as his blush worsened.

He touched the spot where Kairi had just kissed him as she walked home with her adoptive parents, and smiled.

_It's good to be home._

_LD_

Unbeknownst to Sora and Kairi, a person dressed in a black hooded cloak identical to the ones of the former Organization XIII stood out on the water, watching the Keyblade wielders as they parted ways for the night. The figure checked a stopwatch that hung suspended in midair in front of its face, before vanishing into thin air. _There is still time._ The figure said mentally to itself. _The door is still shut._

_LD _

* * *

_Hope you liked it! And just who is the Unknown person in the black cloak? Stick around to find out. As usual, reviews are greatly appreciated, I do enjoy hearing feedback from readers. _

_Happy reading!_

_-Shadow Horizons_

_P.S. Updates this month will be slow unfortunately. In addition to working full time, I'm participating in __National Novel Writing Month.__ But I do promise to have Chapter Four up ASAP and before Thanksgiving._


	4. We're Just Getting Started

_Hey everybody._

_Thanks go out to Trainalf and janus-juan for their reviews! Also, I have to admit, I'm pretty excited. Three chapters in one week! And the action starts now!_

_Disclaimer: It goes without saying that I will never own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. But I still own my ideas and original characters._

_Hope you enjoy! _

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Four: We're Just Getting Started

_Monday, May 17__th__ 4794 P.C._

Sora woke up early the next morning, excitement beginning to pump through him as he remembered that he was finally back on the Destiny Islands after two years. A huge grin spread across his face as he yawned widely and looked around his room. His mother had kept it exactly the same as when he had left. His now too small clothes lay scattered about among books, wooden practice swords and a random assortment of stones and shells he and Kairi used to collect on the beaches. Sora quickly threw on his usual adventuring clothes, slipped his silver crown pendant over his head and inhaled deeply, enjoying the familiar smells of home. And freshly cooked bacon and eggs wafting up from the kitchen.

Sora's stomach growled loudly at the smell. He bolted quickly from his room and out into the hallway, down the stairs, and into the kitchen, startling his mother as he grabbed a plate and piled it high with food before throwing himself into a chair. He then began wolfing down the food as if it was his last meal.

"Good lord, Sora," Allison gasped, "You're acting as if you haven't eaten in ages." Sora said something incoherent through a mouthful of food. Allison sighed, "Some things never change. We've been over this at least a million times, Sora. Chew, swallow, don't choke and then speak. Don't do all at once."

Sora rolled his eyes and swallowed his mouthful. "I said, 'It has been ages since I was last here to enjoy your cooking, Mom. You try traveling with a duck that marinades everything in hot sauce for an hour before cooking." Sora shuddered at the thought of eating Donald's cooking. Allison laughed.

Sora returned to his food, eating at a slightly slower pace and gazing around at the kitchen he hadn't laid eyes on in over two years. The cabinets, floor, table and chairs were all cut from the mahogany trees that grew on Eve and polished to the point they reflected light better than most mirrors. Pots and pans hung from a rack above the stainless steel stove. Coffee simmered in its pot next to the refrigerator.

"So, how was your first night back?" Allison asked her son as she set a glass of orange juice in front of him. Sora took a quick drink and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"It was-" Sora paused trying to find the right words. He had returned home and immediately thrown himself into his old bed, exhausted from the previous day's excitement, and fallen asleep immediately, falling into his usual dream involving a certain auburn haired girl. Sora grinned at the memory of the dream. "It was great. I didn't realize how much I missed this place until I got back."

"That's good," Allison said as she poured coffee into a travel mug. Sora looked at her curiously. "What?" Allison asked when she caught her son's stare.

"Where're you going?" Sora asked, gesturing with his head at the mug in her hand.

Allison laughed. "I have to work today, kiddo. It's Monday."

Sora's eyes widened in surprise. So much had been happening during the last few months that he ended up losing track of what day it was. "I'm really out of it," he said "What's today's date?"

Allison glanced at a calendar on the wall. "May Seventeenth," she replied, patting Sora on his back as she went to leave, "Enjoy your summer break!"

Sora stared blankly at her. "That's it? No 'You're grounded forever'?"

Allison smiled, "I suppose I could ground you if that's what you want," A look of mock horror crossed Sora's face. Allison laughed. "But, you did save the Worlds twice. So I'll let you off the hook. See you!"

Sora stared dumbfounded after his mother as she left. There was a flash of blue light and Roxas appeared next to Sora. He stretched his back and let out a huge yawn.

"Talk about lucky, dude," said Roxas as he sat in a vacant chair, "I was certain that she was going to ground you for the rest of the summer." Sora nodded in agreement.

"Tell me about it," he said, "I was getting ready to not be allowed out of the house all summer."

Roxas stared longingly at the leftover eggs and bacon and sighed. "Anyways," he turned to face Sora. "How do you plan on spending your first day not having to fight Heartless or some maniac trying to rule the Worlds?"

Sora smiled. "You know something, Roxas," he said, glancing at his Nobody. "I can honestly say I don't know."

"Sora doesn't know something?" said Roxas sarcastically. "Stop the fuckin' presses."

"Whoa!" Sora exclaimed, giving the Nobody a shocked look. "First of all, that was uncalled for. Second, language dude. Language." Roxas laughed at him.

"I'll talk how I want," Roxas said, laughing at Sora's expression. Sora rolled his eyes and got to his feet to clean the dishes.

"You know," Sora said, as he scraped the food into Tupperware containers and placed them in the fridge, "I think I'll go take a look at the Secret Place. I haven't been there in awhile."

Roxas looked at Sora curiously. "Why the Secret Place?" He asked. "You haven't been home in two years. Isn't there someplace else you want to see?" Sora shook his head.

"I have my reasons dude." He said. "Just trust me." Roxas nodded. Sora placed the dishes into the dishwasher, stretched, and turned to face the transparent Nobody. "You know what I just thought of?" Roxas shook his head. "We know nothing about each other, aside from the fact that you're my Nobody and I'm your Somebody."

Roxas cocked his head at Sora. "What's there to know? Like you said, I'm you and you're me. We're exactly the same, in most ways. The only difference is our appearance and our attitudes. And my levels of awesomeness far outweigh your own." Roxas grinned. Sora rolled his eyes.

"I find you far too sarcastic for just a spectral image." Sora said as he and Roxas made their way out of the house and down the street. Roxas vanished in a flash of blue light.

_It's probably better if I just stay in here while you walk through town. I'd rather not listen to people screaming "Ghost!" and running for their lives._

_Yeah, that would probably be bad._

Sora began to walk the streets towards the docks where he had tied his boat up the night before. Deciding to walk slowly, Sora took time to look around at the world around him. For the most part, the suburbs hadn't changed drastically like the city had. The houses looked the same and the familiar smell of the ocean was exactly as Sora remembered it.

"Sora!"

Sora's heart leapt into his throat as the shout reached him. He turned and found Kairi running towards him, waving at him. Sora grinned and ran up to her.

"Hey Kairi," Sora said as they stopped short of one another, Kairi gasping for breath. "What's up?"

"Not much," she panted. "But I've been looking for you. I need to ask you for a favor." Sora raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sure thing," he responded almost instantly. "What's the favor?"

Kairi grinned and took a deep breath. "Please teach me how to use the Keyblade!" she asked, bowing her head to him.

Sora was taken aback. "Come again?"

"Well, now that we know that I can use a Keyblade, I want to know HOW to use it," Kairi replied, looking at him excitedly. "And since you're the Keyblade's Chosen One, who else would be better to teach me?"

Sora considered this for a moment. "You could have always asked Riku." He said.

Kairi's expression fell. "Is that a 'no'?" _Could he really just not want to teach me? Was I wrong about him?_ Kairi felt close to crying. It almost felt as if her heart was ready to break.

Sora's expression quickly changed to shock as he saw the tears start to form in her eyes. "I'd never say 'no' to you Kairi." He said, grabbing Kairi by her shoulders and pulling her closer in an attempt to comfort her. "I didn't mean it to sound like that. I just figured Riku would be a better teacher than me."

Kairi glared playfully up at Sora, wiping the tears that had formed from the corner of her eyes. "But I don't want to learn from Riku," she pouted, "I want to learn from YOU! Besides, you've wielded the Keyblade longer than he has. You know more about how it works than he would."

_Gotta give her props,_ Roxas said. _She's put a lot of thought into it. Go for it dude. Get some ALONE time with her._ Sora could've sworn that he saw Roxas wink at him in his mind's eye.

"Okay then," Sora said, ignoring Roxas. "How about we go to the island for your training?" He gestured with his thumb at the island where the two of them and Riku used to go all the time to play. Kairi's pout broke into a huge grin.

"Thank you so much Sora!" She threw her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. Sora blushed and hugged her back.

"N-no problem," Sora said, as Kairi released him. Kairi continued to grin at him as she grabbed his hand and pulled him along after her towards one of the boats. Sora helped Kairi into one of the boats and pushed it into the water before jumping in after and taking up the oars. Kairi took notice of the fact that Sora occasionally glanced from the island in the distance to her violet-blue ones, then back to the island. They spent the short trip to the island in silence. Kairi's heart was pounding at the prospect of finally being able to learn how to use the Keyblade. Sora determinedly kept his gaze on the island as they drew closer.

Their tiny boat pulled up to the island and Sora quickly lashed it to the docks and helped Kairi out. Kairi followed Sora around the Island as he hunted for a decent place to teach her how to use the Keyblade. After several minutes of walking around the beaches, Sora finally settled on using the islet where the Paopu tree grew for their training session.

"This'll do." Sora said, kicking up the sand on the beach. He turned to face Kairi, who was practically bouncing up and down while trying to contain her excitement. "So, how about you show me what you do know about using a Keyblade to fight?" Sora held out his hand and an obsidian blade, decorated with a chain running the length of the blade leading to the "teeth" of the blade and an amethyst in the shape of a diamond set where the blade met with the hilt, a guard in the shape of two black demon wings and a chain leading from the base of the hilt to a black crown pendant flashed into existence. The Oblivion Keyblade, a Keyblade of superior strength. Sora pointed the blade at Kairi, who took a step back in surprise as Sora's expression quickly became serious.

"You want me to what?" Kairi exclaimed. She had never seen Sora look so serious before.

"Attack me." Sora said simply. "Summon your Keyblade and then attack me. When you were fighting Heartless in The World That Never Was with Riku, you did a great job, which tells me that you have the basics of swordplay down." Kairi blushed at the compliment. "I just want to see how much you know so I can figure out what to teach you to make you into a better swordswoman."

Kairi nodded at Sora in understanding. Standing up straighter, she held out her right hand and concentrated. There was a flash of light and her Keyblade flashed to life. One half of the guard appeared to be a breaking ocean wave while the other half was crafted as a vein of sand, reminiscent of a beach that continued beyond the guard to wrap around the sunset colored shaft and ended in a bouquet of colorful flowers that made up the "teeth". A red ribbon ran from the base of the hilt and ended in a charm that was similar in appearance to a Paopu fruit. The Destiny's Embrace Keyblade, given to Kairi to fight off Heartless in The World That Never Was.

Kairi hefted the blade, re-familiarizing herself with its weight. She shifted her stance so her knees were bent slightly, her left leg behind her right and her left arm tucked behind her back. She lifted Destiny's Embrace with her right hand so she was able to look past the blade at Sora while still providing protection for her upper body, the "teeth" of the blade facing outwards towards Sora.

Sora grinned at her. "We begin in three," Kairi shifted her left foot farther back and crouched lower. "Two," Kairi brought her other out from behind her back and grasped Destiny's Embrace with both hands. "One," Kairi's eyes narrowed as she scanned Sora for an opening. "GO!"

Kairi darted at Sora, who raised the Oblivion in a defensive stance. She slashed at his side and he threw up a guard that he knew she wouldn't break. Kairi grinned and spun on her heel, spinning in a three hundred sixty degree circle quickly to bring her blade around to Sora's other side. Sora's eyes widened in surprise at her skill as he was forced to throw himself out of the way of her attack. He quickly rolled to his feet and brought his Keyblade back up.

"Very nice," he said, deflecting the next slash she threw at him with some difficulty. "You're doing better than I expected." Kairi stabbed at his chest and Sora leaned back to dodge. Kairi pressed on, unleashing a series of swift attacks aimed at Sora's midsection. Sora easily dodged her attacks due to his experience, but he still had surprise etched on his face from Kairi's determination. Sora couldn't help but show off. He performed a series of back flips, dodging Kairi's quick slashes and thrusts.

"Show off!" Kairi panted as she slashed at Sora's midsection only to have Sora flip up and over her, bowing to her back as he landed. She spun and swung wildly, allowing Sora to easily parry her blow.

Kairi was beginning to wear out. She had used most of her strength already in an attempt to break Sora's guard early on. She overstepped as she went in for a power attack. Sora saw his chance and quickly spun past her, disarming her with a power attack of his own. Kairi stared down the length of Oblivion, panting slightly. Sora lowered his blade, letting it dangle at his side.

"I'm very impressed Kairi," he said looking at her admiringly. "You're very skilled already. I can't help but wonder who taught you." Kairi grinned at Sora.

"No one taught me," she said. "It just comes to me. I don't even know how I was able to fight like that." This took Sora by surprise. He had been expecting her to tell him that she had taken sword fighting lessons from someone during the year and a half she had been left on the Islands without him there.

"I have a theory," said Naminé as she appeared in a flash of golden light. "Kairi's heart spent several months inside Sora's heart when the Islands were destroyed. Sora spent almost every day during those months fighting the Heartless. If I'm right, Kairi's heart inherited all of Sora's fighting abilities from that period of time. Therefore, fighting should come as a reflex for her, and now that she can wield a Keyblade, she just showed us that she can draw on those abilities whenever she fights." Kairi grinned at Sora.

Sora grinned back. "Makes sense to me," he said. Sora raised the Oblivion Keyblade to point it at Kairi, who summoned Destiny's Embrace back to her when she saw that Sora was pointing his Keyblade at her. "Since you've definitely inherited my offensive combat skills, let's see if you inherited my defensive combat skills." Kairi leapt backwards to dodge as Sora lunged at her, swinging Oblivion in a wide arc over his head.

_LD_

Sora pressed Kairi for an hour, he taught her different ways to deflect an attack, redirect an attack, recover from an attack, counterattack and several dozen other defensive skills he had learned in his time fighting against the Heartless. When he was satisfied that Kairi understood enough of the defensive basics, Sora moved onto to teaching her a couple of magic spells. As soon as Sora told Kairi that he was going to teach her how to cast magic, Kairi's exhaustion vanished suddenly and was replaced by an excessive amount of energy.

"Okay," said Sora as he paced away from Kairi. "The first spell I'm going to teach you to cast is Fire." Sora pointed his Keyblade at a rock and blew it apart with a fireball that flew from the tip of the Oblivion. Kairi was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet in excitement. "The first thing you need to know about magic," Sora said as lowered the Oblivion, "Is that in order to cast an elemental spell you need to feel the element. Become the element. For example," he gestured at the bits of smoldering rock, "When casting fire, become fire itself. When you do this, the element becomes yours to command." A band of fire flew from the tip of Sora's Keyblade and circled him several times before vanishing into smoke. "And you can call upon it whenever you want. But using magic wears heavily on your mind. So don't try to do more than you can handle. It can and most likely will hurt you." Kairi let out an audible gulp at the seriousness in Sora's voice.

Sora raised his Keyblade and sent out three sparkling chunks of ice to hang midair several feet away from Kairi. He turned to face her.

"As your first lesson, I want you to try using fire magic to destroy these ice chunks," he said as the Oblivion Keyblade vanished from his hands in a burst of light. "If you can get two out of three, I'll have you practice on moving targets. Now go!"

Sora backed away as Kairi aimed her Keyblade at the center ice chunk and concentrated. She could feel the heat of a campfire, hear the crackling flames. She could feel the fire coursing through her. She had become fire itself. Kairi's eyes snapped open.

"Fire!"

A massive fireball shot from the tip of Destiny's Embrace and melted all three chunks of ice in less than a second. Sora and Kairi both stared dumbfounded at the place where the ice had been less than a moment before. There was a brief second of silence before Sora let out a shout of pride and wrapped Kairi up in a hug that lifted her from the ground.

"That was amazing, Kairi!" Sora shouted, hugging Kairi close to him. "I wasn't even able to cast magic of that magnitude until I had been practicing for weeks." Kairi continued to stare, open mouthed at the spot where her fireball had faded.

"I can't believe I just used magic," she said softly as it set in. "That was awesome!" she cried out, hugging Sora back.

Sora smiled widely at her and broke the hug, creating a dozen shards of ice that dances around midair. "Like I promised," he said. "Moving targets are up next."

Over the course of the next couple of hours, Sora helped Kairi learn additional ways to use fire magic as well as help her learn blizzard magic before he decided to give her a break. Sora helped Kairi into the shade of the Paopu tree, where she quickly fell asleep with a wide smile decorating her face.

Sora watched her sleep for a while before he left her to go to their Secret Place. He ducked under the low hanging vines that concealed the entrance and kept his head low as he made his way through the short passageway, straightening up when he emerged into the small cavern.

He glanced around at the walls of the cavern, decorated in dozens of drawings he and Kairi had made when they were younger. One wall was bare, save for a wooden door with no handle that couldn't be opened. Sora barely even glanced at the door. He ran his hands over several drawings, reminiscing about the times he and Kairi had played in here.

He stopped at his favorite drawing and knelt down to get a better look at it. Sora's eyes widened slightly in surprise. It was the drawing he and Kairi had made of each other when they were both seven years old. Sora remembered adding him giving Kairi a Paopu fruit to the drawing the day before the Islands had been consumed by the Darkness. Kairi had since added onto the drawing, which now was a drawing of Sora giving her a Paopu fruit and Kairi giving one to Sora. A tear formed in the corner of his eye.

_She must really love you since she added onto the drawing like that._ Said Roxas in the back of Sora's mind. _By the way, you two would've made the worst graffiti artists in the history of ever. Just saying._

_Shut up, Roxas._ Sora retorted. _We did a pretty good job considering we were little kids when we drew all of these._

_If you insist. But I'm telling you, I just don't think you two were cut out to be artists. _

_Bite me._

_Couldn't even if I wanted to. You've got the physical body, not me. Remember?_

_Of course I do. I'm not an idiot._

_That has yet to be determined._ Roxas and Sora laughed. Sora stared back at the drawing of him and Kairi.

_I've made up my mind, dude. I'm going to go tell Kairi how I really feel about her._

_Really? It's about time. Go for it man. Everybody and their mother is rooting for you. And if you can't think of something to say, I'll put in a call to the guys in Central and see what they can do._

_Was that sarcasm?_

_The part about calling the guys in Central was. You don't have a Central in here. And I'm also the only one in here aside from you. You do have the space though. You could probably make a killing off of rent._

Sora tuned Roxas out as the Nobody went off on a tangent about how Sora could rent out the spare room in his head. He stood up and quickly made his way out of the Secret Place. He glanced up at the Paopu tree. Kairi was waving at him and heading towards him. Sora grinned and started to run to her when he saw something dark appear in the corner of his vision. He turned his head to get a better look but there was nothing there. Sora shook his head.

_And now I'm seeing things. Awesome._

"Sora!" Kairi cried out in shock and worry. Sora turned to look at her and managed to catch a glimpse of something dark fading out of existence. Sora froze and began looking around. He summoned the Oblivion to his hand.

"Behind you!" Kairi shouted. Sora spun on his heel and looked behind him. A rather tall person stood facing the waterfall, dressed in a black cloak identical to the ones worn by the former Organization XIII. The figure slowly turned towards Sora and then vanished, reappearing feet from Sora.

The figure in the cloak raised its left hand and snapped twice. A barrier flashed into existence along the beach, separating Kairi from Sora. Kairi ran up to the barrier and attempted to strike it, only to be blown back several feet. She let out a cry of pain when she hit the ground hard.

"Kairi!" Sora cried in concern. He turned angrily towards the cloaked figure only to be met by the figures boot colliding with his face. Sora gasped in pain as he was knocked backwards. Sora quickly recovered and swung the Oblivion at the figure. A brief instant before the Keyblade would've struck the figure, the figure vanished and reappeared several feet to Sora's left.

"Who are you?" Sora demanded, lunging at the figure. The figure leapt several feet into the air and shot back to the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked Sora off balance. Sora recovered and jumped back several feet to put distance between him and the figure. The figure held out his right palm towards Sora, who winced, expecting a ranged attack. Instead there was a flash of light and a sword comprised of entirely blue light with a black ornate pattern near where the hilt of a normal sword would be appeared in each of his hands in a reverse grip style.

The figure suddenly appeared directly in front of Sora and unleashed a volley of high speed attacks with its blades that Sora found difficult to keep pace with. The figure paused for a brief moment and Sora launched his counter attack and managed to land a single blow to the figures left shoulder before it vanished and reappeared standing several yards away. The figure had its head turned towards its left shoulder. Sora could see the single blow had managed to tear the cloak and break the skin. A decent amount of blood was running down the figures shoulder and dripping steadily onto the sand of the beach.

"Nice hit Sora!" Kairi cheered from behind the magic barrier. Sora grinned and readied the Oblivion for another attack but froze when he watched the person in the cloak raise its right hand above him. Sora felt a burst of energy radiate from the figure, an energy burst that reminded Sora of times when he manipulated time to freeze his enemies in place.

Time around Sora suddenly slowed down. The speed of the waves lapping against the beach seemed to take longer and longer while seagulls overhead slowed down considerably. Sora went to rush the figure but moved slowly, Sora watched as a symbol resembling a clock, with a single hand resembling the blades the figure was wielding, appeared over the figures head and began turning in a counter-clockwise fashion. Sora stopped his charge and watched in shock as the blood flowing from the figure's wound quickly returned to the figures body, the wound sealed itself, and the figure's cloak suddenly was repaired. Then time sped up to its normal pace.

Sora was frozen in shock as the figure slowly walked towards him, summoning its blades back into existence.

_What the hell was that?_ Roxas shouted in the back of Sora's mind.

"I don't believe it," Sora said dumbfounded, slowly feeling fear begin to take root in his heart. "That person rewound time to heal itself."

Sora stumbled backwards as the figure continued its slow walk towards him. Sora quickly regained his composure and held the Oblivion in front of him defensively. Sora let out a battle cry and charged the figure. The figure stopped walking and shifted its grip on its blades, holding them in a normal-grip style for dual wielding as compared to its reverse-grip style. The figure leapt into the air and crossed the blades to form an X above its head. It swung the blades towards Sora and an X-shaped burst of orange and black energy flew towards Sora. Sora somersaulted out of the way and the energy burst collided with a tree, reducing it to charcoal in an instant. Sora and Kairi stared at the remains of the tree in shock.

Sora dodged another X-shaped burst of energy, and charged towards the figure. The figure shifted its grip on the blades back to its reverse grip style and leapt at Sora. The figure struck Sora several times with its blades as it came within range of Sora. It connected the hilts of both blades and rapidly struck Sora several times in the back before leaping several feet up into the air and throwing the combined blades like a spear at Sora.

"Reflega!" Sora shouted, reacting on instinct and summoning a hexagonal dome of light to surround him. The figure's blades struck the barrier and stuck. Sora grinned. Then his reflect spell shattered before Sora could dispel it and the combined blades zipped past Sora, slicing open his left forearm before vanishing.

Sora let out a howl of pain, the Oblivion Keyblade vanishing in a burst of light as Sora clutched his wounded arm.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out worriedly, still trying to find a way through the barrier. The figure seemed to float to the ground, its feet touching the ground as lightly as a falling feather. Sora blinked tears out of his eyes as he stared at the blood flowing from his arm. He could see the figure slowly advancing towards him out of the corner of his eye. Sora grunted and held his right hand over the cut and concentrated.

"Curaga," He muttered. Flowing green tendrils of energy burst from his right hand and into the wound, sealing it quickly only leaving behind a faint pink scar in its place. Sora sighed in relief as the pain vanished. He faced the slowly advancing figure and summoned the Oblivion back into his hand.

"Why are you attacking him?" Kairi shouted from behind the barrier. The figure stopped and turned to face her. "What did Sora ever do to you to justify this?"

The figure stared at Kairi for a brief moment. Sora aimed his Keyblade at the figure's back. The figure shrugged at Kairi who stared back in shock, and turned to face Sora only to find several fire balls and bursts of ice flying from the tip of Sora's Keyblade.

The figure crossed its blades and casted a reflect spell of its own. Sora's magic attacks bounced of the shield of light without even breaking it. The figure shattered the barrier and ran at Sora. Sora took up a defensive stance. A burst of blue and black light surrounded the figure. Sora broke his stance and stared, shocked as the figure suddenly multiplied into six. All six of the figures charged Sora, each one wielding the same blue and black blades the original wielded. Sora jumped high into the air and glided back several yards. He landed and spun on his heel to find the figures almost on top of him. The figures quickly surrounded him and moved in for a group attack.

"Firaga!" Sora shouted, creating a ring of multiple fireballs that circled him at a high velocity. The original figure vanished and reappeared several yards away, safe from the fire while its replicas vanished in bursts of darkness as the fireballs tore through them. Sora smirked at the figure. The figure responded by holding out its palms towards Sora. A large ball of fire more than twice Sora's size formed in front of him.

_Oh shit!_ Roxas shouted as the fireball flew from the figure's hands towards Sora. Sora barely had time to roll to the side of the fireball before it struck the ground where he had been standing a split second before. He could feel the heat from the fireball as it struck.

_That was clo-_ Roxas began, but was cut off as the fireball exploded violently. Sora was thrown halfway across the beach. The Oblivion Keyblade was sent flying from his hand and embedded itself in the sand of the beach several feet away from where Sora struck the ground.

"Sora!" Kairi screamed, terrified for his life as she watched the explosion throw him head over heels across the beach. "Leave him alone!" Kairi shouted, tears streaming down her face. She summoned Destiny's Embrace and began striking the barrier repeatedly, desperate to destroy the barrier and get to Sora.

The figure turned to watch Kairi's futile attempts and began to walk slowly towards her, a single blade appearing in its left hand. Sora struggled to push himself to his feet. Kairi didn't seem to realize the figure was slowly headed her way.

"Kairi," Sora wheezed, but his voice was so weak he barely heard it. "Stay away from her." The figure didn't seem to hear Sora as it continued towards Kairi.

_Come on, man!_ Roxas shouted at him. _You and I both know that if you're having your ass handed to you like this, Kairi doesn't stand any chance against this person! So get to your feet and save her, damn it!_ Sora pushed against the ground and felt the burns now covering his arms scream at him. Sora gasped in pain and collapsed. He glared at the figures back as it walked slowly away from him. Kairi had finally realized that the figure was headed for her and was now backing away from the barrier, terror dominating her expression as she raised Destiny's Embrace in defense.

_She will DIE if you don't save her! Why the fuck aren't you saving her? Move, God damn it!_

"Stay away from her!" Sora roared, spurred on by Roxas' yelling, and leapt to his feet despite the pain that radiated though his body. The figure spun around to face Sora. Kairi stared at him with a huge smile, tears streaming down her face. Sora summoned the Oblivion back to his hand and pointed it at the figure. A beam of light shot from the tip of Oblivion and struck the figure in its stomach, lifted it off its feet and propelled it forcefully into the rock wall behind the waterfall.

Sora smiled triumphantly. Roxas was cheering in the back of his mind. He turned towards Kairi to call out to her. His smile faded as soon as he saw the barrier was still up and that Kairi still had a look of pure terror on her face and was staring at the waterfall. Sora followed her gaze and saw the cloaked figure standing under the waterfall, which seemed to have stopped flowing. The figure rewound time around itself again, healing the injury Sora had just dealt it.

_Oh shit._ Roxas said, clearly shocked. _I think you just made it angry._

The figure stepped out of the pool of water that gathered at the base of the waterfall, walking on the water. As soon as the figure stepped onto dry land the water began flowing again. The figure thrust its left hand at Sora and a column of water burst from the pool and hurtled towards Sora. Sora attempted to dodge but the water followed him until it knocked him high into the air. He performed a back flip midair to recover when he hit the ground but was struck a second time by the water. Sora crashed back-first into the ground and let out a cry of pain as his burns screamed at him again.

He struggled to his feet only to be knocked off them again as the figure struck him with its blades repeatedly. The figure zipped back and forth inhumanly fast, striking Sora with each pass. With every strike, Sora was knocked higher and higher into the air until the figure struck him in the stomach. Sora was sent falling almost twenty feet onto the hard earth. Sora howled in pain as sand entered his burn wounds and newly created blade wounds.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out, worried about the amount of blood she saw streaming from Sora's wounds. She slammed her Keyblade against the barrier. "Stop hurting him!" Sora got back up and raised his hand above his head.

"Curaga," he said weakly. _I can't keep this up forever._ He looked around for the figure but it was nowhere to be seen. Sora looked up in the general direction of where the figure had last struck him. It was floating there in a standing position, its hooded head angled downwards towards Sora. "Why don't you come down here and fight me?" Sora yelled at the figure.

_**How about you come up here instead?**_ A genderless voice spoke in Sora's mind. Sora's eyes widened. The figure summoned a single energy blade and threw it at Sora, becoming a whip of blue and black energy as it sailed through the air. Sora dodged the blade as it struck the ground, only to have the blade circle his waist multiple times, binding him with the blue and black whip. Sora was pulled into the air to the figure which struck Sora multiple times before hurling him to the ground. The figure landed next to Sora and disappeared. Sora groaned and got to his feet. He looked around but the figure was nowhere to be seen.

"Sora!" Kairi called out to him. "Are you okay?" Her face was no longer displaying terror, only worry for Sora.

"I think so," Sora shouted back. He glanced around. The barrier was still up. "Did you see where it went?" Kairi shook her head in response. Sora frowned and looked around. He caught a glimpse of blue and black energy blades flashing into existence on his left. Sora leapt back and launched a fireball towards where he had seen the blades flash.

The blades sliced through the fireball, dispelling it. Sora's eyes widened in disbelief, the blades were suspended midair, with nothing holding them up. The figure was nowhere to be seen. The blades moved towards Sora swiftly. Sora leapt backwards and realized the blades were being held by the figure as it faded in and out of existence in a brief moment.

"It's invisible!" Sora exclaimed as he parried a stream of slashes from the blades. The figure turned visible again and dispelled the blade in its left hand as it punched Sora in the stomach. Sora groaned and felt his knees hit the ground.

_I can't move._ Sora realized. He was terrified, not for himself, but for Kairi. _This is it._

_No it isn't!_ Shouted Roxas. _Fight back! You can't die! What about Kairi?_

_I can't move, Roxas. I can't even cast a cure spell. I'm probably going to die here._

_NO!_

_Tell Kairi to run. Tell her… I'm sorry._

_Sora…_

_Do it now Roxas._ The figure lowered its single blade to rest on Sora's shoulder at the base of his neck. _This is it for me._

_See you, buddy._ Roxas said sadly. _Too bad we didn't get much time to enjoy being back._ Sora felt Roxas leave his mind and saw him appear in a flash of blue light over by Kairi.

Kairi stepped back in shock as Roxas appeared in front of her.

"Roxas?" Naminé said as she appeared next to him. "What's going on?"

Roxas looked sadly from Sora to Kairi.

"Roxas?" Kairi asked, stepping towards him hesitantly. Roxas closed his eyes and bowed his head.

"Sora can't move," he said solemnly. Kairi and Naminé gasped and looked over at Sora, kneeling before the figure. "He says, run." Kairi turned to look at Roxas. "He says he's sorry. Run, before this person comes after you." Tears formed in Kairi's eyes and started flowing down Kairi's cheeks.

"No," Kairi whispered, "Please, not Sora. Anyone but Sora." Kairi's knees gave out and she collapsed, her eyes never leaving Sora. Naminé knelt next to Kairi and placed a hand on her back. Roxas looked away from them and back towards Sora and the figure.

Sora glared up at the figure.

"What did I ever do to you?" He asked. The figure remained silent for a moment before sighing.

"Do you have any regrets?" the figure asked Sora, now revealing that it was male. "Do you regret losing to me? Do you regret that you're staring death in the face? Do you regret coming back to these Islands?" Sora glared back at the cloaked man.

"You want the truth?" Sora slowly forced his head to turn so he could get a better look at Kairi. Kairi stared back at him with tears flowing down her cheeks. "I regret never telling Kairi that I'm in love with her." He turned his head to stare at the man. "Satisfied?"

The cloaked man turned his head to look at Kairi and then back at Sora. He sighed and lowered his hood. He was a man in his early twenties with shoulder length bronze colored hair. His eyes were closed. Sora had a sudden sense he had seen the man somewhere before but he couldn't place his finger on it.

"As a matter of fact," said the man. "I am. To answer your earlier question, I attacked you to test the strength of your heart." Sora stared at him in confusion. "I nearly killed you several times during our fight. Every single time you got back up. You got your energy to keep fighting from the Princess of Heart you've fallen in love with." The man's energy blade faded and he opened his silver colored eyes. Sora's mouth dropped in shock. The man was the same one they had watched fight in the Defender Tournament the previous night. The man Sora had bet against Donald to win a fight.

"And I was right," the man continued. Sora got the impression that the man's silver eyes could see into his mind and soul. "Today I learned that the Keyblade's Chosen One has a heart worthy of the title." The man pulled his hood back up and began to walk away, paused and held a hand out towards Sora."Curagun."

Sora was bathed in a bright green light. He felt his wounds heal and his energy return. He glanced down at his body. His shirt was ruined but the wounds had healed without leaving behind any scars. Sora looked up at the man in confusion.

"Your heart is strong, Sora," the man said as he walked towards the ocean. He waved a his right hand in a circular motion and the magical barrier collapsed. Kairi leapt to her feet and bolted towards Sora, shouting his name. "The forces of Darkness grow stronger with each passing moment. You will need to keep your light close. Don't let her go." The man glanced at Kairi and back to Sora. "In my opinion, you've definitely shown the Mark."

"The Mark?" Sora asked confusedly.

The man laughed and vanished.

Kairi rushed to Sora's side and practically tackled him as she threw her arms around him. Sora grunted in pain. His wounds may have been healed but he was still sore. Kairi loosened her hug but refused to break.

"Thank God," Kairi was whispering repeatedly. Sora hugged her back, breathing deeply to slow his heart rate. "You could've died. That would've been terrible." Kairi slightly tightened her hug, feeling as though he'd actually die if she let go. "I wouldn't be able to live if you were killed." Sora looked at Kairi in surprise.

"Why wouldn't you be able to live if I died?" he asked her, feeling his heart rate suddenly spike again.

Kairi pulled back so her violet-blue eyes could look into his indigo ones while still having her arms wrapped around him. Time seemed to stop around them.

"Kairi?" Sora turned his head to the side in an attempt to get her to say something. Kairi smiled at him and tightened her hug, pulling herself closer to him. Sora's eyes widened in shock as Kairi pressed her lips gently against his.

_Kairi's kissing me!_ Sora exclaimed mentally as excitement began to pump through him. He closed his eyes and he deepened the kiss. Kairi's lips were soft, moist and tasted of watermelon. Sora poured out all of his love for the girl of his dreams that he held tightly into their first kiss. She kissed him back with an equal passion.

They spent what felt like an eternity in each other's arms, connected by their lips. They were both savoring the moment they'd each been dying for. After several minutes, Sora broke the kiss and gazed into Kairi's loving eyes.

"I love you, Kairi," he said as she opened her eyes. Kairi grinned widely and kissed him even more passionately than before, her hands gripping tightly to his hair. Sora kissed her back fervently.

"I love you too, Sora," Kairi whispered, breaking their kiss long enough to take an additional breath before bringing her lips back to meet Sora's. Neither of them had ever felt more alive than they did they moment, lost in their own version of paradise.

They remained like that for several long minutes before they broke apart, each one blushing a shade of crimson deeper than Kairi's hair. Neither of them could stop smiling lovingly at each other. Sora chuckled softly and got to his feet, helping Kairi up along with him. Sora stretched, feeling the vertebrae pop in his spine.

"You up for another sparring session?" Sora asked Kairi, summoning the Oblivion Keyblade to his hand. Kairi stared at him worriedly. Sora raised his eyebrow at her. "What?"

"Are you sure you're in any condition to fight?" Kairi asked, worry tugging at her facial features. "You took a pretty hard beating. I just don't want to see you overdo it." Sora smiled at her, touched by the concern in her eyes.

"I'm fine, Kairi," he said smiling warmly at the girl he loved. "I promise. I'm more than fine. Besides," Sora raised his Keyblade as Kairi smiled at him and summoned hers into her hand. "We're just getting started."

_LD_

Meanwhile in Disney Castle, the Royal Chronicler, Jiminy Cricket sat at his desk, organizing his journals from his adventures with Sora, Donald and Goofy for archiving. He flipped through the pages of his first journal looking for anything he might have missed. He stopped on the last page when he saw a line of writing he didn't recognize.

"_Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it._"

Jiminy quickly gathered up his journal and ran to where King Mickey was sitting at his desk in the castle library. Mickey looked up as Jiminy rushed into the room. Before he could even open his mouth to say hello, Jiminy was explaining about the mysterious line of text. Mickey waited patiently for him to finish and when he had, pondered what he had just heard.

"A note you didn't write you say?" he asked the chronicler. Jiminy nodded.

"That's right. I never wrote it," he responded. He gestured at the journal. "These journals never leave my possession. Who could've written this, and when?" Mickey sighed.

"Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it?" Mickey recited. "Could it be somebody asking us for help? Let's take a closer look!"

"But how?" Jiminy asked. "Naminé had to erase all of the other pages from the journal after our first journey on Marluxia's orders. All of the other pages are blank."

"Even if the words were erased, the notebook itself might still hold a few clues," Mickey replied seriously. He stood up. "Go find Chip and Dale. Tell them I need their help making something."

_LD_

The cloaked man that Sora had fought and lost to just hours before faded into existence in a small rocky box canyon. The cliffs were high. Unnatural. No doubt the work of several earth spells. How many years had it been since he had been here? How many years since he had fought here? All around him were scars from an ancient war. A mountainside in the distance had a massive, obviously magic inflicted crater carved into it. Clouds covered the night sky.

The cloaked man exited the box canyon and stepped out into a flat plane that stretched endlessly for miles in all directions. Around him, hundreds of thousands of Keyblades, ancient, rusted and battle-worn were embedded into the ground. Four large paths had been left between the Keyblade remains and intersect several miles in the distance. A plateau stood near the crossroad, obviously born from a more recent battle than the ancient one that left the land scarred and thousands of Keyblade wielders dead. Several hundred Keyblades lay on their sides near the crossroad cliffs. The man vanished and reappeared near the plateau. He picked up the uprooted Keyblades and re-embedded them, one by one, back into the ground.

Voices drifted to the man from across the sands of time.

_"Behold... These lifeless keys used to be full of power— united with the hearts of their Masters. On this barren soil, Keyblades of Light and Darkness were locked in combat...as a great Keyblade War raged."_

The man walked slowly through the ancient Keyblades, gently running his hand over their hilts.

_"Countless Keyblade wielders gave up their lives, all in search of one, ultimate key. And it will soon belong to me... χ-blade."_

The man clenched his fists as the sounds of war echoed in his mind.

_"'χ'... A most ancient letter. Some say 'kye' but the meaning is the same. Death... A letter that spells endings."_

The man shivered as the name of the elderly master that once taunted three young Keyblade Wielders here in the Keyblade Graveyard almost twelve years ago floated into his mind. _Master Xehanort_. Above him, the clouds parted, revealing a glowing blue, heart shaped moon.

_Kingdom Hearts._

_LD _

_Hope all of you readers out there liked the chapter and are looking forward to the next one! I can't wait to read any reviews you all might want to leave for me. I greatly appreciate feedback! _

_Until next time, happy reading!_

_-Shadow Horizons_


	5. Reconnect

_Hey everyone,_

_I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last updated. Sorry about the wait. Anyway, thanks go out to Ragnarok Warrior and janus-juan for reviewing last time! On a side note, I won't be able to update for the next couple of weeks but to make up for it and my month of absence, the next update will be a minimum of three chapters long!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or the characters from a show I'm beginning to include but can't explain in the disclaimer because it would be spoiling the surprise. I do however own my own characters, plot and ideas. _

_Warning: This chapter contains spoiler scenes from Re: Coded, but you could always Google them or watch them on Youtube._

_Hope you all enjoy!_

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Five: Reconnect

_Monday, May 17__th__ 4794 P.C._

As the sun slowly began to touch the sea on the horizon, casting gold and crimson rays across the sky, Riku lashed his boat to the dock of the play island and looked around for Sora and Kairi. The first thing that caught his eye was one of the palm trees, reduced to standing charcoal. Several places in the sand had turned to glass from intense heat. Dried blood dotted the sand in numerous places. The cliff face near the waterfall was cracked, pieces of the cliff lying on the ground near the pool of water at the base of the waterfall. Panic began to form in Riku's chest. First, no one on the island had seen Sora or Kairi all day and now he comes to the play island and finds evidence of a battle.

"I swear to god," Riku growled, "If you're dead Sora, I'll bring you back to life just so I can kill you myself!" He ran to the seaside shack, grabbed the edge of the low hanging roof and flipped himself up and over the shack to the bridge that led to the islet where the Paopu tree grew. Riku could make out the outlines of two figures lying on the islet, one on top of the other. Riku's fear worsened when he saw the Oblivion Keyblade embedded in the ground several feet from the figures.

"Sora! Kairi!" Riku shouted while running up to the figures, sliding on the ground for the last few feet and stopping next to them. Kairi was collapsed on top of Sora. Both of their eyes were closed. Sora's clothes were torn in numerous places and there was dried blood on his face and his clothes.

"Oh god," Riku gasped. He quickly grabbed Kairi and shook her. "Kairi. Kairi!"

Kairi groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She looked up at Riku and smiled sleepily.

"Oh. Hey Riku," she said. Her voice sounded as if she had been drinking all day. "What's up?"

"Are you okay?" Riku asked worriedly. Kairi looked at him in confusion.

"Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

Riku sighed in relief and turned his attention to Sora.

"What happened to him?" Riku asked as he quickly checked Sora for wounds. Riku's panic quickly changed to confusion. Sora was covered in dried blood and his clothes were torn. Where were his injuries? Riku almost cried out in surprise when Sora's hand grabbed Riku's upper arm.

"As much as I appreciate your obvious concern," Sora said as he opened his eyes. "I'd rather you not touch me there." Riku glanced down and realized his hand was dangerously close to moving below Sora's waist.

Riku cried out in disgust and leapt back several feet as Sora and Kairi laughed at him. Sora sat up and Kairi quickly leaned against him, resting her head against his shoulder as the pair watched Riku stare at his hand in shock. Riku looked back at them.

"So you're both fine?" He demanded. Sora and Kairi quickly gave each other a once over.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Sora asked. Riku stared at him, dumbfounded, and gestured at the beach. Sora and Kairi glanced at the beach.

"Oh yeah! That…" Sora said, finally realizing just what Riku was talking about. "Well you see…"

And Sora quickly explained his battle against the silver eyed man and his warning to keep the Light close because of the Darkness' growing strength. Riku sat there for a moment thinking.

"I told you that guy wasn't normal," said Riku, "What do you suppose he meant by 'you've definitely shown the Mark'?" Sora shrugged.

"Beats me," he replied. "I'm just happy he didn't kill me." Kairi draped her arms around Sora's shoulders and pulled him closer to her.

"I'm glad he didn't kill you too," she whispered in Sora's ear as she drew him into a gentle kiss. Sora sighed contentedly and closed his eyes. He wrapped her up in his arms and held her tightly.

"I KNEW IT!" Riku shouted out in victory. Sora and Kairi broke the kiss to stare at their other best friend, who was fist pumping the air. "Ha ha ha! Now Wakka owes me three hundred munny!" Sora raised his eyebrows at Riku, who stopped his celebration dance when he noticed the newly formed couple was watching him. Riku blushed and attempted to act nonchalant.

"Why does Wakka now owe you three hundred munny?" Kairi asked as she got to her feet and placed her hands on her hips. Riku grinned.

"Well, while I was out hunting for you two, I ran into Tidus, Wakka and Selphie. At first they were excited that we were all back and they kept asking me questions about where we had been and what we had been up to," Riku explained quickly. "But I managed to avoid their questions by convincing them to hold off until you two were found so we could all tell the story together.

"Anyway, we started making bets about where you two were and what you two were up to. Wakka said you two were probably downtown at Club Vinyl. Tidus, Selphie and I each bet him three hundred munny that you two were on this island finally realizing that the pair of you were madly in love with one another." Riku high fived Sora and hugged Kairi. "This means that I am now three hundred munny richer than I was this morning! So thank you both!" He pulled them into a giant bear hug before releasing them and running back towards the docks.

"Where are you going?" Kairi called after him. Riku spun on his heel to respond while jogging backwards.

"To go tell Tidus and Selphie so we can go collect our munny!" He shouted back.

Kairi and Sora laughed at their friend. Sora grinned at Kairi and took her hand. Kairi blushed again, feeling butterflies erupt in her stomach.

"Come on, Kairi," Sora said, pulling her along after him. "Let's go see our other friends."

Kairi nodded and ran along with Sora to catch up to Riku.

_LD_

Less than an hour later, the trio was sitting in a booth in Destiny's. Kairi and Sora were joined together by the lips, separating for only brief moments to catch their breath. Riku sat opposite of them, pretending to retch while he checked the time against his new phone. Their waitress, Kyoko, glared at Sora and Kairi. Kairi opened one eye to give Kyoko a look that said he's-mine-bitch-back-off. Kyoko turned up her nose and stormed off. Kairi grinned and kissed Sora even more passionately. Riku chuckled after watching the exchange.

The front doors to the restaurant opened wide and four teens strode in. Kairi and Sora broke apart as the two of the teens, both female, squealed in delight when they caught sight of Kairi. Kairi quickly pulled herself off of Sora and stood up so Sora wouldn't be caught in the excitement that quickly ensued.

"Kairi!" The two girls cried as they grabbed their auburn haired friend in a group hug.

"Selphie, Kim, I can't breathe," Kairi gasped and her friends released her. Selphie gave her an apologetic look, running her hand through one of the large curls on the side of her head. Sora noticed that Selphie was dressed in the uniform from the high school, a white button up shirt and a blue, plaid skirt with matching tie. Selphie caught Sora's stare.

"What?" She demanded, approaching Sora. "I think it's cute." Then she tackled Sora in a hug. "So, where've you and Riku been, you knucklehead?" She ruffled Sora's spiky hair and continued speaking before Sora could open his mouth. "Wait! Don't tell me. It's better in my imagination." Sora and Riku's faces both contorted in disgust when they realized what Selphie was talking about.

"Seriously? Didn't we get enough of that in middle school?" Riku said exasperatedly. "Can't two guys be best friends without it having to be even more than that?" Everyone except Sora and Riku laughed.

"I know, I know," Selphie laughed. "I'm just giving you two a hard time." Sora and Riku rolled their eyes in unison.

"But in all seriousness," said Kim, one of their friends that always seemed to have every class with Sora and Kairi. She was about a foot shorter than Sora, with long brunette hair, streaked with blonde tied into a pony tail and sparkling emerald green eyes. She was dressed in a pair of shorts that barely reached mid thigh and an ocean blue bikini top restraining her mildly large breasts. "Where have you two been for the past two years?"

"Ya, man," Wakka said as he pulled up a chair and propped his feet up on the table. "One day you're here, then a weird storm hits the Islands an' suddenly you two are gone, everyone thinks you were killed in the storm an' to make things even crazier, Kairi here barely seemed worried. Almost as if she knew you'd be back, ya." Kairi glared at him.

"And I was right," Kairi said with a grin. "It doesn't matter that everyone except Riku's parents and Sora's mom gave up hope. I knew they were safe and that they'd be back. I was right. So there." She stuck her tongue out at him and Wakka rolled his eyes.

"Are you ever going to tell us?" Tidus asked as he and Kim took up seats in the booth on Riku's side. "Or do we get to have fun guessing until it gets absolutely pointless and you finally give in and spill your guts so you don't have to listen to our outrageous theories about you traversing the universe with a pair of unusual traveling companions, wielding a mystical weapon, fighting monsters and saving the world?" Everyone laughed except for Sora, Kairi and Riku who all shared very serious glances.

"Well you see," Sora began and together with Kairi and Riku, they told the story of their adventures across the worlds over the course of the next couple of hours. When they had finished, their four friends all had looks of disbelief on their faces.

"You're pulling our legs," Kim said after a few moments of silence. "That sounds like a science fiction novel."

"Or a movie plot," Wakka suggested.

"Or a series of videogames," Tidus added, while laughing. "Got any proof?" Sora grinned at him and held out his right hand.

"Of course I do," Sora said. He held his hand out over the table and the Oblivion Keyblade appeared in his hand in a flash of light. Selphie, Tidus, Kim and Wakka all nearly fell out of their seats in surprise. Riku and Kairi laughed as the Oblivion vanished from Sora's hand into a thousand tiny sparkles of light. Sora grinned at his friend's expressions of shock and realization.

"So it's all true then?" Selphie asked, seeming almost nervous to hear the answer. Sora, Kairi and Riku all nodded in confirmation. Selphie looked over at Kairi curiously. "And in all technicalities you're a princess?" Kairi smiled.

"In a way," She said. "As far as I know, I'm not royalty but because there's no darkness in my heart, I'm one of the seven Princesses of Heart." Tidus and Wakka each quickly knelt to one knee and bowed their heads.

"We are not worthy," they said in unison, both with huge grins. Selphie, Sora and Riku all rolled their eyes. Kairi laughed at them as Kim got up and smacked them both on the back of their heads.

"Morons," she said as she sat back down and grabbed Riku's drink from his hand and downed it. "So what does this mean?" She turned to look at Sora. "Now that you've got the Keyblade and what-not, does that mean you three are always going to be taking off without warning to go fight the forces of Darkness on other worlds?" Kairi glanced back and forth between Sora and Riku. Riku turned his gaze towards the window to the city night outside. Sora grimaced sadly.

"Most likely," Kairi said, looking back at her other friends. "It's inevitable, isn't it? As long as there's darkness in people's hearts there's going to be Heartless and there's going to be someone out there trying to use the Heartless to take over Kingdom Hearts and rule the worlds. So I guess that means that sooner or later we're going to have to take off again; probably without warning," The other four averted their eyes sadly. "But we'll always find our way back," Kairi added quickly. Selphie was the first to smile back at her.

"That's good enough for me," She said cheerily, "Just be sure to say goodbye whenever you do have to leave, 'kay?" Kairi and Sora nodded in agreement. Riku winked at Kim.

"But of course we will," He said as Kim's face blushed crimson.

"But that's not the important thing here, is it?" Tidus said, twisting in his seat to stare at Wakka. Wakka gulped loudly as everyone followed Riku's lead and turned to stare at the orange haired teen. "The most important thing here is that Wakka now owes Selphie, Riku and I all three hundred munny apiece." Wakka groaned and pulled out his wallet as the three he owed munny to held out their hands expectantly.

After Wakka counted out the munny and passed it along to the winners of the bet, Selphie and Kim turned on Sora and Kairi and immediately began badgering them about every little detail of their love confessions and their first kiss. Tidus, Wakka and Riku all laughed at the couple as Selphie and Kim kept up the constant stream of questions at the pair about their relationship. After a few minutes, Selphie and Kim immediately abandoned the questions and started planning out the newly formed couples wedding, which led to an argument about which one of them would get to be Kairi's Maid of Honor. Sora and Kairi smiled embarrassedly at each other and Kairi took Sora's hand in hers. She gave him a brief kiss and rested her head on his shoulder while Selphie rattled off reasons why she should be given the coveted position (the most random of which included claiming to have Kairi's monthly cycle memorized and looking better in a dress than Kim, which only caused another argument). Sora rolled his eyes and glanced down at Kairi as she slowly started to drift off into sleep. Sora squeezed her hand softly and she responded by squeezing his. He smiled contentedly, closed his eyes, and felt himself drifting off into sleep.

_LD_

The metallic white halls of the Castle That Never Was echoed with a loud bang as two figures fell out of a gray oval that appeared midair. Maleficent and Pete fell out of the portal and hit the ground hard, both groaning in pain. Maleficent stood quickly, clutching her chest and using her staff topped with a green sphere to support her. She glared over at Pete.

"You worthless imbecile!" Maleficent shouted weakly at her lackey as he struggled to get to his feet. "Your plan almost got us killed!"

"It's not my fault the mouse king decided to erase the data while we were still inside," Pete grumbled as he popped the vertebrae in his back. "Oh, my achin' back."

"Just be thankful you managed to save us in time," Maleficent growled menacingly. "How did you manage to create that portal in time, Pete? What have you been hiding from me?" Pete looked at her in confusion.

"I didn't create no portal," he said, looking dumbfounded. He and Maleficent whipped around as footsteps echoed behind them. A woman dressed in a red dress with a black, gothic belt around her waist and a white overcoat decorated in a thousand red roses, with heavy, dark makeup, amethyst eyes and long green hair tied into a spiky ponytail on the top of her head except for her bangs, which mostly covered one of her eyes strode out from the shadows towards them.

"I was the one who saved you," The woman said, coming to a stop a few feet away from Maleficent. Maleficent's eyes widened in recognition.

"You're Echidna Parass, aren't you?" Asked Pete. The woman nodded. "What's an actress who's famous in several worlds doing here savin' us?"

"Is HE here?" Maleficent demanded of Echidna. Echidna smiled and turned to look behind her. Maleficent followed her gaze and identified the outline of a man standing in the shadows.

"Indeed I am," An eloquent male voice said, emanating from the figure in the shadows. "And I believe you owe me big time for this one, Maleficent." Maleficent swallowed hard and stood up straighter.

"Creed."

_LD_

After they said goodnight to everyone, Sora and Kairi started walking home, alone once again except for each other. They spent the trip to Kairi's house in silence, simply enjoying each other's company. Kairi walked close to Sora, her arm tightly intertwined with his. The entire time, Sora felt his heart pounding. Finally, the girl he had loved for as long as he could remember was on his arm. Sora felt like he was on Cloud Nine. Nothing could bring him down.

Kairi's heart was pounding equally as hard as Sora's. She finally was able to share her love with the guy she had loved ever since she came to the Islands. Here she was, arm in arm with the person who loved her so much; he sacrificed his heart to save hers. Kairi felt as if she was the luckiest girl in the world.

Both of them were disappointed when they finally reached the front steps to Kairi's house, she turned to face Sora and was quickly pulled into a tight hug by him. Kairi hugged him back just as tightly. They stayed like that for a long moment, lost in each other's presence. Sora couldn't help but catch the scent of vanilla gently drifting off of her. He bent his head down and rested his forehead against hers. Kairi sighed and clutched the front of Sora's shirt tightly. She slowly opened her violet-blue eyes and stared up into Sora's indigo ones for a few seconds lovingly, a small smile playing on her lips, before pulling herself up onto her toes and kissing him.

Sora hugged Kairi even closer to him as he deepened the kiss. They remained there as time seemed to slow around them, lost in a moment of eternal bliss. Kairi finally pulled away from Sora and rested her head on his chest.

"I love you, Sora," Kairi sighed happily. Sora smiled and briefly tightened his hug.

"I love you too," he whispered back, kissing the top of her head. "I wish I didn't have to go home. I just want to stay here and spend more time with you." Kairi smiled at him.

"I feel the same way. But, we'll see each other tomorrow, right?"

"Of course we will, Kairi," Sora said softly, running a hand through Kairi's auburn hair. Kairi made a sound similar to the gentle purring of a kitten. Sora chuckled and Kairi gave him a 'What?' look. Sora broke from the hug and gave Kairi a brief kiss. "After all, we only just got started with your training." Kairi grinned excitedly.

"I can't wait," She gave Sora one last kiss. "Goodnight!" Kairi whipped out her keys, unlocked the front door and slipped inside with a wink at Sora. Sora stood on her doorstep grinning like a fool for a moment before turning on his heel and heading home for the night, humming happily to himself.

_LD_

_Friday, May 28__th__ 4794 P.C._

The next week flew by fairly quickly for Sora, Kairi and Riku. Kairi excelled quickly at everything Sora taught her. After the second day of training, Sora had reached the conclusion that Kairi was more adept at magic than he was when Kairi cast a basic level Gravity spell and created a crater in the sand that Sora could only accomplish by casting several Gravira spells in rapid succession. Her strength and endurance also improved rapidly. Her strength and stamina were improving on a daily basis.

Sora decided to test Kairi on everything he had taught her. She was clearly a natural Keyblade wielder, so on the second Friday after they had returned to the Islands, Sora met with Kairi on the play island for her test.

Sora stared out at the ocean while he waited for Kairi to arrive. So far, this had been the best week of his life. He had spent almost every waking moment with Kairi: training, hanging out in the city together and finding themselves frequently joined together by the lips. A smile crept onto Sora's face as Kairi's laughter reached his ears. He turned towards the docks and saw Kairi running towards him while Tidus, Selphie, Wakka, Kim and Riku stepped out of their boats and onto the island.

"Sora!" Kairi exclaimed as she reached him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing briefly but passionately. Sora laughed and lifted Kairi off her feet and spun her around in a circle. Kairi giggled as Sora set her down and kissed her on the forehead.

"I missed you, Princess," he whispered.

"I missed you too, Handsome."

"I see you brought along a cheering squad," Sora teased. Kairi rolled her eyes.

"It's your own fault, you know," Kairi said, nuzzling Sora's neck. "If you hadn't told Tidus about today, Selphie never would've found out and you know how she gets when she wants something." Sora nodded in understanding. He broke away from Kairi and walked a few yards away.

"You ready?" He called to Kairi over his shoulder as he determinedly stared at a rock embedded in the sand.

"Go Kairi!" Selphie and Kim shouted.

"Kick his ass!" Tidus called. Kairi summoned the Destiny's Embrace Keyblade to her hand and took up a fighting stance.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Kairi said, already beginning to watch Sora for any potential openings. Sora grinned.

"Then let's go!" He shouted. The Oblivion Keyblade appeared in his hand as he spun around, crouched and sprang at Kairi. Kairi raised Destiny's Embrace in a defensive stance, carefully watching Sora approach at an almost inhuman speed. Sora drew back his Keyblade when he was in range and swung it at Kairi's midsection. Kairi grinned and held up her left hand.

"Reflect!" A spherical shield of light surrounded her and deflected Sora's attack, breaking his attack and leaving him open.

"Burst!" Kairi shouted. The Reflect spell shattered outward, knocking Sora off balance. Kairi saw her opportunity to strike and didn't hesitate to take it. She rushed at her boyfriend and swung her Keyblade at his feet. Sora recovered from the aftereffects of the Reflect spell and jumped up above Kairi's Keyblade and planted his feet on the blade. Kairi's eyes widened in surprise as Sora used the Destiny's Embrace as a springboard, propelling him several dozen yards into the air. Tidus and Wakka cheered from the docks. Kairi grinned and hurled her Keyblade at Sora. Destiny's Embrace rapidly spun towards Sora.

"Nice move, Kairi!" Sora said as he twisted midair to dodge the attack. He snatched Kairi's Keyblade out of the air right as it was about to zip past him, eliciting gasps of surprise and disappointment from Selphie and Kim. "But you're going to have to try harder than that!' Sora shifted his grip on Destiny's Embrace and hurled it like a spear back at Kairi. Kairi quickly did a reverse somersault to avoid being impaled by her Keyblade. She summoned it back to her hand and aimed the tip at Sora, who was slowly beginning to descend back to the beach.

"Burn!" Four fireballs burst into life at the tip of her Keyblade and honed in on Sora. Sora swung his Keyblade in a wide arc and created a massive ice shard midair which intercepted the fireballs before falling to the ground and shattering. Kairi growled in frustration. Sora laughed and sent a charge of lightning coursing through his Keyblade.

"Try this!" Sora shouted as he hurled his Keyblade at Kairi when his feet touched the ground. Kairi held her ground as Sora's electrically charged Keyblade hurtled towards her. When it was just a few feet away from her, she aimed her Keyblade and imagined it crashing suddenly to the ground.

"Force!" She shouted. A heavy gravitational field formed around the airborne Oblivion and forced it into the ground before it could reach Kairi.

"Nice one, Kairi!" Tidus shouted. Sora smirked. Electricity burst from the Oblivion in a dozen directions. Kairi threw herself out of the way of the majority of bolts of lightning. One of the smaller ones however, struck her foot as she leapt. Kairi cried out in pain as the electricity coursed through her body. Sora forced his face to remain straight. He didn't think the electricity burst was actually going to hit her and now he felt bad.

_That's what you get for being careless._

_Shut up, Roxas._

_Okay, fine. By the way, you might want to duck._

Sora realized that Kairi had fired off a series of fireballs and ice shards towards him and was charging up an aerial assault with lightning. Kairi was grinning triumphantly. Sora glanced up and saw sparks crackling above his head.

"Son of a bitch," Sora said. Selphie and Kim cheered as Kairi's attacks collided together and exploded.

_I sure hope I didn't hurt Sora too badly._ Kairi thought. She still couldn't see anything through the smoke of the explosion. _Do you think I overdid it, Naminé?_ The smoke slowly began to fade. Kairi squinted, attempting to see if Sora was okay or not.

_I don't think you even scratched him._ Naminé replied. The smoke cleared, and there was no sign of Sora anywhere. Kairi looked around in confusion.

_Where did he-_

_Kairi! Behind you!_ Naminé shouted in her mind. Kairi spun around and barely managed to raise Destiny's Embrace to deflect the Oblivion as Sora attempted to strike her from behind. Sora's attack broke her guard and knocked her Keyblade from her hands. Kairi ducked under Sora's next strike and did a back flip to put space between her and Sora. She held her hand out towards where her Keyblade now lay in the sand. It vanished in a flash of light and reappeared in Kairi's hand.

"Keep your guard up, babe," Sora said as he charged her again. Kairi grinned. She was ready this time. She sidestepped Sora's initial strike and attempted to stab him as his momentum provided her with an opening. Sora brought the Oblivion back around and deflected Kairi's attack. Kairi pressed on, forcing Sora to give ground as he parried Kairi's offensive onslaught. Sora stumbled in the sand as Kairi swung her Keyblade rapidly yet skillfully.

Sora couldn't help but grin. The way Kairi moved across the sand as she attacked him, she almost seemed to be dancing. No movement was wasted, and every attack she threw at him was nothing but graceful. Sora felt himself falling further in love with her.

_Focus, lover boy,_ Roxas said inside his head. _She's actually doing pretty good so far._

_I know. She's definitely ready to take on some Boss level Heartless. For only a week's worth of training, she's doing very well. _Sora ducked under another of Kairi's strikes and disarmed her. Kairi's eyes widened in shock as her boyfriend snatched up her Keyblade, crossed it with his and placed them against her throat.

_Damn._ Naminé said._ And you were so close._ Kairi sighed sadly as the Keyblades vanished into a thousand shimmering lights.

"I guess this means I failed your test," She said, feeling defeated. Selphie, Tidus, Kim and Wakka groaned. Sora smiled at Kairi and gave her a brief kiss. Kairi blushed in surprise.

"You pass, Kairi," he whispered as he rested his forehead against hers. Kairi gave him a quizzical look.

"But I lost," She said sadly. Sora chuckled and hugged her.

"The test wasn't about winning, Kairi," He said comfortingly. "I just wanted to see how good you've become since we started." Kairi grinned at Sora and hugged him tightly. She turned her head to look at their friends and flashed them a huge smile. Selphie and Kim jumped up and down excitedly, cheering for Kairi while Wakka handed Tidus a small stack of munny, looking dejected while Tidus had a look of triumph. Kairi giggled and turned back to Sora.

"So what now?" Kairi asked him. "Does this mean my training's done?" Sora considered this for a moment.

"Nah," he said, shaking his head. "Well, not for the most part. Your fighting abilities and strategies definitely don't need any more work. But I still have several spells I can teach you. So no, we're not done with your training." Kairi smiled at him and gave him a kiss. Sora kissed her back eagerly.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Kim shouted. Sora and Kairi broke apart and glared at Kim. "Selphie and I have to get going. My mom needs our help cleaning the shop so we'll see you two later." Selphie, Kim, Tidus and Wakka began walking to the boats.

"Tidus? Wakka? Why are you two leaving?" Riku asked. Tidus stopped and looked back at the silver haired teen.

"We came in with them. We need to go back with them or swim back. And I don't really feel like swimming back to the Island," He explained. Riku nodded in agreement.

"I hear you, pal. See you guys later."

"Peace out, Riku. Don't let those two be alone for too long. God knows what they might do." Tidus and Riku laughed for a moment before Tidus ran off to catch up to the others. Riku chuckled to himself and glanced out at the sunset. They'd been back for over a week now and he still had yet to watch the gorgeous sunsets that took place on the Islands. He turned his attention to Sora and Kairi, who were dancing and giggling like school children. Riku smiled at them.

_They won't notice if I slip away for a while._ He stealthily slipped past the couple and headed for the islet where the Paopu tree grew. He hoisted himself up onto the trunk of the tree and sighed contentedly. _It's good to be home._

Meanwhile, Kairi's phone began buzzing in her pocket. Kairi groaned when she saw the caller ID. She looked at Sora apologetically.

"It's my mom, I've gotta take this," she said. She gave Sora a peck on the cheek and walked away while flipping her phone open. "Hey, Mom. What's up?" Sora smiled at her and looked around for Riku. He spotted him sitting alone up on the Paopu tree.

_What's he doing up there by himself?_

_Beats me. How about we go keep him company while Kairi talks to her mom._

_What about Naminé?_

_I can't talk to her when Kairi walks away like that. The farthest we can be apart while still being able to talk is about half the length of this beach and look; they're practically on the other side of the island by now._

_That's a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?_

_That may be true; but my point is that I can't talk to Naminé, so let's go keep Riku company._

_Sounds good._ Sora walked over to the seaside shack and hoisted himself on top of it with ease. He jogged across the wooden bridge and slowed back down to a walk when he reached the Paopu tree. He placed both hands on the trunk and used them as leverage to jump over to the other side where he leaned against it. He placed his hands behind his head and stared out at the setting sun.

"Nothing's changed, huh?" Riku said after a little bit, still staring out across the water.

"Nope," Replied Sora. "Nothing will."

"What a small world," Riku chuckled. Sora remembered how Riku once believed that the world was too small, which led him to open his heart to Darkness so he could escape.

"But part of one that's much bigger," Sora said.

"Yeah." Agreed Riku. They stared at the sunset for a few more moments in silence.

"Hey, Riku," Sora said, turning his head to look up at his silver haired friend and asked the question that had been burning in the back of his mind for a few days now. "What do you think it was? The Door to the Light?" Riku laughed and climbed off of the Paopu trunk so that he was standing in front of Sora. He pointed at Sora's heart.

"This," He answered. Sora glanced down in confusion.

"This?" He asked, placing a hand over his heart.

"Yeah. It's always closer than you think." Sora smiled at this, knowing that Riku had a point.

"Sora! Riku!" Sora and Riku turned their heads in unison as Kairi called their names from the bridge. Kairi ran up to them, waving and panting. She stopped just short of them and doubled over, gasping for breath. Sora took a step towards her, concerned.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked worriedly. Kairi held up a glass bottle sealed with a cork containing a scroll of paper.

"Look," she panted. Sora's eyes widened in shock. On the scroll were three concentric circles that resembled the head of a certain mouse king.

"From the King?" Sora asked excitedly. He took the bottle from Kairi, uncorked it, forced the scroll out and unrolled it. Riku and Kairi stepped closer to Sora so they could read over his shoulders.

_I wanted to tell you right away,_

_About memories from the past that sleep within you,_

_And about the pieces that will tie you to your future._

_Sora, Riku, Kairi,_

_The truth behind the Keyblade,_

_Has found its way through so many people,_

_And now I know that it rests in your hearts._

_Sora,_

_You are who you are because of those people, but they're hurting,_

_And you're the only one who can end their sadness. They need you._

_It's possible that all your journeys so far,_

_Have been preparing you for this great new task that's waiting for you._

_I should have known there were no coincidences, only links in a much larger chain of events._

_And now the door to your next journey is ready to be opened._

-_Mickey_

_LD_

Meanwhile, King Mickey stood facing Yen Sid in the sorcerer's chamber of the Mysterious Tower. The elder, former Keyblade Master stared at the mouse king.

"Yen Sid!" said Mickey. "I think we're finally close to figuring out where Ven's heart is." Yen Sid smiled slightly.

"Is that so?" He said. "Then that leaves only Terra."

"Right," Mickey said excitedly. "And we've gotta save all three of them!" Yen Sid sighed and ran a hand through his long gray beard.

"The question is, what does Xehanort intend to do next?" The sorcerer said.

"Xehanort?" Mickey asked, confused. "But his two halves are gone! There was Ansem, who commanded the Heartless; and Xemnas, who commanded the Nobodies. Didn't Sora defeat them both?"

"Correct," Yen Sid said, entering the lecturing attitude he had developed over the many years he had spent training Keyblade wielders. "Those two met their end. However, therein lies exactly our problem. Their destruction now guarantees the original Xehanort's reconstruction." Mickey cried out in shock. "Xehanort's heart, once seized by his Heartless half, is now free. And his body, which had become his Nobody, has been vanquished. Both halves will now be returned to the whole. In short, this means that Master Xehanort will return." A shiver ran down Mickey's spine.

"And you think…" the mouse king spoke, hesitating long enough to swallow the lump that had quickly formed in his throat. "You think that maybe he's going to try something?" Yen Sid frowned and stared at his folded hands.

"A man like Xehanort will have left many roads open," He replied ominously.

"Well, it doesn't matter what he cooks up," Mickey said, "Me and Sora, we'll be ready. And Riku too." Yen Sid pondered this briefly.

"Yes, they are indeed strong," He said slowly. "But not true Keyblade Masters like you. Tell me, would a single one of you suffice if what you faced was not a single one of him?" Mickey's confidence vanished in an instant and look of shock crossed his face.

"What?" He asked his former teacher. "What do you mean?" Yen Sid ran his hand through his beard again. He stood up and brushed a hand over his blue robes.

"Mickey, please summon Sora here. Riku as well." Mickey looked up at Yen Sid in confusion.

"Of course. But why?" He asked. Yen Sid stared down at his former pupil.

"To show us the Mark of Mastery."

_LD_

_Sunday, May 30th_

A few days after they had received the letter from the King, Sora was sitting on the Paopu tree watching the sunset. In his hands, he held the King's letter. He had spent the last few days thinking almost non-stop about the letter, considering his options and talking them over with Roxas. Sora sighed. They had barely been back two weeks and already they find out that the worlds already needed them. How were they going to explain this to their parents?

"Sora."

Sora turned around on the tree and saw Riku walking onto the islet, his gaze fixed on the setting sun.

"Riku."

"Your mind's made up?" Riku asked. Sora nodded.

"Yeah."

"Sora," said Kairi softly as she followed Riku onto the islet. Sora turned to look at her.

"Kairi," Sora jumped off of the tree trunk. "I-" He wasn't sure what to say. Kairi nodded sadly as she folded her arms behind her back. Sora smiled comfortingly and walked over to the auburn haired girl of his dreams. "It's just-. They really need me. I have to go. I am who I am because of them." Riku smirked. Kairi smiled, forcing herself to keep her face straight so Sora didn't see how much this was hurting her. She took his hand in hers and placed the good luck charm she had made two years before in Sora's hand.

"See you soon," she said forcing her voice to stay even. Sora stared at the charm in his hand. He looked up at Kairi.

"I can't take this, Kairi," Sora said, placing the charm back in Kairi's hand. Kairi felt her heart shatter. Her calm composure broke and tears began to run down her face. Riku pinched his nose between his fingers. Sora immediately began to panic when he saw the look of hurt on her face and the tears streaming down her cheeks. "Kairi, let me explain-"

The air resounded with a crack as Kairi smacked Sora. Sora's head whipped to the side. His eyes widened in shock. Kairi's look of hurt had become a look of anger. When Riku saw this, he took a few steps back.

"Idiot!" Kairi shouted at him. Her voice cracking in anger and pain. Sora's cheek began to turn scarlet. Kairi ran off towards the bridge. Sora continued to stare at where Kairi had been standing moments before.

_That went well._ Roxas said sarcastically. Sora stared after Kairi as she ran into the Secret Place.

_Kairi…_

"You better go after her," Riku said, smacking Sora on the back of his head. Sora nodded in agreement and took off at a sprint after her. He ducked low so he could fit into the Secret Place. Kairi was kneeling in front of the drawing of her and Sora. Her fists were digging into her knees while tears dropped steadily onto the dirt. Naminé knelt next to Kairi, doing her best to comfort Kairi by hugging her, despite being a spectral image. Naminé glared up at Sora when she caught him standing there.

"Jackass!" Naminé quickly got to her feet and rushed up to Sora while drawing her hand back. Sora flinched as Naminé went to slap him, but her hand passed right through them. Sora almost sighed in relief until he heard Roxas cry out in pain. There was a flash of blue light and Roxas appeared next to Sora, collapsed on the ground with a red handprint on his cheek.

"The hell, Naminé? What'd I do?" Roxas shouted at her. Naminé stood over him shaking with rage. She grabbed Roxas by his collar and dragged him to his feet and proceeded to shake him violently.

"HOW COULD YOU LET SORA BE AN ASS TO KAIRI?" Naminé roared at him. "WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?" She glared at Sora as she shouted the last part. Sora averted his gaze and looked at Kairi, who was sniffing as she stared determinedly at the drawing of her and Sora. As Naminé continued shaking Roxas, Sora walked slowly over to Kairi. Kairi wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand as he drew near.

"What do you want?" She demanded, her voice cracking from attempting to stop her tears. Sora knelt next to her, and looked sadly into Kairi's heartbroken and accusing stare. Sora felt pain grip his heart. He swallowed hard.

"I didn't get to tell you **why** I can't take your charm," Sora explained. Behind him, Naminé stopped shaking Roxas and both were watching Sora and Kairi. Kairi continued to glare at him.

"What?" Kairi demanded, wiping more tears from her eyes. Sora sighed.

"I knew one day we would have to leave. And that's mostly why I agreed to train you and that's why I tested you today. I can't bear to be apart from you for a single day, Kairi." Kairi blushed at this and realized her tears were beginning to stop. "I would die if I had to go save the worlds without you. I can't take your charm because… I want you to come with us. I don't want to leave you behind."

Kairi's heart skipped a beat. Her blush deepened and she felt her sadness and her pain vanish in a second. Sora continued to look at her worriedly. Kairi smiled and bowed her head, feeling stupid for overreacting. Her bangs slipped and hid her eyes. Sora lifted them out of her face and stared into her violet-blue eyes.

"Kairi?" Sora and Kairi stared at each other for a long moment. Then Kairi chuckled and tackled Sora as she lunged forward to kiss him. Kairi lay on top of Sora as the couple lost themselves in a world of happiness. Naminé and Roxas both smiled at them and looked at each other before sharing a kiss of their own. Sora broke the kiss and stared up at Kairi.

"I love you, Kairi," He said, running a hand through her auburn locks. Kairi grinned, and kissed Sora deeply and passionately.

"I love you too, Sora," Kairi panted, barely taking her lips off of Sora's to speak. "I'm so glad that's the only reason why you wouldn't take my charm. I was worried you didn't love me." Sora kissed her again.

"How could I possibly not love you, Kairi?" he asked, gently caressing Kairi's face. Kairi purred at his touch and kissed him again.

"I love you, Roxas," Naminé sighed as she hugged the spiky haired Nobody. Roxas smiled and hugged Naminé tighter.

"I love you too, Naminé," Roxas said. He glanced over at Sora and Kairi who were once again joined by the lips. Roxas smiled.

_I wouldn't be able to love her if it weren't for you, man. Thank you._

_LD_

Riku sat on the Paopu tree, watching the moon slowly rise in the sky above him and swinging his legs back in forth in boredom.

"Well this is exciting," He said, sighing heavily. "Can't something exciting happen while they're off doing their thing so I don't go crazy?"

There was a flash of bright light several dozen yards out over the ocean. Riku cried out in shock and shielded his eyes with one hand while he summoned his Way to Dawn Keyblade to his hand.

The first thing he noticed when the light faded and he could see again was a glowing green railroad track suspended midair and running straight up to the islet where the Paopu tree grew. A purple and gold train car slowed to a stop on the tracks next to the islet. Riku stared dumbfounded at the train.

"I'm so fucking confused," Riku said nervously. There was a loud hissing noise and one of the doors on the train opened slowly. Riku raised his weapon as he heard footsteps from inside the train. He shifted his stance ready to attack. The train's occupant stepped out onto the islet. Riku dispelled his Keyblade and took up a more casual stance.

"Oh, it's you."

_LD_

Back in the Secret Place, Sora and Kairi remained joined together by the lips. Sora's jacket lay in a corner and Kairi's dress was unzipped to just below her white halter-top. Kairi moaned in the kiss as Sora's hands ran along her back.

"Sora," she moaned softly, breaking the kiss to nip Sora's neck lightly. Sora let out a low groan. There was the sound of a couple of people clearing their throats from the Secret Places entrance. Sora and Kairi quickly broke apart, Kairi zipping her dress back up. Both of their faces turned a deeper red than what should've been physically possible when they realized that Riku was standing there, with a look on his face that screamed "Well, well, well. What have we here?" Then they realized that standing next to Riku, tapping his foot was-

"Your majesty!" Sora and Kairi cried out in embarrassment. Riku doubled over laughing and placed a hand on the nearest wall to support himself. Sora and Kairi quickly scrambled to their feet, still blushing a deep crimson.

"We're not interrupting anything I hope," Mickey said smiling at the two teens. Sora and Kairi chuckled nervously.

"No sir!" Sora replied quickly. Riku rolled his eyes.

"What are you doing here, your Majesty?" Kairi asked as she attempted to make her hair look less frazzled than it did at that moment. Sora quickly began to attempt to put his jacket on. Mickey turned to look at her.

"Well, Kairi," he said, "my former master, Yen Sid, sent me." The three teens all looked at him quizzically. Mickey chuckled. "Master Yen Sid says he wants Sora and Riku to take the Mark of Mastery Exam." The teens looks became more confused. Sora's more so than the others when he realized his jacket was on inside-out and upside down. "So I'm here to take you to Yen Sid's tower to take the Exam." Kairi spun to Sora and hugged him tightly.

"Congratulations, Sora!" She said excitedly. Then she paused and looked back at Mickey.

"Um, what's the Mark of Mastery Exam?" She asked him. Mickey laughed.

"The Mark of Mastery Exam is a trial all Keyblade wielders must go through to truly become Keyblade Masters, as long as they display the Mark, that is."

Sora's eyes widened in surprise and he remembered what the silver-eyed, cloaked man had told him after nearly killing him the week before.

"_**The forces of Darkness grow stronger with each passing moment. You will need to keep your light close. Don't let her go. In my opinion, you've definitely shown the Mark."**_

_So that's what he meant. Who was that guy? Did he know that this was going to happen?_

"And Yen Sid wants us there, pronto," Mickey continued. "So we need to leave immediately." He turned around and exited the Secret Place, closely followed by Riku, who paused long enough to say "Sorry for cock-blocking you, dude," before ducking out of the Secret Place and following Mickey.

Sora and Kairi exchanged embarrassed looks before they followed Riku and Mickey outside. They ran to catch up to Riku and Mickey, who were almost to the train. Kairi stared at the train.

"Um, is the train floating midair?" She asked nervously.

"Yup," said Sora, Riku and Mickey in unison. After they had boarded the train and sat down, Mickey snapped his fingers and the door hissed shut and the train began moving.

"Wait!" Kairi exclaimed. Everyone turned to look at her. "What about our parents? Shouldn't we at least tell them where we're going?" Mickey laughed.

"Don't worry, Kairi," He said with a chuckle. "I already explained the situation to all of your parents." He looked from Riku to Sora. "They all wish you two the best of luck." Sora and Riku grinned. After a few minutes of silence, all of them had fallen asleep.

_LD_

_Monday, May 31__st__ 4794 P.C._

They all were woken up the next morning when the train came to a screeching halt, sending all of them tumbling head over heels into a tangled pile of limbs and appendages.

"That was one hell of an alarm clock," Riku groaned as he untangled himself from the others.

"I'll say," Mickey said, rubbing his head. "Sora, Kairi, are you two-" He turned to look at the other two teens and stared in surprise. Riku burst out laughing.

"That's an awkward way to land," Riku laughed as he took a picture of the couple with his phone.

Kairi groaned. Her head was still pounding from the rude awakening. She felt the flesh of someone beneath her. She opened her eyes slowly and found her face buried in Sora's groin. Kairi immediately felt her heart begin to race and her face grow rapidly hot. Her face grew even hotter when she felt Sora's breath against her womanhood.

Sora slowly opened his eyes at the sound of Riku's laughter, wondering what could possibly be so funny, and found himself staring at Kairi's pure white panties. Sora's heart rate skyrocketed and he knew his face must've been colored a deep shade of red.

Kairi squeaked at the feel of Sora's breath against her privates and quickly pulled herself off of Sora. Sora couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, but he was still more embarrassed about the situation as a whole. Riku and Mickey continued to laugh as they exited the train, closely followed by the embarrassed couple.

They stepped out of the train and onto the lawn outside of the crookedly shaped tower that Master Yen Sid called home. The former Keyblade Master was standing outside the base of the tower, smiling as they drew nearer.

"Sora. Riku," Yen Sid said as they drew nearer. Kairi gave Sora a good luck kiss and allowed herself to be led by Mickey to the top of the steps leading up to the tower. "Two of the wielders of the Keyblade. Today, I shall administer unto the pair of you the Mark of Mastery Exam. Be warned, this is not a competition or a battle for supremacy. Not a test of wills; but a test of heart. You both might prevail, or neither of you may prevail." Yen Sid snapped his fingers and several human shapes composed of light appeared.

"The first stage of the Exam is a test of your strength," Yen Sid gestured to the light figures. "Defeat the figures of light by any means necessary." Sora and Riku grinned at each other, summoned their Keyblades and charged the light figures.

In less than a minute all of the light figures had been defeated. Mickey and Kairi cheered for the pair. Sora and Riku high fived each other. Yen Sid smiled proudly.

"For the second stage of your Exam," He said. "The pair of you will demonstrate the strength of your heart by fighting each other." Sora and Riku raised their Keyblades, each preparing to strike. "On my count. Three, two-"

"I have a better idea," A male voice spoke, interrupting Yen Sid's countdown. A shiver went down Sora's and Kairi's spines. There was a flash of bright blue light that none of them could bear to look at. When the light faded, a man stood in the center of the lawn, dressed in the black cloaks of the former Organization XIII. Sora's heart began to race and a burst of fear coursed through his veins.

_Oh shit. Not again._

"Who are you?" Yen Sid demanded. The cloaked man turned to face the elderly sorcerer and lowered his hood, revealing shoulder length bronze colored hair and glowing silver eyes. Kairi cried out in surprise. The man smiled.

"Who am I? I am one of the few who survived to pass on the true story."

_LD_

* * *

_Who is the man in the cloak? What is the true story he survived to tell? Who are Echidna Parass and Creed? Why am I asking you? I already know the answers! But I promise at least two of these questions will be answered in the next chapter! I hope you enjoyed this latest installment and are looking forward to the next chapter! Until next time, my firends!_

_-Shadow Horizons_

_P.S. I enjoy hearing feedback so feel free to review (not required but welcome) and if you have questions, I will be happy to answer them clearly (as long as it doesn't lead to spoilers: in which case, I will answer with a confusing riddle or rant about something completely off topic instead)._


	6. Xanthos

_And I'm alive again!_

_Sorry about the month and a half of no updates. Life got really busy and getting this update ready took longer than expected. As promised, I have three chapters ready for all of you readers out there. My computer is giving me shit and I''m having trouble getting Chapter Eight uploaded to the website for some reason. It doesn't help that my internet connection is sporadic tonight either. But Six and Seven are good to go for tonight and I will find some way to make sure that Eight is up no later than tomorrow night immediately after I get off work._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or Black Cat. I only have the rights to my original characters, my plot, and my ideas._

_Without further ado, please enjoy!_

_**EDIT: **__Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Six: Xanthos

_Monday, May 31st 4794 P.C._

"What 'true story' do you have to tell?" Yen Sid said, taking several steps towards the silver-eyed man, who smiled as the former master approached. "Who are you?" The man laughed at Yen Sid as the sorcerer stopped advancing.

"Did I not already answer that question?" The man asked, shaking his head in exasperation. "I'm one of the few who survived the Great War that spanned many worlds and concluded on that barren plain all those years ago. Thousands of souls warred over a prize greater than all others. And thousands died in vain. Warriors of Light and servants of Darkness clashed for control of Kingdom Hearts in a great Keyblade War."

Sora felt a shiver run up his spine at the man's words. The look in his eyes and his solemn tone emphasized the horrors of the war without his needing to elaborate further. Sora glanced at Riku. The older teen's hands were shaking slightly on the grip of the Way to Dawn.

"The Keyblade War ended God knows how long ago," Riku said as he took a step towards the silver-eyed man. The man turned his eyes towards Riku. "No one knows exactly what happened in the Keyblade War. And I don't believe you know the 'true story' about what happened unless you fought in the War. So cut the crap!" Riku raised the Way to Dawn threateningly towards the silver-eyed man, who sighed.

"Have you no respect for your elders, boy?" The silver-eyed man asked Riku. Riku rolled his eyes.

"There is no way in hell you're more than two or three years older than me," Riku said, glaring suspiciously at the man. "Now tell us who you really are and stop lying."

"I agree," Yen Sid said. He raised his left hand and pointed at the silver eyed man. A great roar shook the ground as a massive fireball burst from Yen Sid's hand and headed for the man. Sora and Riku threw themselves out of the fireball's path as it rocketed by them. The man sighed heavily, not even flinching as the fire drew closer.

"This seems highly unnecessary." The fireball was less than a foot from the man when it exploded violently.

"That should take care of him," Riku said, staring into the heavy smoke. Yen Sid cleared his throat.

"Perhaps now that your illusion has been shattered," he said, slowly walking towards the rapidly dispersing smoke. "Would you be so kind as to finally answer the question; who are you?" Mickey turned to look at Yen Sid quizzically.

"Um, Master Yen Sid," Mickey said. "I don't think he survived-" The sound of laughter cut him off.

"Very impressive, Master, but I'm afraid it'll take more than a Firagun spell to harm someone like me."

Yen Sid's eyes widened in surprise. The man stood, unharmed, in the middle of the vanishing smoke, casually brushing dust off the shoulder of his cloak. His physical appearance had drastically changed. His shoulder length, bronze hair now fell to the center of his back and was tied into a ponytail at the base of his neck. An x-shaped scar crossed over his right eye and a faintly glowing, pale red scar ran horizontally along the left side of his neck.

Sora noticed that the man no longer seemed to be in his early twenties. He had to be nineteen years old, at most. Sora found his eyes drawn to the man's left ear. In his earlobe was a piercing that was shaped like two Kingdom Key Keyblades crossed into an 'x' with the 'teeth' of each Keyblade facing away from the center of the 'x'. Yen Sid also noticed the piercing. His intimidating demeanor vanished instantly, replaced with shock and disbelief.

"Impossible," Yen Sid said, his voice trembling. Sora stared at the sorcerer quizzically for a moment before looking back at the silver eyed man. Sora gasped and took a step backwards when he caught sight of the man's weapon.

Instead of the blue energy blades the man had used against him in their last encounter, the man held in his left hand an obsidian blade in the shape of a key. The Oblivion Keyblade.

Sora stared at the Keyblade in the cloaked man's hand. Kairi stared at the Keyblade before turning to look at Sora. Sora looked back at her and down to the Oblivion Keyblade in his hand, then looked back up at the silver eyed man.

"What the hell is going on?" Sora demanded, looking from the man to Mickey. Mickey shrugged while cloaked man smiled.

"Who are you?" Yen Sid asked the man again, advancing forward. "Why do you bear the Mark of the Chasers?" The man's grin widened further.

"The Mark of the Chasers? What is that?" Kairi asked. Yen Sid pointed at the man's pierced ear.

"A pair of crossed Kingdom Key Keyblades," he said simply. "Only the Chasers of the Keyblade were ever permitted to wear it and only a Chaser who had passed the Mark of Mastery Exam and proven themselves to be a Keyblade Master could pass along the Mark of the Chasers. It's a Mark hasn't been worn by anyone since shortly after the Keyblade War reached its conclusion, considering nearly all of the Chasers perished in the war."

"Keyword: 'nearly all of the Chasers'" the silver-eyed man said. "That doesn't mean all of us died." Yen Sid and Mickey glanced at each other.

"Who are the Chasers?" Riku asked Yen Sid. His eyes had yet to leave the silver-eyed man. The man grinned.

"The Chasers were the creators of the Keyblade," Yen Sid explained. The silver-eyed man nodded. "According to the legends, the Chasers started the Keyblade War."

"Lies!" The silver-eyed man shouted angrily. Everyone took a step back, shocked by the man's reaction. "WE were accused of starting the War only because no one could remember who started the War first; the Wielders of Light or the Wielders of Darkness. And since the War ended up with us at its center, we were blamed for it." Sora and the others stared at the man in confusion.

"Why would the War end up focusing on the Chasers?" Kairi asked. "I thought the War was fought over Kingdom Hearts." The silver-eyed man took in several deep breaths, calming himself.

"For the most part, that's true," he said, running a hand through his hair. "Keyblade Wielders of Light and Darkness fought for Kingdom Hearts and we Chasers attempted to stay out of the War. We scattered ourselves and went into hiding across the universe to avoid the fighting, but eventually we we're all dragged in." The man turned his back on them and closed his eyes. "When neither side of could find a way to enter Kingdom Hearts and take it over, they sought out the Chasers to create a powerful Keyblade, a Keyblade that would allow them to open Kingdom Hearts and take it for their own. They wanted to use us to make the χ-blade."

Everything seemed to freeze in time for a moment as the word "χ-blade". Sora looked over at Mickey and caught the mouse king exchanging a swift glance with Yen Sid. Sora couldn't help but notice that both of them seemed nervous.

"What's the χ-blade?" Kairi asked. Sora turned his attention to her; Kairi was hanging on this man's every word and her eyes sparkled in excitement.

_She believes every word he's saying._ Sora realized. He looked back at the silver-eyed man, who had shifted his stance so he was facing Kairi, the only person not glaring at him like he was telling a fictional story.

"The χ-blade is a very special Keyblade," the man explained. "It can only be forged in a very specific way and when it is forged, the Hearts of all Worlds will join together and create a way into Kingdom Hearts, one that only the χ-blade is capable of creating.

"Defenders of Light and Servants of Darkness, we Chasers sought to end the fighting before it destroyed us all and those who sought power. Those who weren't Chasers believed that the χ-blade would appear to whoever proved themselves worthy.

"Their numbers swiftly dropped as the War raged on. Slowly, they began to realize that the χ-blade wouldn't just appear. So they began hunting Chasers. If a Chaser wouldn't help them, they would kill them." The man's shoulders shook as anger crossed his face. "They hunted us down one by one. In a month, we Chasers had gone from being over a thousand Wielders strong to a mere thirteen. And we hatched a plan to end the war: we created the χ-blade, and took it to the center of the barren plain where most of the war had been fought. There, in front of the only surviving Keyblade Wielders, we destroyed the χ-blade."

Sora felt his mouth drop in disbelief. Riku and Kairi were staring at the man with similar expressions to Sora's. Yen Sid and Mickey exchanged another worried glance.

"But I digress," the man resumed after several minutes. "To answer your earlier question, I am Xanthos." Xanthos bowed to Sora and the others holding his Oblivion Keyblade to the side and crossing his right arm over his chest. "I am a Keyblade Master and High Chaser of the Keyblade. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Sora stared at Xanthos blankly. Less than two weeks ago, this guy had been trying to kill him, and here he was, acting as if it never happened.

_Is this guy for real?_

_Obviously he's real._ Roxas replied. _I don't think everyone else would be able to see him if he was a figment of your overactive imagination._

_I know he's REAL, smartass._ Sora retorted, _I meant, does he honestly expect us to believe anything he's telling us?_

_How am I supposed to know? I'm in your mind, not his. Just give him the benefit of the doubt._

_I guess I can for now. But, if he tries to kill me again, I'm coming after you._

_And I will sit here, laughing, as you attempt to harm me._

_I can always punch myself in the stomach. I'm sure that'd hurt you. _

_It'll hurt you, not me. I'm in your mind only and I don't feel any pain you feel. So bring it on. Like I said, I'll just sit here laughing as you hurt yourself and not me._ Sora rolled his eyes and turned his attention back towards Xanthos. The silver-eyed Chaser was watching him. Sora glanced at Riku. Riku still had his Keyblade directed towards Xanthos, prepped to strike at a seconds notice, but his expression was now one of mild curiosity. Sora's eyes shifted from Riku to Kairi. Her eyes were glazed over.

_She's talking to Naminé._ Roxas said, _or at least trying to. Naminé found a way into Xanthos' memories and she's trying to see if he's telling the truth._

_Kairi's TRYING to talk Naminé? Is Naminé ignoring her?_

_Naminé isn't intentionally. Hell, I'm trying to talk to her right now as well, but she's completely absorbed in Xanthos' memories. She's practically trapped!_

_Seriously? _Sora glanced warily at Xanthos. The Chaser's left eye twitched and his silver-eyes turned their attention on Kairi.

"Tell me, Princess Kairi," he said. "Is your Nobody finding anything of interest in my memories?" Riku, Mickey and Yen Sid all looked over at Kairi. Riku finally lowered his Keyblade.

"What's Naminé doing?" Mickey asked the auburn haired teen. Kairi swallowed hard. She stared at Xanthos in mild surprise for a moment.

"How did you know she was-" Kairi began, but Xanthos cut her off with a wave of his hand, as if he was saying 'Isn't it obvious?'

"It's my mind and my memories," he replied. "Do you honestly think anyone can go poking around in my head without me being aware of it?" The Chaser laughed. Kairi's face flushed a little in embarrassment. "And now the poor girl's gone and immersed herself so deeply in my memories that she can't find the way out," Xanthos shook his head sadly. "How unfortunate. But, she'll find her way out sooner or later. In the meantime, I believe there is a Mark of Mastery Exam taking place that I interrupted."

Xanthos bowed his head apologetically towards Yen Sid and walked away from the field to stand next to a shrub on the edge of the floating island Yen Sid called home. Yen Sid watched Xanthos for several moments running his hand through his beard. Xanthos raised an eyebrow at him when he realized the elderly sorcerer was watching him.

"Master Xanthos," Yen Sid said loudly. Everyone turned to look at him. "If you really are a Chaser, prove it. Forge a Keyblade, here and now." Sora and Kairi exchanged a glance. Didn't forging a weapon usually require a forge? And materials to make the weapon with? Sora looked over at Xanthos, who had a massive grin on his face.

"I thought you'd never ask," The Chaser said, as he dispelled his Keyblade and slowly removed his black gloves. Sora, Kairi and Riku all gasped when they saw the skin of his hands. Hundreds of silver, x-shaped scars covered his hands to the point they were almost completely silver. On his left ring finger, a single golden band shone brightly, as if it had been hidden by the glove for years.

_He's got a wedding band on._ Kairi realized, a fact Sora and Riku completely overlooked as they stared at the ring on the Chaser's right middle finger. The ring was completely silver except for the Mark of the Chasers, which had been cut from a sapphire.

"What on earth happened to your hands?" Riku asked, staring at the silver scars. Xanthos grinned.

"This," he replied. He inhaled deeply and slammed his left palm against the ground. The earth beneath their feet shook violently, and everyone except Xanthos and Yen Sid lost their footing. The air became unbearably hot for a brief moment before plummeting as frost formed on the ground and foliage. The wind roared ferociously and thunder shook the sky. Then, silence. Sora and the others pushed themselves to their feet and stared at Xanthos.

Suspended midair between his scarred hands was a pulsating orb of white light. Sora stared at the light in shock. It was solid. Xanthos pulled his hands further away from each other and the orb shifted, becoming a rod of light and elongating itself as Xanthos stretched his hands further until the rod was roughly three feet in length.

He gripped one edge of the rod tightly with his left hand. The white light instantly turned a bluish-purple color. The light shifted around Xanthos' hand, taking the shape of a curved guard. The rod bent slightly in the middle and a crescent moon embracing a star became the teeth on the rods. Everyone watched in amazement as the shape became more distinct in the light. The blade was a dark blue color near the hilt and faded into a bright purple decorated with several white stars. The guard now looked like two shooting stars streaking around the handle of the blade to meet at the hilt.

Xanthos swung the Star Seeker Keyblade several times before nodding in approval. Then, to everyone's shock he dropped it. Sora and Mickey both let out cries of surprise. Sora's mind raced.

_Who drops a newly created Keyblade? What if it's fragile?_

Everyone's mouths dropped in unison when the Star Seeker vanished in a flash of purple light, leaving a Keychain that resembled a golden crescent moon suspended midair. Xanthos snatched the Keychain from the air in front of him and examined it carefully.

"Catch," he said, tossing the Keychain to Kairi. "A souvenir." Kairi fumbled with the Keychain and nearly fell over before she had a decent grip on it. Kairi grinned and pocketed the Keychain.

"Thanks!" She said. Xanthos nodded, then winced and stared down at his left palm. There was a bright flash of light and a silver, x-shaped scar appeared in the center of his palm where there had once been untouched skin. Xanthos grimaced and began to slip his gloves back on. Everyone was staring at him again.

"Does that happen every time you forge a Keyblade?" Kairi asked. Xanthos nodded but kept his mouth shut. "Does it hurt?" Xanthos looked up at her.

"Like you wouldn't believe," he said, his silver eyes boring into her violet-blue ones. Kairi gasped. Through her connection to Naminé, Kairi witnessed flashes of Xanthos' memories. Xanthos kneeling on a battlefield where hundreds of Keyblades were scattered on the ground, holding a woman as she died in his arms, Xanthos tearing through Keyblade Wielders left and right in his rage, carrying the body of the woman to a grave in the middle of a forest somewhere, a man in a black cloak touching Xanthos' forehead as Xanthos slowly froze in time.

Kairi gasped and snapped back to reality as Sora shook her slightly, calling out her name with a worried expression on his face. Sora glared at Xanthos.

"What did you do to her?" he growled as he pointed his Oblivion Keyblade at the Chaser's throat. Kairi placed a hand on Sora's shoulder to calm him. His head whipped around to look at Kairi.

"He didn't do anything to me, Sora," Kairi said, panting slightly. Her heart was racing from the rush of Xanthos memories. "I accidentally saw flashes of his memories through Naminé." Xanthos stared at her. Kairi looked up at him and saw a tear forming in his left eye. Then she realized that he was seeing everything Naminé was seeing. Kairi felt bad for Xanthos. Xanthos sneezed loudly and wiped his eyes.

"Ugh, allergies," he pulled out a tissue and used it to wipe his nose as he looked at Sora. "See Spiky? I didn't do anything to your Princess." Xanthos dropped the tissue and a burst of fire consumed it before it touched the ground. "Anyway, have I proven to you that I am the genuine article, Master Yen Sid?" Xanthos turned his head to look at the sorcerer. Yen Sid glanced at Mickey and nodded.

"Yes, Master Xanthos," he said as he ran his hand through his beard again. "I believe that you are indeed a Chaser. And as such, I ask that you administer the second half of the Mark of Mastery Exam to Sora and Riku." Sora's and Riku's heads whipped around to stare at Yen Sid. Xanthos grinned.

"It would be my pleasure," the Chaser bowed low to Yen Sid. "But this place isn't appropriate for what I have planned." Xanthos waved his hands and a bright flash of light engulfed them all. For several long seconds, no one could see anything. Then the light faded.

Sora blinked hard trying to clear the spots in his vision. After a few seconds he could see again and he looked around at their surroundings. They were standing on a flat plain that stretched on for countless miles in every direction. Around them, hundreds of thousands of Keyblades, ancient, rusted and battle-worn were embedded into the ground. Four large paths had been left between the Keyblade remains and intersect several miles in the distance. A plateau, divided into a lower side and higher side, stood near the center of the crossroad. Craters dotted the land here and there. In the distance a huge hole had been blasted through a mountain.

Sora, Kairi and Riku stared in solemn amazement at the Keyblades that covered the plain. Xanthos stood several yards from them in the center of the crossroads. Yen Sid and Mickey barely glanced around as they walked towards him. Kairi nudged Sora and tilted her head towards the Masters. Sora looked at Xanthos, who was gesturing at the Keyblades.

"This is where most of the fighting during the Keyblade War took place," Xanthos lowered his hand. "Hundreds of thousands of Keyblades are embedded in the ground here as a testament to those who died for a war that shouldn't have been fought. This world is the Keyblade Graveyard."

Sora and Kairi both felt shivers run up their spines. Kairi rubbed her arms as goosebumps formed. Xanthos gave them a moment to absorb that information before holding his hand, palm up, to Sora and Riku.

"Spiky, Silver, come here." Sora and Riku both glared daggers at Xanthos for giving them nicknames. Riku's face flushed slightly when he heard Mickey and Kairi trying to conceal their laughter at his nickname. Sora and Riku walked over to where Xanthos stood. The Chaser lowered his hand and stared at the two examinees.

"For the second part of your Mark of Mastery Exam you will demonstrate your teamwork in the heat of battle against a powerful adversary." Sora and Riku grinned at each other, both of them remembering taking down Xemnas. This exam was going to a piece of cake.

"What do we have to fight?" Riku asked enthusiastically. Xanthos chuckled as the Oblivion Keyblade appeared in his left hand. He spun it twice and held it across his chest.

"Not a what, but a who. You fight me." Xanthos leapt backwards and at least a hundred feet into the air. He flipped midair and floated gracefully down to the lower side of the plateau before turning and running vertically up the side of the higher plateau. "Come on, don't just stand there!" Xanthos shouted to them from the highest point of the plateau. Sora glanced at Riku.

"Let's do this," Riku said confidently as he and Sora summoned their Keyblades. Sora grabbed Riku's forearm and leapt into the air. In a matter of seconds, Sora had flown them to the top of the plateau. They landed softly and both readied themselves to attack, but there was no sign of Xanthos.

"Where'd he go?" Sora asked. Riku shrugged but didn't let his guard down.

"I smell a trap," Riku said, his eyes darting back and forth as he and Sora circled each other until their backs were all but pressed together. Sora raised an eyebrow.

"You can SMELL a trap?" he asked sarcastically. "Are you half blood hound or something?" Riku rolled his eyes.

"Don't make me throw you off the edge, smart-ass."

"I'll just drag you with me. You know that. Also, I can fly and you can't." Sora turned his head and stuck his tongue out at his silver-haired friend. Riku shook his head.

"Just stay alert," he said. "This guy could be anywhere." The words had barely left his mouth when at least twenty Xanthos clones surrounded them, each appearing out of nowhere. Riku cursed under his breath. Sora grinned.

"Or everywhere," Sora said as the Xanthos clones each created their own set of bright blue Ethereal Blades. "Do you want the ones on my right or the ones on your right?" Riku thought about it for a moment.

"The ones on your right."

"Why my right? What's wrong with the ones on your right?"

"Nothing, they're all the same."

"Then what's the difference?"

"Simple: Last time I chose an option that was on my right, I was lost for a week and a half in a labyrinth filled with Heartless and Nobodies, no light, food or water. You do the math." Sora turned his head to look at Riku.

"When did this happen?"

"I'll tell you later, when we're not trying to pass an exam."

"Sounds fair."

The Xanthos clones all attacked in unison, each rushing the two teens silently. Sora and Riku each rolled to their respective lefts. Riku exited his roll and kicked one clone in the stomach, sending it stumbling over the plateau's edge. He spun on his heel and brought the Way to Dawn to deflect a pair of Ethereal Blades, knocking their owner off balance.

Riku took advantage of the opening the clone presented him with and thrust upwards with the Way to Dawn, slicing the clone in half from its crotch to its left shoulder.

_Like slicing through mist. _Riku observed as he swung his Keyblade back down to behead the clone before it vanished into black vapor. He rolled out of the way as a pair of Ethereal Blades streaked towards his head. He leapt back to his feet and hurled the Way to Dawn like a javelin, impaling the nearest clone. Grinning, he ran to the clone and grabbed his Keyblade from its chest, ripping it up and through the clone's shoulder area. As the clone collapsed and began to turn into black vapor, Riku jumped up and used what was left of its physical body to propel himself ten feet into the air.

_Piece of cake._

_LD_

Sora sidestepped another downwards slash from his first clone. He was having too much fun taunting the clones by dodging and making them run into each other. Two clones ran at him from either side, both pointing their Ethereal Blades at his head. Sora paused and at the last second, jumped high into the air to avoid the attacks. Below him, the two clones stabbed each other and exploded into black vapor. Sora grinned as he landed and sliced the head off the nearest clone.

Sora spared a glance over at Riku. His silver-haired friend was doing exceptionally well, tearing his way through clone after clone. Riku was so immersed in the three clones in front of him, he didn't see the clone behind him.

Sora's eyes widened in shock as the Ethereal Blades wielded by the clone descended towards the back of Riku's neck.

Sora grunted and kicked away a clone that attempted to strike him. Sora drew his arm back and sent his Oblivion Keyblade spinning towards Riku.

_LD_

Riku slashed down two of the three clones effortlessly but the third one kept leaping and rolling out of the way. As it rolled behind him, Riku spun on his heel to prevent it from attacking his blind spot, only to be greeted by the bright blue glow of another clone's Ethereal Blades about to pierce his throat.

Riku froze in shock and braced himself for searing pain, followed by a swift death. The Ethereal Blades were less than an inch from slicing him open when the clone stopped moving. Sora's Oblivion Keyblade jutted out of the clone's side for a moment before vanishing in a flash of light and reappearing in Sora's hand across the plateau in time for him to cut through a clone's waist.

"Thanks, buddy!" Riku shouted as he stabbed an attacking clone and punched another in the face. The clone stumbled backwards and fell off the plateau's edge. Riku smiled sinisterly when he heard the satisfying sound of the clone crashing into the ground.

_LD_

Sora grinned at his friend's thanks. He ducked under a clone's slash and cut its legs out from underneath it. He swung the Oblivion up and parried another pair of Ethereal Blades. Sora grinned as the five clones he had left to deal with quickly circled him.

"Firaga," Sora said as the five clones lunged in for a group attack. A ring of fire surrounded Sora and shredded through the clones, reducing them to nothing more than a cloud of black vapor. He watched as Riku squared off against the last two clones on his side. One clone went for a wide, sweeping slash which Riku easily dodged. The clone exploded into vapor. Riku continued his attack and quickly cut down the last clone. Riku sighed with relief and began walking over to Sora.

"Well that was ex-" he began, but was cut off as the stone below them trembled violently. A column of stone burst from the plateau and knocked Riku twenty feet into the air. Riku gasped for air as the breath was knocked from his lungs. The stone pillar exploded and the real Xanthos burst out. Riku desperately attempted to raise a guard in time, but Xanthos' strike knocked Riku down onto the plateau. Riku crashed into the stone hard and rolled off the plateau's edge.

"Riku!" Sora shouted in shock. He ran towards the plateau edge where Riku had fallen from only to be stopped by Xanthos briefly flashing into existence and striking at Sora before turning invisible again. Sora rolled out of the way and struck at where Xanthos had been a split second before.

Sora grinned in satisfaction as Xanthos reappeared with a grunt of pain. Sora swung horizontally at the Chaser's waist. Xanthos leapt up and over Sora's Keyblade. He slashed down at the spiky haired teen. Sora leapt to the side to avoid being struck. Sora rolled and leapt back to his feet in time to see Xanthos' Oblivion Keyblade swinging towards his chest. Sora hastily raised his weapon to block. His Oblivion Keyblade collided with Xanthos' and was knocked from Sora's hands. The force of the Chaser's strike forced Sora to stumble backwards and fall flat on his back. Xanthos' hand lashed out and caught the Sora's Oblivion. He stood, looming over Sora and raising both Oblivion Keyblades over his head to strike the spiky-haired teen.

Sora grinned cockily and held his hand out towards Xanthos to summon his Oblivion back to his hands. Xanthos smiled sympathetically at Sora and slashed down.

_LD_

Kairi, Mickey and Yen Sid all watched in horror as Riku fell from the plateau spinning head over heels as he plummeted towards the hard ground a thousand feet below.

"No!" Mickey and Kairi cried out in unison. Mickey looked up at Yen Sid, asking with his eyes what they should do. Yen Sid smiled and pointed up at the falling teen.

"We can do nothing, Mickey. This is their test, and they must pass it without our help or guidance." Mickey followed Yen Sid's finger and saw that Riku was now falling feet first and drawing back his Keyblade. The three of them watched as the silver-haired boy plunged his Keyblade into the rock face, slowing his descent until he came to a stop about a third of the way down. Kairi and Mickey both cheered and whistled.

"Go, Riku!" Kairi shouted.

"Nice save!" Mickey yelled. Riku glanced down at them and gave them the thumbs up. He began swinging back and forth, building up momentum before he flipped up several feet into the air and embedded his Keyblade again in the rock face.

Everyone looked upwards to the top of the plateau, hidden from their view as Sora let out a terrible cry of pain. Kairi's and Mickey's eyes widened in fear. Riku looked upwards in shock and began swinging harder to build up momentum for his next leap quicker.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out worriedly. Destiny's Embrace flashed into her hand and she charged towards the plateau. Mickey tried to grab her but Yen Sid held him back. When Mickey looked up quizzically at the sorcerer, Yen Sid pointed to the air in front of Kairi. Mickey looked back around in time to see Kairi collide with an invisible barrier.

"I just said, we cannot interfere, even if we wanted to," Yen Sid told her. Kairi looked sadly up at the plateau and her Keyblade vanished in a flash of light.

"Sora," she whispered, her voice heavy with worry.

_LD_

Sora stared in shock at the twin cuts running across his chest. Then he looked at his hands. His Keyblade still hadn't returned to him.

_What the-_

Sora willed the Oblivion to jump from Xanthos' hand to his own, but nothing happened. Sora tried again and again but nothing happened. Xanthos sighed.

"Did you forget that the Chasers make the Keyblade?" he asked Sora. "I doubt you did. So here's another lesson about Chasers. There were other reasons why we were hunted down during the War. It wasn't only to open Kingdom Hearts; we were feared.

"We could create Keyblades, and if we managed to take a Keyblade from another Wielder, that Wielder wouldn't be able to get it back unless we stopped holding onto it." Sora's eyes widened in a mixture of realization and fear. "We were only hunted down to open Kingdom Hearts after both sides persecuted us to the point that barely a hundred of us were left for them to hunt. You can keep trying to summon your Keyblade back, but it won't listen to you." Xanthos hefted Sora's Oblivion in his right hand and stared at it. "Besides, I'm the Chaser who forged the Oblivion Keyblades." Sora's mouth dropped. "Do you really think it'll listen to your summons when its creator is wielding it?"

Sora couldn't believe his ears. Then he got an idea. Slowly, he picked himself up and held his hand out towards Xanthos again. Xanthos rolled his eyes.

"Didn't you listen to what I just said?" he asked. Sora nodded.

"Yeah, I did," he said as a smile crept onto his face. "But you seem to have forgotten something yourself." Xanthos raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm the Keyblade's Chosen One, remember?" Sora's Oathkeeper Keyblade appeared in his right hand as the Oblivion appeared in his left hand in a flash of light. Xanthos stared, dumbfounded, for a moment before looking down at his right hand. It was empty.

"Impossible," Xanthos said, looking from his empty hand to the Oblivion in Sora's hand. Behind him, Riku had reached the top of the plateau again, panting.

"Alright, you" he gasped as he stood up straight and pulled his Keyblade back. "Let's see how you like falling off a cliff."

"Technically it's a plateau," Xanthos said. His right hand was bathed in a flash of light as a dark blue Keyblade, decorated with a stopwatch style design at the tip and spiked teeth connected by a black web structure, with a blade that was made of the same energy as Xanthos' Ethereal Blades and an hourglass Keychain appeared. The No Name. Riku glanced back and forth between Xanthos and Sora.

"Um, either of you got a spare Keyblade I can use?" Riku asked a little nervously. "I feel a little outgunned." Xanthos glanced at Sora. Sora tossed Riku the Oblivion and summoned the Kingdom Key to his left hand to replace it. Riku caught the Oblivion and spun it twice in his left hand before shifting his stance to strike.

"Bring it," Xanthos said as he aimed a Keyblade at Sora and Riku each. Sora and Riku rushed in for the attack. Keyblades clashed rapidly and sparks flew on the air. Xanthos parried all of their attacks, fending both of them off with one hand each. His Keyblades became blurs and none of Sora's or Riku's attacks could break through. This pattern lasted for several minutes, with neither side giving ground.

Finally, Riku managed to land a hit against Xanthos' leg by feinting and ducking under the No Name as it slashed at where Riku's chest had been a second before. Xanthos grunted in surprise and pain, which broke his guard against Sora, who swung both of his Keyblades into Xanthos' side. Xanthos gasped in pain and stumbled backwards, trying to recover from the blows he had taken but was hard pressed to as Sora and Riku continued their onslaught.

Riku went for Xanthos' legs as Sora went for his upper body. Xanthos stumbled backwards and promptly stepped right off the plateau's edge. Sora and Riku rushed to the edge to try to grab him but they were too late. Xanthos fell head first towards the ground. The pair watched as Xanthos closed his eyes and his Keyblades vanished in a flash of white light. Sora and Riku then did something they never imagined doing in a fight against an opponent who seemed to have given up. They jumped.

As they fell, they kept their eyes and Xanthos who had a decent start of at least two hundred feet if not more. Sora grabbed Riku and used his ability to fly to increase their speed. They caught up to Xanthos in a matter of moments, but as the pair reached out to grab him, he vanished into thin air and reappeared standing on the ground five hundred feet or so below them, smiling up at the two flying teens.

Sora set them down on the ground near the rock face of the plateau. He and Riku summoned their Keyblades back to them and raised their guards. Xanthos smiled at them. He raised his eyes to look just above their heads and raised his hands. Sora and Riku lowered their Keyblades slightly, looking at the Chaser confusedly. Xanthos clenched his hands into fists and quickly pulled them back towards his chest. A deep rumbling noise began to sound behind them.

"That's not a good sound," Sora said as he and Riku looked at each other. The pair turned their heads to look behind them. Thousands up on thousands of cracks were beginning to form all across the plateau. A man-sized chunk of stone fell from high above them and landed several feet away from Riku, shattering into a hundred pieces.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Riku asked exasperatedly as the plateau collapsed in a roar. Hundreds of thousands of chunks of stone rained around them, ranging in size from dust to capable of flattening a house. "RUN!"

Sora and Riku broke out into a flat out run towards Xanthos and away from the base of the collapsing plateau. Xanthos summoned his Keyblades back to his hands and charged into the rain of stone with a wild laugh. Sora leapt onto a large stone that was slowly leveling itself out, he winced slightly as pain shot through the wounds on his chest before he ran up along it at an angle. He had a clear shot at Xanthos, so he aimed his Keyblade and sent a bolt of lightning hurtling towards the Chaser. Xanthos grinned and leapt up onto a falling rock to avoid it. Sora's lightning attack harmlessly stuck a falling boulder.

Riku smashed his way through one stone and rolled under another, barely managing to avoid being crushed. He struck at Xanthos as the Chaser landed next to him. Xanthos easily deflected Riku's attack and the pair quickly leapt from each other in time to avoid a house sized chunk of stone struck the ground where they had been a split second before. Riku watched from the ground as Xanthos leapt from stone to stone into the air, laughing at him.

Riku let out a growl and followed Xanthos' lead and leapt from stone to stone up into the sky, pursuing the Chaser. Sora leapt high and quickly flew himself through the falling rubble. He shattered a stone that Xanthos had been about to land on as he flew past. Xanthos' eyes widened in surprise and fell several yards. Riku leapt from stone to stone quickly as the Chaser crashed into one stone after another, struggling to right himself as he flipped head over heels. Riku chuckled at Xanthos' misfortune.

He quickly caught up to him and lashed out at the Xanthos' exposed back. Unfortunately for Riku, a falling stone intercepted his strike and Xanthos heard the sound of metal striking stone as the Way to Dawn shattered the stone. Xanthos flipped around and swung at Riku with the No Name. Riku deflected it easily and leapt off the stone he was on to avoid Xanthos' next strike with the Oblivion. Riku hurled Sora's Oblivion at towards Xanthos' head like a javelin. The Chaser smiled as if he was amused and knocked the Oblivion out of the way with his own. Riku watched as Sora's Oblivion Keyblade vanished in a flash of light.

Sora watched as Xanthos disappeared into the hail of stone after Riku attempted to hit him with his Oblivion. Sora glanced up. A cluster of small, dangerously sharp stones was falling directly towards Riku and the silver-haired teen didn't seem to notice. Sora knew he wouldn't reach him in time, so he aimed his Keyblade at his friend and focused on the protection Light offered from anything that meant harm.

"Reflect!" Sora shouted. A tiny ball streaked from the Oathkeeper's tip and collided with Riku. The light expanded rapidly, encasing Riku in an orb made of several hexagons of light. The stones crashed into Sora's Reflect spell and disintegrated into dust instantly. Riku looked around him in mild surprise

"Thanks!" Riku shouted to Sora over the deafening sound of stone crashing into stone. Sora grinned and ducked out of the way of another stone that nearly knocked him in his head. Riku slashed left and right through the stone as the pieces slowly began to become fewer. Sora and Riku grinned at each other as they saw the largest chunk of the plateau heading rapidly towards them. Both of them drew back their Keyblades and prepared to slice their way through it.

Then the stone split in half as Xanthos sliced his way through from the other side. Xanthos lashed out at Sora but Riku leapt from the stone he had been riding on and deflected the attack. Sora aimed his Keyblade at the stones over Xanthos' head.

"Graviga!" he shouted. Sora grabbed Riku and yanked him out of way as hundreds of rocks went speeding downwards at a high velocity because Sora had increased the gravitational pull on them. Xanthos swung his Keyblades wildly, attempting to deflect the stone, and quickly vanished from sight in a cloud of dust and stone.

"Thanks for the distraction, buddy," Sora said as he and Riku high fived.

"Any time, man" Riku said with a grin. Sora floated them down as the last of the stones crashed to the ground. Sora grabbed Riku by the arm and set them down. Mickey and Kairi cheered, whooped and hollered from beyond the barrier. There was a long moment while they waited for the dust to settle. They stood back to back with their Keyblades raised, ready for a sneak attack. It never came. When the dust finally settled enough to see around them, Xanthos was lying face down several feet from where they stood. The pair walked over to him and stared down.

"So, did we pass?" Riku asked with a grin. Sora couldn't help smiling as well.

"Yes, you passed the second half of your Mark of Mastery Exam," said Xanthos from behind Sora and Riku. The teens spun around. The Chaser was standing behind them, brushing dust off of the shoulders of his cloak. Sora and Riku looked back at the Xanthos lying face down. That Xanthos was gone, all that remained was a small cloud of black vapor.

"We were fighting a clone!" Riku exclaimed angrily. Xanthos laughed.

"Hardly. You fought the real me up until Sora decided to bring down the remaining stones on my head. So I made a clone and switched places with it," Xanthos walked between the teens and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "Good fight, you two."

As Xanthos walked over to where Mickey and Yen Sid remained standing, Kairi ran over to Sora and Riku. She gave Riku a brief hug before turning to her boyfriend and getting to work on healing the two cuts Xanthos had left. Green tendrils of light flowed from her fingertips and wound their way into the wounds. Sora let out a hiss of pain as the green light pulled the dirt and dust from the wounds before slowly sealing them shut. After a few minutes, the only traces of the wounds were two faint pink lines running across his chest.

After making sure the wounds were completely healed, Kairi tackled Sora in a hug and locked her lips tightly with his. Sora grunted in pain as all of his muscles began screaming at him. Kairi immediately backed off.

"Oh my god," she said worriedly, clasping her hands over her mouth. "I didn't hurt you did I?" Sora chuckled, and coughed when the chuckling caused his chest to hurt.

"Don't worry, Kairi," he said, taking in a slow deep breath. "You didn't do it on purpose, my muscles are just killing me. It takes a lot of effort to smash through stone." Kairi chuckled and kissed Sora again, this time more gently. Riku rolled his eyes.

"How's Naminé?" Riku asked. Kairi broke away from the kiss to look at Riku.

"Now that I think about it," Kairi said, placing a hand on her chin. "I haven't heard from her and I haven't gotten any flashes from inside-" She was cut off as Naminé's voice echoed loudly in all three of their heads.

_You might want to make a path!_ Sora and Riku looked at Kairi in confusion.

"What did she mean by 'make a path'?" Sora asked Kairi hesitantly. Kairi shrugged.

"I have no-" She was cut off as Xanthos let out a cry of shock and pain. He collapsed to his knees and began coughing violently. A bright orb of golden light shot out of his back and zoomed straight for Kairi. Before anyone could react, the orb of light passed through Kairi's chest and emerged from her back. Kairi let out a gasp of surprise as she was lifted several inches off of the ground and hurled back half a dozen feet.

"Kairi!" Sora and Riku exclaimed in surprise. They both scrambled to their feet and began to run towards the fallen girl. The orb of golden light hung in midair above where Kairi lay. Sora and Riku were barely ten feet away from Kairi when the orb exploded in a blast of pure white light.

Sora and Riku were knocked backwards off of their feet. Mickey and Yen Sid watched in wonder. Xanthos let out another violent cough and wiped the blood that came up with it off on the back of his glove. Sora forced himself to sit up, despite the pain in his body telling him to lie down and quit moving. He couldn't see Kairi through the thick cloud of dust that the blast had created, but he could hear her coughing.

"Jeez, Naminé," Kairi coughed, still obscured from sight by the cloud of dust. "What the hell was that?" Sora felt relieved to hear that Kairi was okay enough to speak.

"How am I supposed to know?" Naminé coughed back in reply. "One minute I'm digging around in Xanthos' memories, then I got into… something, I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it kicked me out of his mind faster than I thought possible." Naminé coughed hard again. Sora stopped walking towards the settling dust cloud.

_Wait a sec. I thought you and Naminé didn't need to breathe, Roxas._

_Yeah._ Roxas replied. _What's your point?_

_My point is, why is Naminé coughing if you two don't need to breathe?_

_Huh. I don't know. Reflex?_

Sora watched as the dust slowly settled. He could make out the silhouettes of two females sitting by each other. Sora sighed in relief and started walking towards Kairi's silhouette.

"Oh my god," Kairi said, staring at Naminé. Everyone stared at Naminé as the dust settled. The blonde looked around at all of them, confused by the looks of surprise on their faces.

"What?" she asked. "You guys are acting like you've never seen me before." Kairi glanced up at Sora in an I-can't-believe-it way. Sora's mouth was hanging open.

_What the fuck?_ Roxas' voice echoed inside Sora's mind. Naminé was glaring now.

"Would someone please tell me what's with all of you?" she asked. Kairi placed her hand on Naminé's shoulder. Naminé looked down at Kairi's hand in surprise at the touch.

"Two things, honey," Kairi said calmly, "One, I have no idea how, but you're not a projection, you're real." Naminé's mouth dropped open. She brought her hand up hesitantly and placed it on Kairi's shoulder. She gasped in surprise when her hand didn't pass through the auburn haired girl's body. She looked at a pebble on the ground next to her. Grinning, she picked it up and hurled it across the landscape.

Naminé leapt to her feet, laughing excitedly. Sora and the others, aside from Kairi, turned their heads to look away, their faces turning slightly pink. Kairi forced back her own laughter.

"Second, you're completely naked." Naminé froze in place for a moment before glancing down at her body in shock. She let out a small scream and quickly hid herself behind a boulder. Everyone laughed at her while Naminé shouted at them to get her some clothes. Sora, feeling sorry for the blonde, began to remove his jacket.

He stopped only as a ball of black clothing zipped past his head and sailed over the boulder Naminé was hiding behind. Naminé sighed in relief from behind the boulder, followed by the sounds of her unfolding the ball of clothes.

"You have got to be kidding me," Naminé said loudly. Sora and the others looked quizzically at the boulder. Naminé stepped out, dressed only in an ankle length black cloak identical to the ones worn by the former Organization XIII and currently being worn by Xanthos.

"Seriously?" Naminé asked Xanthos, gesturing at the cloak she now wore. "One of these? And you didn't even give me pants, or boots, or underwear for that matter." Xanthos smiled at her.

"You're welcome," he said. "But I figure you've got about three seconds before you get more clothing." Naminé glared at him in confusion then gasped as light covered her hands and feet. The light faded quickly and Naminé was suddenly wearing heeled black boots, black gloves that disappeared underneath the sleeves of her cloak and pants. Naminé gave herself a quick once over before raising an eyebrow at Xanthos.

"I still don't have any underwear," she said expectantly. Then she pulled out the front of her cloak and looked down at herself beneath it. "Or a shirt for that matter. Do those take longer to come into existence, or something?" Xanthos laughed.

"Nope. You have to provide your own underwear and your own shirt," he replied after his laughter had died. Naminé groaned. "So that just means you'll have to go commando." Kairi laughed at Naminé. Yen Sid looked over at Xanthos.

"Master Xanthos," Xanthos turned to look back at the sorcerer. "Would you like to shed some light on what just happened?" Xanthos ran a hand through his hair and stared up at the cloudy sky.

"I haven't a clue, to tell you the truth," he said distantly, "But from what she told us, I'd have to say she accessed part of my power I have sealed away and accidentally released it. The resulting surge of energy and power threw her from my mind and sucked away some of my current strength. That's probably why I collapsed.

"Anyway, she attempted to return to the Princess' mind but the power she released inside me attached itself to her and began creating for her a body of her own. I believe that is why she was unable to return to the Princess' mind and instead simply sent her flying." Xanthos shrugged in an I-don't-care sort of way. "But this is all speculation of course. Congratulations on having your own body." Naminé nodded in thanks towards him. Yen Sid cleared his throat loudly, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"We have reached our decision," he announced. Sora and Riku quickly got to their feet and went to stand in front of the three Masters. Mickey looked back and forth between Sora and Riku as the pair stood before them.

"Sora, Riku," He said slowly. "You both performed admirably. And despite losing to Master Xanthos in the second part of the Exam, the pair of you demonstrated exceptional skill." Xanthos nodded in agreement.

"I agree whole heartedly with Mickey," Yen Sid said as he ran a hand through his gray beard. "It has been a long time since I witnessed two Wielders prove they had the same level of talent and determination in the heat of battle as the two of you have." Sora and Riku glanced at each other and grinned encouragingly.

"You both demonstrated the strength of your hearts when you helped each other in the second half of your Exam," Xanthos said. "Very few Masters during the time before the War ever did."

"That being said," Yen Sid continued. "It is with great honor that I say that both of you have shown the Mark of Mastery on this day. Congratulations, you are now both officially Keyblade Masters." Both Sora and Riku stared at Yen Sid for a moment in surprise before shouting victoriously and giving each other a high five.

Behind them, Kairi and Naminé cheered Roxas appeared next to them in a flash of blue light, cheering louder than the others. The trio and ran up to congratulate the new Masters. Kairi and Naminé each gave Sora a hug. Roxas attempted to join in the group hug and, forgetting he was only a spectral image with no physical form, passed right through him. Riku laughed and high fived Mickey. Naminé broke from the hug and turned to Riku to hug him as well. Sora swept Kairi up into his arms and kissed her briefly before Yen Sid called them back to attention.

"As the newest Masters of the Keyblade," He said, looking from Sora to Riku as he spoke. "You shall be given the same two choices presented to all Masters after they display the Mark." Sora and Riku stared back at the sorcerer with quizzical looks. "As a Master, you can either embark on a journey to the worlds, a journey which will open many potential paths to you; or you may choose to take on Apprentices of your own." Sora glanced at Kairi. "Which option do you choose?" There was silence for a few minutes while Sora and Riku considered their options.

"Well," Said Riku, breaking the silence. "I'm going to choose to go out on my own journey." He looked over at Sora. "I want to do what Sora's done for the past couple of years; I want to make more friends and see as many worlds as I can." Yen Sid nodded and looked at Sora.

"What about you, Master Sora?" Yen Sid asked. Sora grinned at being called 'Master Sora'. Sora briefly glanced at Kairi before answering.

"I'm going to choose to take on my own Apprentices," He took Kairi's hand and squeezed it gently. "Starting with Kairi." Kairi smiled at him and squeezed his hand back. Yen Sid smiled at the couple.

"Very well then," He said, bowing his head to the two new Masters. "Master Riku has chosen to traverse the worlds and meet new people and Master Sora has chosen to take on Princess Kairi as his first Apprentice. I wish you both the best of luck and as a final gift;" He snapped his fingers twice. Two Kingdom-class Gummi ships descended from the sky and landed in the small field behind where everyone was standing. "I give you each your own Gummi ship. Congratulations on showing the Mark you two, and may the Light guide you." There was a puff of blue and gray smoke and Yen Sid vanished. Xanthos yawned loudly.

"As much fun as this has been, I do have things to attend to on other worlds," he said as he casually cracked his knuckles. "But I do have some parting gifts for you before I take off." He snapped his fingers and three identical packages wrapped in silver paper appeared in front of Sora, Riku and Kairi.

"Firstly, I'm giving all three of you black cloaks like the one I gave blondie over there," Naminé glared at him. Sora, Kairi and Riku all opened the packages and removed the black cloaks. "The forces of Darkness grow stronger with every passing day. And many of them will attempt to find you and do you harm on many worlds. These cloaks will protect you from most of the dangers of the darkness and I suggest you wear them around beings who are too close to the Darkness for their own good and when visiting new worlds for the first time.

"And I am aware that these cloaks were worn by Organization XIII before they were defeated. But I think you should know that before the War, all Masters were presented with these cloaks upon showing the Mark. So I figure it only suiting." And just like that, without even saying goodbye, Xanthos vanished into thin air. They all stared at where the Chaser had been standing a split second before.

"Aside from the fact that he terrifies the hell out of me, I think he's kind of cool," said Kairi

"Whelp, on that note, I guess I'll be leaving too," Mickey said as she shook Riku's hand. He walked over to Sora and gave him a handshake as well and hugged Kairi goodbye. "But here's my gift to the two of you." He handed Sora and Riku each a journal and a professional digital camera. "So you can document your adventures." Mickey said with a smile.

"Thank you, your Majesty," Sora said. "Say hi to Donald, Goofy and the Queen for us!" Mickey nodded to him and pulled out a small, rectangular box with a blue button. He pressed the button and vanished in a burst of white light. Sora turned to face the others.

"Shall we head home?" he asked them. Kairi and Naminé both nodded. Sora looked at Riku expectantly. Riku hesitated and averted his eyes. Sora cocked his head to one side and crossed his arms. "Riku, what is it?" Riku looked out at the thousands of rocks that now covered the ground where the plateau had once been.

"How can I say goodbye to everyone?" Riku asked. Kairi and Naminé exchanged a glance. Sora looked down at his feet. "We've been gone for over two years and now we've barely been back a month and I'm already setting off again, and I don't know when I'll be back." Sora walked up and placed a hand on Riku's shoulder.

"You aren't going to say goodbye to them," he said. Riku's head whipped around in surprise. "You're going to tell them that you'll see them later. Goodbye is permanent. By saying 'see you later', you make a promise to see them again. That's how you do it." Riku grinned and lightly smacked Sora on the back of his head.

"Come on then," he said as he sprinted towards one of the Gummi ships. Sora grinned and looked back at Kairi and Naminé, who were both smiling before the trio ran for the other ship, laughing as they did so.

_LD_

Maleficent sat on one of the thirteen elevated thrones in the Place Where Nothing Gathers in the Castle That Never Was. Dark gray thorns twisted up the side of her throne and green flames burned on candlesticks encircling the room. She gently petted the top of Diablo's head as the crow cawed contentedly. She stared at the man sitting on the throne opposite of hers. The green flames from the candles cast eerie shadows and obscured the man mostly from view. The only part of him Maleficent could properly see was the rose he held in his right hand as the roses petals seemed to glow faintly in the dim light.

"I must say, that is quite a story, Maleficent," the man said. "But few can say they've died and come back to tell the tale." Maleficent's eyes narrowed.

"If you had been there to help us, Creed," Maleficent spat, her voice like acid. "Then we would've taken Kingdom Hearts with ease. That insolent brat and his friends wouldn't have been able to stop us!" Maleficent was shouting now. Her anger was only spurred on when she saw Creed's smile through the shadows. The man was laughing at her.

"The past is past, Maleficent," he said casually as he twirled his rose in his hands. "Besides, I was too busy fighting Chronos. If they knew what I had planned with you then, they would've fought harder against me and my Apostles of the Star." Maleficent glared at Creed.

"Did you even manage to convince The Black Cat to join you so we could use him in our plan?" Maleficent asked. Creed's smile vanished instantly. Maleficent knew she had hit a nerve. "So you failed." It was a statement, not a question. Creed continued to frown at her.

"I didn't fail," Creed said slowly. Maleficent shivered slightly at the malevolence in Creed's voice. "The Heartless you left behind on my World finally found the Keyhole and took the World's heart before I had the chance to convince him. But I digress, what is your new plan seeing as how your last went all to hell?"

Maleficent glared at Creed, who was smiling again. But she couldn't help but smile now. She had been planning this for weeks, even before Pete had nearly gotten them killed in the digital copy of the journal kept by the mouse king's chronicler.

"It's actually quite wonderful, Creed," she said as she ran a hand over the green orb on her scepter. "I have an army of Heartless lying in wait with numbers that will overwhelm anyone who dares oppose me!" Maleficent let out a long, maniacal laugh. "And that's all I can tell you Creed. No offense but I don't entirely trust you." It was Creed's turn to laugh.

"My dear, Maleficent," he said, leaning from the shadows so Maleficent could see him clearly. "You may not trust me or my Apostles now, but soon you will. I already have to Apostles hiding in plain sight on the home world of the Keyblade Wielder whom you despise so much." Maleficent stared at Creed, surprised at his words. "And with my help, you will soon have your revenge you crave so much."

Maleficent grinned. Soon, Sora would suffer by her hand. She began to laugh, quietly at first but it quickly grew to a sinister cackle. She even knew exactly how to make him suffer before she killed him. Maleficent stared into the green orb on her scepter where she could see the ghostly image of a young teenage girl with auburn hair and violet-blue eyes holding hands with the spiky-haired boy Maleficent hated above all others.

_LD _

* * *

_The mystery deepens; just who are the Apostles of the Star? I absolutely loved writing this chapter and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. Reviews are greatly appreciated as I would very much like to read your opinion and any theories you might have. On a side note; with the release of the North American version of Re:Coded, I have updated the dialogue between Mickey and Yen Sid in Chapter Five. _

_Side note #2: I'm really sorry about how long it took me to update but I promise I'll be more frequent now that life has settled down. _

_-Shadow Horizons_


	7. The Apostles of the Star

_Hello again,_

_As this is my second chapter update of the evening, I don't have much to say this time other than to thank Ragnarok Warrior, janus-juan, Linkandzel, and Hercules3000 for reviewing last month._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or the characters from Black Cat. I do however own my own plots, ideas and characters._

_Enjoy!_

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Seven: The Apostles of the Star

_Wednesday, May 26__th__ 4794 P.C._

The streets of Fatum were abnormally crowded for a Wednesday afternoon on Destiny Islands. People from all three islands; Exin, Eve and Illa crowded the streets, chatting with one another loudly over the background noise of other conversations. They walked from shop to shop, eating ice cream or sipping on tea, nearly everyone laden down with numerous shopping bags.

The ferries were out en masse, shuttling the citizens of Destiny Islands around from island to island. Jenos Hazard couldn't help but feel out of place as he stepped off of the ferry _Poseidon's Grace_. He was dressed in black dress pants and shoes, a purple dress shirt that was had the top tree buttons open, exposing the numeral _VII_ tattooed on the right side of his chest, and a black suit jacket. Most of the citizen's were dressed in shorts or skirts and sleeveless shirts. His caramel eyes darted from person to person behind the amethyst colored lenses of his sunglasses. Everyone around him was noticing him.

Jenos couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable. The second rule of being a Number meant staying inconspicuous. The first was to get the job done as swiftly as possible and on the first try. No mistakes allowed. He looked down at the picture in his hand. A teenage boy with spiky caramel colored hair and eyes as blue as the ocean had his arms around an auburn haired girl with violet-blue eyes. Both of them were smiling at the camera warmly. Jenos felt his mind wander as he began to wonder how the higher-ups in Chronos managed to get a hold of things like this. He shook his head and continued to ignore the increasingly curious looks he was receiving from the locals.

"How the hell am I supposed to find two teens in a city full of them?" Jenos mumbled under his breath as he stuffed the photo on the inside of his jacket. He began looking around at the people in the crowd. "Now, who should I ask first?"

He immediately spotted a woman in her early twenties. She was tall, thin, golden hair, sparkling hazel eyes, and wearing a mini-skirt and bikini top. Jenos grinned and moved quickly towards the woman.

"Excuse me, miss!" he called out as he neared her. The woman let out a scream as she turned and saw Jenos moving swiftly towards her. She produced a can of pepper spray seemingly from nowhere and blasted Jenos in the eyes with it. Jenos let out a cry of pain and collapsed to the ground, clutching his hands over his eyes.

"No means no!" the woman shouted. Then she kicked Jenos in his family jewels and watched him crumple over groaning in pain. The woman stormed off. Several people laughed at Jenos and continued on with their daily business.

Several minutes (and eye rinsing sessions at a public restroom sink) later, Jenos walked out of a convenience shop with a bottle of eye drops. He quickly applied the drops and blinked out the excess before looking around for someone else to ask. He spotted a brunette in her mid-thirties wearing short-shorts and a low cut, sleeveless top.

"Excuse me, miss," Jenos called out to her, casually walking up to her as he pulled the photo from his jacket. "I was wondering if you-" he never got to finish. The woman brought her leg up in a swift kick and slammed her toes into the fork of Jenos' legs. Jenos crumpled to the ground whimpering softly. He heard several women laughing and a few men sympathizing with him.

_This is going to be a long day…_ He realized.

_LD_

_Monday, May 31st_

Sora, Kairi and Naminé ran up the boarding ramp to Sora's new Gummi ship, laughing hysterically. Sora let Kairi and Naminé pass him before pressing a button next to the ramp, causing it to rise back into place. Sora grinned at the familiar sounds of pistons hissing and the clanking sound of the ramp being secured and the edges surrounding it made air tight once again. He turned around and looked down the long hallway. He sighed contentedly at the sight of the familiar pale blues of the walls and the slightly darker red carpeting.

He followed Kairi and Naminé down the hall as they insisted on peering into every room they passed. Sora chuckled as the two girls started bouncing decorating ideas off of each other. He squeezed past them and walked to the middle of the hall. He turned up the stairs that were situated there, pressing the button to turn on all of the ship's lights. He emerged from the staircase into the domed cockpit. Sora smiled at the sight of the blinking lights and readouts lining the panels on the front end of the cockpit.

He walked over to the pilot's seat and quickly checked the major systems. All lights were green, the energy readout showed that the ship was at full power, all weapons systems were online, the engines were primed and ready for takeoff and the shield generators were at a full charge. Sora grinned and looked at the steering wheel. The word _Kingdom_ was written in gold lettering across the middle of the wheel.

Sora let out a small gasp of surprise. This was the ship he, Donald and Goofy had flown during their adventures. Sora looked around the cockpit, taking in the familiar sights he had overlooked before. There was the comfy-looking tan couch with the scorch marks on one end from when he had accidentally set the stove on fire and he and Goofy ended up using the couch to put out the fire when they couldn't find the fire extinguisher. Sora chuckled at the memory.

On one side of the couch was a mini-fridge that Goofy always kept stocked with orange soda. Why orange soda, Sora doubted he would ever know. There was the different colored floor panel from the time Donald decided to juggle the chairs using magic and dropped them all on the same floor panel, snapping the panel into a dozen pieces.

Kairi and Naminé came up the stairs after a few minutes. Sora gave them a quick tour of the cockpit and shared some of his favorite stories of times he, Donald and Goofy had spent on the ship.

"This is actually pretty awesome," Naminé said as she examined the targeting system for the weapons system. "I've never actually gotten to fly before." She sat down in the chair closest to her. Kairi grinned.

"It's awesome, Naminé," she said as she threw herself onto the couch. "I mean, I've only been one of these things before and that was when Sora rescued me from Hollow Bastion and flew me back to Traverse Town so I'd be safe." Sora smiled warmly at her. Kairi grinned and blew him a kiss. Naminé rolled her eyes. Sora pressed a couple of buttons and a hologram projector rose in the center of the room. He walked over to it and crossed his arms as the words _Connecting: Please wait_ flashed in blue above the projector.

The words vanished and were replaced by an image of Riku walking around the cockpit of his ship, which was nearly identical to the _Kingdom_'s cockpit except Riku's ship didn't have a couch or mini fridge, muttering to himself. Sora cleared his throat. The hologram of Riku spun around.

"Hey, you three," he said cheerily as he sat down in one of the chairs on his ship and spun it to face his hologram projector. "What's up?"

"I'm just double checking the equipment over here to make sure this thing's ready to fly," Sora said with a shrug as he walked over to a computer set into the wall of equipment by the pilot's chair. "That and testing the COMM system to make sure that it works." Sora pressed a button next to the computer and a list of worlds he, Donald and Goofy had been to appeared on the computer monitor along with the estimated travel time. Sora scrolled through the list of worlds and selected Destiny Islands. The travel time was going to be about fourteen and a half hours.

"Well, we know our COMM systems work when we're parked right next to each other," Riku said with mild sarcasm in his voice. Sora glanced behind him at the hologram projection of his silver haired friend.

"Obviously," Sora retorted. Riku rolled his eyes. Kairi and Naminé both laughed at the two boys. "You ready to go, dude?" Riku nodded.

"You know it," he said, giving Sora the thumbs up. "All systems are green and I'm taking off. See you three back at the Islands." Outside of the cockpit came the roar of engines bursting to life. Riku's Gummi lifted itself about ten or so feet off of the ground before zooming off into the cloud filled sky of the Keyblade Graveyard. Sora looked around at Kairi and Naminé.

"You girls ready?" Sora asked. Kairi nodded and quickly walked over to the seat in front of the computer filled with the world coordinates and buckled herself in. Naminé grinned excitedly. She was practically bursting with excitement as she strapped herself in. Sora and Kairi both laughed as the blonde's grin grew wider and wider as Sora sat down and snapped his seatbelt across his waist. Sora flipped three switches above the steering wheel and the ship shook slightly as the engines came to life. Sora checked the readouts on the monitor next to the steering wheel. They were good to go.

"Blast off in three," he said. Naminé gripped the armrests of her chair excitedly. "Two," Sora pulled a lever on the ground by his feet and the Gummi ship floated into the air, hovering off of the ground. "One. Blast off!" Sora pressed his thumb onto the throttle and the _Kingdom_ rocketed off into the sky.

The three of them were forced into the backs of their seats by the gravity of the world attempting to pull them back down for several minutes before the _Kingdom_ broke free of the Keyblade Graveyard's atmosphere and set out into open space. The moment they were free of the world's gravitational pull, Sora pressed the autopilot button, undid his seatbelt and got up. Kairi and Naminé leaned in to watch as the onboard computer system took over the flying and plotted a course for the Destiny Islands. Sora walked over to the couch and collapsed on it, finally feeling the fatigue of fighting Xanthos during the Mark of Mastery exam. Sora couldn't help grinning.

_Master Sora. I can get used to being called that._

_Or maybe you'd like to hear Kairi call you Master._ Roxas chimed in. Sora got the mental image of Roxas giving him a look that said Give-it-a-shot-dude. Sora's cheeks turned pink at the idea.

_Kairi isn't like that._ Sora said. _She's too-_

_Pure?_ Roxas suggested. _Dude, you have no idea. Naminé's told me some of what Kairi's thoughts have been from time to time. Trust me dude. She isn't as "pure" as you think._ Sora felt slightly nervous at the thought.

_Are you trying to tell me that Kairi isn't a virgin?_ Sora couldn't help but ask. Roxas laughed at him.

_Wow, dude. You read a little bit too much into what I said. I didn't mean "pure" as in her virginity. I meant pure as in she has VERY dirty thoughts from time to time._ That barely had an impact on the speed Sora's heart was beating. Roxas could feel Sora's anxiety. _Look dude, Naminé told me that Kairi's still a virgin. So don't get your panties in a bunch. Secondly, and you're gonna love this, she's saving herself specifically for you._

Sora instantly felt better, and he couldn't help smiling as Kairi undid her seatbelt and came over to sit next to him on the couch. Sora sat up so she'd have more room. Kairi sat down next to him, took his hand and intertwined her fingers with his. Sora smiled and kissed the top of her head as she leaned in to use his shoulder as a pillow.

_I think I see what you mean, Roxas._

_Well, I should hope so. Otherwise you're just another hopeless case._ Sora rolled his eyes. He glanced down at Kairi, who was already asleep. Sora chuckled softly and laid his head back to catch some shut eye himself.

_LD_

After thirteen hours of uneventful flying, during which only Naminé stayed awake, the _Kingdom_'s World Proximity Alert blared to life, jolting Sora from a blissful dream of sharing a Paopu fruit with Kairi in their Secret Place at sunset. Sora grumbled as he got to his feet and walked over to the pilot's seat. He sat down and looked out of the dome of the cockpit at deep ocean blue orb that was Destiny Islands as it quickly grew larger and larger until it completely filled the space in front of the _Kingdom_. The COMM system crackled with a bit of static as Riku's voice filled the cockpit.

"Hey Sora, where should we land these ships? We don't want to stir up a mass panic by landing in the middle of town," he said. Sora considered this. He checked the clock on the monitor next to the steering wheel. It was 9:47 P.M. Sora grabbed a headset from a compartment just above the wheel and slipped it on.

"How about we put them in orbit and use the Warp System to reach the surface?" Sora suggested. "And we'll just tell the WS to send us onto the beach so no one will see us appear from nowhere and freak the hell out."

"Sounds good to me," Riku's voice said. "See you three down there." There was a faintly audible click as Riku cut the transmission. Sora pressed the autopilot button again, giving manual control back to him. He brought the _Kingdom_ closer to the world until the monitor began to flash, "In Orbit". Sora pressed another button labeled "Maintain Orbit". He released the steering wheel and felt the ship slowly come to a stop. Satisfied, Sora got to his feet and turned to face Kairi and Naminé.

"Alright," he said, grinning broadly. "Let's go." He led the girls back down the staircase and into the hallway that ran the length of the ship. He turned right and took the first door they reached. They descended down a long, spiral staircase and emerged in a room with three doors. The door directly opposite of them was made of steel, had a small computer set into the wall next to it and was labeled "Airlock". The other two doors, each opposite of the other, were labeled "Engine Room" and "Warp System". Sora led them through the "Warp System" door and into a small dark room. He flicked on the light switch and the room blazed to life.

There was a large holographic screen suspended in midair a few feet from the door. Behind it were five man-sized, stainless steel chambers with glass doors that were open. Each chamber was connected to a series of small tubes that ran behind the chambers and connected with a pulsating red crystal that was at least seven feet tall. Kairi and Naminé stared at the room in mild surprise. Sora laughed at their expressions and walked up to the holographic screen. He began typing in where they wanted to be warped to.

"This is pretty awesome," Naminé said, walking over to the steel chambers. "So do we just climb inside?" Sora nodded.

"Yep," he said as the screen displayed an image of one of the beaches on Exin at night along with the message "Destination Confirmed". "Just climb on in and close the doors when that light turns yellow." Sora gestured at a small red light that was fixed above the door. Kairi and Naminé both nodded and climbed into the chambers. Sora grabbed a small rectangular box with a blue button on it from a small table below the screen and slipped it into one of his pockets.

"What's that for?" Kairi asked as Sora climbed into one of the other chambers. Sora smiled at her.

"So we can get back onto the ship," he said. "All I've gotta do is press the blue button and anyone within four or five feet of me will warp back onto the ship."

"Okay then," Kairi said. She looked away from Sora to the light above the door and saw the light flash from red to yellow.

"Close 'em up!" Sora said. The three of them reached out to the handles of their respective doors and closed them shut. There was a loud hissing noise as the three chambers sealed the doors in place. The three teens waited for a few seconds with baited breath, excited for the warping. Then the light flashed green. The red crystal behind them pulsed blue for a fraction of a second and each chamber was filled with a blinding white light for a moment, then all three teens were gone.

Three beams of light shot from the _Kingdom_ and raced towards the world. They streaked across the night sky before crashing into a beach on the island Exin. Instead of leaving craters, the beams flashed brightly as they touched the beach surface and vanished, leaving behind the three teens in their place.

Sora stretched his arms behind his head and yawned loudly. Kairi and Naminé stumbled slightly, neither having warped before in their lives. Sora couldn't help but laugh as Naminé fell backwards into the surf, thoroughly soaking her new cloak. He laughed even harder when Roxas appeared in a flash of blue light and tried to help her up, only for his hand to pass right through hers, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the water himself and emerge soaking wet, despite being a spectral projection. Roxas crossed his arms in disappointment.

Naminé did her best to comfort Roxas, but it was hard since she couldn't touch him without passing through him. Kairi felt couldn't help but feel sorry for Naminé and Roxas.

_I wish I could do something to help you two, Naminé._ She thought to herself, unable to say them out loud for some reason. Naminé looked up and gave Kairi a quizzical look.

_I guess I can still talk to you like this, huh?_ Naminé said in Kairi's mind. Kairi almost gasped in surprise. _But it looks like when can only hear each other like this if we're talking to each other. For example…_ And suddenly Kairi couldn't hear Naminé anymore, but the blonde was smiling widely. After a few moments of mental silence, Kairi heard Naminé again. _Did you catch any of that?_ Naminé asked.

_No, _Kairi said. _I couldn't hear you at all. What were you saying?_

_That I pull off the blonde haired female in a long black cloak look better than that bitch Larxene ever did._ Kairi and Naminé both broke out in laughter at that. Sora and Roxas watched them in confusion.

"What the-" Sora began, but Kairi cut him off by shaking her head.

"Don't worry about it," she said through her laughter. Sora continued to give her a confused look, so Kairi ignored him and looked around the beach. "Hey, where's Riku?" The others all started looking around for their silver-haired friend.

"That's odd," Roxas said as he glanced up at the night sky. "He should've been here before us." Sora shrugged. Naminé also glanced up at the sky and pointed.

"Incoming," she said. The others all looked up to the sky and saw a ball of light streaking towards them. The ball grew closer and closer before coming to a complete stop over the water, several yards from the shore. Sora and Kairi glanced at each other in confusion. Then the light exploded brightly for a brief moment before disappearing, leaving Riku suspended briefly in midair.

"Well, fuck," Riku said before he plummeted into the water. Sora and the others broke out laughing as the Riku splashed around, practically coughing up his lungs as he swam to shore. As he slowly walked from the surf, he spat out a large amount of seawater. "That fucking sucked!" he spat. "I think my ship hates me."

"Do you have an AI onboard?" Roxas asked. Riku raised his eyebrows.

"A what now?" he asked. Roxas and Sora laughed at him.

"AI," Sora explained. "Artificial Intelligence? Ring any bells?

"Oh, okay," Riku said as realization hit him. "Not that I'm aware of."

"Then your ship can't possibly hate you," Naminé said, rolling her eyes at Riku. Riku stuck his tongue out at her.

"Bite me, blondie," he retorted. Naminé smiled nastily at him.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"I don't know. Give it a try and we'll find out."

"As much fun as it would be to watch you talk about getting kinky with my girlfriend, Riku," Roxas interjected sarcastically, "I'm sure that your parents are going to want to hear all about the Exam. So don't you guys think that we should go find them and tell them all about it?" Everyone stared at Roxas. "What?"

"What'd you think we were going to do when we got back?" Riku asked the Nobody. "Go swimming?" Sora and Kairi smirked.

"I think you and Roxas have done enough swimming for today, don't you?" Kairi asked Riku. Roxas crossed his arms and stared at the auburn haired teen while Riku twisted his shirt and wringed a stream of water from it. Sora and Kairi laughed at them. Naminé attempted to pat Roxas on the back but her hand kept passing through him. Naminé stared sadly at Roxas for a moment before leaning into him and whispering something into his ear. Roxas smiled softly back at the blonde and whispered something back to her. Naminé continued to watch Roxas sadly.

"Let's go," Kairi said as she grabbed Sora's hand and began to lead him from the beach to Fatum with the others following suit.

_LD_

After spending an hour and a half going to each of their houses without being able to find any of their parents, the teens finally found the adults gathered at Destiny's. The five parents were busy sharing a drink when their children walked in. Allison was the first to notice the teens walk in and quickly got to her feet and rushed over to embrace her son in a hug. Jonathan and Melissa quickly followed her lead and rushed over to Kairi as David and Sharon got to their feet to greet Riku only for him to come to them instead. After the brief hug session, the parents immediately began bombarding the teens with questions about the exam and why Naminé now had a body of her own while they could still see through Roxas.

Sora and Riku had barely been able to start telling the parents about the Exam when Selphie, Tidus, Wakka and Kim all burst into the restaurant excitedly and began asking the teens the same questions their parents had been, mostly about how Naminé managed to get her own body while Roxas was shit out of luck. Roxas glared at Tidus and Wakka as they asked that. So Sora and Riku started over from the beginning and told their parents and friends all about the Exam in excruciating detail. After they were finished, a slightly awed silence hung on the air.

Riku's parents stared at their son while said teen kept his eyes determinedly fixated on the wood paneling of the floor. Sora and Kairi exchanged a glance.

"So, you're going off on your own adventure?" Sharon asked Riku, her voice shaking slightly. David kept his expression straight and neutral. Riku nodded slowly.

"I've always wanted to go to other worlds," he said. "You both know that. This is the opportunity I've been waiting for. Now I can go to other worlds and make new friends." Riku raised his head and looked his parents in the eyes. Sharon had tears forming in their eyes. David looked like he didn't want Riku to go but respected his decision to do so. "But it's not like I'll be gone forever. I'll come back to visit every chance I can. I promise." Sharon and David looked at each other for a moment. David nodded to his wife and Sharon let out a sob, pulling her son into a tight hug as tears began to stream down her face.

Jonathan got to his feet and gestured for Sora to follow him. Sora felt his heart pound nervously. He slowly got to his feet. Kairi and Melissa both looked from Jonathan to Sora with a mix of confusion and concern. Jonathan smiled down at them.

"Don't you two worry," he said. "I just want to have a private talk with Sora here." Sora swallowed hard. The father of the girl he was dating wanted to have a "private" talk with him? Sora doubted this would end well. He followed Jonathan out of the restaurant to the patio in the back. Jonathan walked up to one of the tables and pulled out a chair.

"Sit," he told Sora, gesturing at the chair. Sora didn't blink twice. He sat down as quickly as his body could and looked up at Jonathan as the man stared up at the night sky. Both of them were quiet for a couple of minutes. Sora's heart was pounding fast and hard. His mind kept saying the same thing over and over again; _I'm screwed. I'm screwed. I'm screwed. _Jonathan finally looked down at Sora.

"I think it's time for us to have a father to boyfriend-of-my-daughter talk," Jonathan said, giving Sora a stern look. Sora's heart began to beat faster and he could've sworn he was beginning to break out into a sweat. Jonathan smirked. "The only problem is the clichés of 'What are your intentions with my daughter?' or the whole 'Prove to me that you can keep my daughter safe' don't exactly apply to this particular situation, do they?" Sora looked up at Jonathan in confusion.

_What is he getting at?_ Sora asked himself (and Roxas technically).

_Pay attention. I'm sure he'll tell you._ The Nobody replied.

"I know full well that you are more than capable of protecting Kairi," Jonathan continued. "Then again, we both know she's definitely able to take care of herself." Sora nodded in agreement. "And I can see in your eyes that you have no bad intentions when it comes to my little girl." Jonathan's stern demeanor was slowly beginning to melt away. "I see the way you look at her, Sora. I see only love in your eyes when you look at her.

"You groveled to your enemy for her. You sacrificed your heart and body for her. You were willing to do anything you could to save her. The reason I wanted to have this talk with you, was to tell you that I can't imagine anyone better for Kairi than you." Sora was taken aback. Whatever he had been expecting, it hadn't been this. Jonathan looked up at the moon.

"But I will tell you this," the elder man said, his voice becoming stern again. Sora felt his heart rate begin to rise again. "Since you are now Kairi's Master, she is bound as an Apprentice to listen to any order you give her." Jonathan lowered himself so his face was less than three inches from Sora's and he was staring the teen in the eye. "So I warn you now; if you ever use your status as Master to force Kairi to do _something_ against her will, I will make you regret it for the rest of your life." Sora stared determinedly at Jonathan.

"Kairi is the most important person in my life, I have nothing but respect for her and I'm madly in love with her," Sora said seriously, Jonathan looked slightly surprised at Sora's tone. "I would sooner cut out my own throat and light myself on fire than hurt her; physically or emotionally." Jonathan smiled.

"Good answer," he said, straightening up. He extended a hand towards Sora and helped him out of the chair. "You make Kairi very happy, Sora. She loves you more than I ever knew." He patted Sora on the back. "And I know she'll always be happy with you by her side. Thank you, Sora." Jonathan smiled warmly at him. Sora was almost too dumbstruck to speak. He could only smile.

_LD_

Everyone was watching as Sora and Jonathan walked back into the restaurant. Kairi and Melissa both looked anxious until they saw the slight smiles on the two guys' faces as they each looked at the love of their life. Sora sat down next to Kairi and put his arm around her. Kairi smiled at him and shifted herself closer to him.

"What'd Dad want to talk to you about?" she asked him. Sora shrugged slightly.

"Oh you know, the typical father to guy-dating-his-daughter speech of treat my daughter with absolute respect or he would chop off my balls, roast them and force feed them to me." Sora smiled at that, proud of the fact that he had come up with it on the spot. Kairi looked up at him worriedly.

"But," she said under her breath, leaning in toward Sora to whisper in his ear. "You'll need your balls if you ever want kids with me." Sora looked at Kairi in surprise at how sexual she had made that sound just by whispering. Kairi raised her head slightly to lightly kiss Sora.

_Told you so,_ Roxas said. _Her thoughts are definitely not as pure as her heart._

_Okay, so you were right. _Sora said to the Nobody as he kissed Kairi back for a brief moment before she sat up straight again _And as a reward for being right I'll buy you a steak dinner tomorrow night._

_You fucking suck, asshole._ Sora laughed and tuned Roxas out as the Nobody began ranting about how he wished he could eat again and about how he was slightly jealous of Naminé because she could eat and he couldn't.

The night passed fairly quickly after that. Almost too quickly, in Sora's opinion. They all talked and laughed for hours. Tears were shed and plans were made. Naminé thoroughly enjoyed devouring the sea-salt ice cream Melissa brought out and teased Roxas by describing every bite. Melissa and Jonathan made the decision to fill out the necessary paperwork to make Naminé their adopted daughter since the former Nobody didn't have a family and was, by all technicalities, Kairi's sister. This news made Kairi and Naminé both excited and they almost immediately began discussing rearranging Kairi's room at her house to accommodate a second bed.

Selphie and Kim both produced fashion catalogs from nowhere and talked about getting Naminé more clothes so she wouldn't have to wear the black cloak day in and day out because they were both convinced that wearing something that dark daily was depressing. This seemed to hit a nerve with Roxas, who appeared in a flash of blue light to argue with the two females for half an hour about wearing the cloak daily before he finally conceded and returned to the confines of Sora's mind to sulk for the remainder of the night.

_LD_

_Tuesday, June 1__st__ 4794 P.C._

When dawn rolled around, everyone gathered in front of Riku's house to wish their friend a safe journey. Sora and Kairi stood a little ways away from the others, looking up at the sky as gold, scarlet and pink danced across the few clouds that dotted the sky from the rising sun. Naminé had produced a sketchpad from somewhere and was sketching the couple without them realizing it. Riku and his parents exited his house, bearing a few bags of Riku's clothes and a few boxes of food. They set them down in a pile on the sidewalk leading up to the front door. Sharon and David both hugged Riku tightly. Sharon stepped back and wiped tears from her face. Riku walked over to the others.

Tidus and Wakka both gave him high fives and challenged him to a duel when he next came back to visit. Riku laughed and accepted their challenge. Selphie and Kim each gave Riku a tight hug with tears streaming down their faces. Naminé and Riku merely nodded to each other. Roxas flipped him off and vanished in a flash of blue light. Riku just laughed at him. Riku and Kairi gave each other a quick hug.

"See you around, buddy," Sora said, grasping Riku's hand in a tight handshake. Riku grinned widely.

"You know it," he and Sora broke the hand shake and Riku headed back over to his parents to give them each one last hug. After he hugged them, Riku pulled out a small silver orb with a sky blue button situated on top. He turned back to look at his friends, grinned widely and gave them all a thumbs up.

Sora gave his silver-haired friend a half smile. He looked over at Kairi who was looking over at their other friends. Tidus and Wakka both looked disappointed that Riku was leaving. In the back of his mind, Sora remembered that Tidus and Wakka had never been able to beat Riku in anything, even when they teamed up with each other to take him down.

Selphie didn't seem too beaten up over the news. Kim refused to look over at Riku. Tears were shining on her face and she had adjusted how she was sitting so no one would see her tears. Riku didn't seem to notice. He pressed his thumb down hard on the button. There was a bright flash of light as Riku and his bags warped back to his Gummi ship. Out of the corner of his eye, Sora saw Kim wipe the tears from her eyes and regain her composure. A slightly awkward silence hung on the air. None of them were really sure what to say.

"Well," Jonathan said, finally breaking the awkwardness of the situation. "I guess that's enough excitement for one night." A woman's scream shattered the early morning calm that rested on the Island. Everyone's head whipped around. A girl dressed in a purple suit jacket over a white dress shirt and matching blue plaid mini-skirt and tie with shoulder length black hair and lavender eyes ran around a corner and towards the group gathered in front of Riku's house.

"Isn't that one of my waitresses?" Melissa said as she and the others watched the girl run towards them. "Kyoko? What is she-" Before Melissa could finish, a group of more than fifteen Shadow Heartless came darting around the corner after Kyoko. Sora and Kairi exchanged a glance before summoning their Keyblades to their hands. Their friends and families all let out gasps as they saw the Heartless.

"Are those black things the Heartless?" Selphie asked.

"Yeah," Naminé said as she began ushering the others towards the house. "Sora and Kairi can handle them so let's get inside and out of their way. " The others did as she said and rushed into the house. Naminé was the last one in, giving Sora and Kairi a thumbs up before closing the door. Sora looked over at Kairi. She smiled back at him.

"After you, Master," she said, putting extra emphasis on the word 'Master'. Sora felt a shiver of excitement run up his spine. He grinned over at his girlfriend and charged towards the Shadows with Kairi closely following suit. Kyoko ran between them as they charged.

"What are those creepy things?" she shouted to Sora and Kairi as the pair rushed the Heartless.

"Heartless!" Sora cried back. "They're dangerous so find somewhere safe to hide!" Kairi fought the urge to roll her eyes. She lashed out at the first Shadow with the Destiny's Embrace, slicing clean between its spherical yellow eyes and reducing to a cloud of black mist. Sora darted past her and swung his Oblivion viciously, swiftly destroying four Shadows in a single slash. Kairi stabbed downwards, impaling a Shadow as it emerged from the ground. She raised her hand and thrust her palm out towards a pair of Shadows as they leapt at her.

"Fire!" she cried. A flaming orb burst from her hand and shot between the two Heartless before exploding, incinerating both in an instant. Kairi grinned and kicked another Shadow out of the way. Sora saw her kick the Heartless out of the corner of her eye and laughed. He brought his Keyblade down, decapitating a Shadow as it attempted to slash his shin. He smiled grimly and sliced his way through another Shadow as it leapt at him.

Kairi spun past the remaining four slashing through one of them as she passed. Sora struck down two others and lunged at the last. Kairi also sliced at the Heartless. Destiny's Embrace and Oblivion clashed together in the Shadow's midsection as the Heartless vanished in a puff of black mist. Kairi looked up at Sora's grinning face and gave him a quick kiss.

"Well," Sora said, dismissing the Oblivion and walking down towards Riku's house where the others were. "Now that that's over, let's go tell everyone that it's safe."

"Look out!" Kyoko shouted from behind a low garden wall. Sora spun around and was met by the black claws of a Neoshadow Heartless as it slashed at his face. The Oblivion appeared in Sora's hand again and he barely managed to raise it in time to deflect the attack. The Neoshadow lost its balance and fell past Sora. Sora spun and stabbed the Neoshadow through its back. As it faded away in black mist, Sora spun around and struck down another Neoshadow.

Kairi was several yards from him, squaring off against three Neoshadows at once. The three Neoshadows circled her like birds of prey readying themselves for the kill. Kairi remained motionless, Destiny's Embrace poised and ready to strike. The Neoshadow behind her lunged for the first strike. Kairi swung her blade over and behind her head, knocking away the ebony clawed hands of the Neoshadow. The other two took advantage of Kairi's exposed front.

Kairi rolled out of the way of the pair as they rushed her. She exited her roll and swung her Keyblade like a bat, knocking the nearest Neoshadow's legs out from underneath it. The Heartless fell flat on its back, staring up at Kairi as she aimed the tip of Destiny's Embrace at the Neoshadow's chest. As Kairi stabbed down, the Neoshadow sank into the ground. Kairi's Keyblade buried itself a good foot into the ground. Kairi stared at the ground in shock as a black shadow darted across it, moving several feet away from her. Kairi wrenched Destiny's embrace from the ground and lashed out at another nearby Neoshadow.

The Neoshadow ducked under her attack and slashed at her arm. Kairi let out a cry of pain as the Heartless' four claws broke the skin on her forearm, leaving four long lacerations. Sora heard Kairi's cry of pain and quickly dispatched the Neoshadow he had been grappling with. Kairi left arm was drenched in blood, but she continued fighting. She severed the arm of the Heartless that had cut her before jamming Destiny's Embrace between its yellow eyes. Kairi lowered her Keyblade and looked at her wounds. Green lights began to dance around the cuts, and slowly the bleeding stopped but the wounds didn't close much.

"Kairi! Behind you!" Sora shouted as he watched a pair of dark shadows dart across the ground towards Kairi. Sora broke into a sprint in an attempt to reach the Heartless before they got to Kairi. Kairi looked behind her in time to see the two dark shadows burst from the ground and become Neoshadow Heartless. Kairi didn't have time to raise her Keyblade before both Neoshadows struck her. Kairi let out a cry of pain as she was sent rolling across the ground. Sora let out a roar of anger, drawing the attention of the Heartless to himself.

"Firaga!" Sora shouted as he neared the two Neoshadows that had just attacked Kairi. Flames flared into life along the length of the Oblivion, cloaking it in fire. Sora slashed through the first Neoshadow with two rapid swings of his flaming Keyblade, quartering it as he charged onto the next one. He swung the Oblivion above his head and sliced the next Neoshadow in half from top to bottom. The remains of the two Neoshadows exploded into black mist, obscuring Sora from the view of the remaining seven Neoshadows. The Heartless all glanced at each other.

Sora burst from the fading mist with an orb of crackling lightning in his left hand. He slammed the lightning into the abdomen of the nearest Neoshadow and it burst. Sora stopped and hurled his Keyblade at another Neoshadow, slicing it in half as the Oblivion went spinning through the air. The Oblivion reappeared in his hand with a flash of light.

"Freeze!" Sora shouted as he aimed the Oblivion at a charging Neoshadow. A bluish white orb flew from Oblivion's tip and struck the Heartless, freezing it as it leapt into the air. The frozen Neoshadow crashed to the ground and shattered into a thousand little pieces as Sora sliced through another Heartless. The remaining three Neoshadows paused for a moment, before vanishing into tiny black portals of Darkness.

Sora dismissed the Oblivion and ran to Kairi's side, sliding along the ground as he reached her. Kairi was groaning in pain. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut as she let out a cough. Her face had a nasty gash along her right cheek running from her jaw line up along her cheek and barely missing her eye. There was a nasty green bruise forming on her upper left shoulder alongside a deep cut that seemed to run all the way to the bone. Sora gently took hold of her head and laid it in his lap. Kairi forcibly opened her violet-blue eyes to look up at Sora.

"Sorry," she whispered. Sora's heartstrings tugged at the sound of pain in her voice. He gently ran a hand through her auburn hair, moving it away from her shoulder and cheeks so he could have better access to them.

"Shhh," Sora whispered softly. "Don't be sorry. All that matters is that you're alive, right?" He softly placed a hand on her injured cheek and bright green tendrils of light flowed from Sora's finger tips and into Kairi's cut. The bleeding quickly stopped and in a matter of seconds, there was no sign of a cut on Kairi's face at all. Kairi sighed in relief that a small portion of her pain was gone.

Sora next placed his hand on Kairi's left shoulder. The girl let out a small whimper as pain shot up and down her left arm. Sora ran his free hand soothingly through Kairi's hair. The green tendrils of light flowed brightly into Kairi's shoulder and down her arm, sealing up the lacerations on her forearm and sealing the one on her shoulder. Kairi sighed as the pain slowly ebbed away.

Sora collapsed backwards onto the ground, exhausted. He was surprised at how much energy he had had to use just to heal Kairi. Kairi pulled herself off of Sora and moved closer to him, laying herself down next to him.

"Thank you," she said as she kissed him softly on the cheek. Sora grinned.

"No problem, Kairi," he said, kissing her back on her forehead. "Can I get you to do me a small favor?" Kairi looked at him confusedly for a moment before nodding.

"Sure thing, what can I do for you?"

"I need you to reach into my pocket and-" Kairi let out a gasp of indignation and slapped Sora lightly on his chest as her mind jumped into the gutter.

"Sora! Our parents are just down the street, probably about to come out since there's no more fighting, and you want me to do that?" Sora stared at her in complete shock, trying to comprehend what she was getting at. In the back of his mind, Roxas was laughing at him.

"And besides," Kairi continued, her face now a deep shade of red, "We're both not even seventeen yet, and I don't want to do any of that stuff until I'm at least eighteen." Then it hit Sora. He started laughing. Kairi glared at him.

"What is so funny?" She demanded. Sora wiped away a small tear of mirth.

"I was going to ask you to help me get an Ether out of my pocket," Sora laughed. "I used up most of my energy healing you and I can barely move." Kairi blushed and immediately felt like an idiot.

"Oh," she said in embarrassment. "Sorry about that, I just thought you were trying to make a move." She reached inside Sora's pocket and produced a small blue cube about the size of a pill.

"Thanks," Sora said, still laughing as Kairi handed him the Ether. He popped it into his mouth and began chewing it up. Immediately, Sora felt ten times better. "And for the record, I know that you want to wait until you're eighteen to do anything sexual. That's another reason why I love you." Kairi raised an eyebrow at him.

"One of the reasons you love me is because I remain abstinent for the time being?" She asked him incredulously. Sora nodded.

"Yes and no," he replied. Kairi's eyebrows raised higher, encouraging him to go on. "Its because I also want to wait until I'm eighteen." Kairi stared at him in surprise.

"Really?" She asked incredulously. Sora nodded. "Why?"

"Because I'm so madly in love with you that I want to take our time working up to the physical part of our relationship." Kairi felt genuinely surprised. She had thought that always hanging around with Riku, the most popular kid in school (and three time winner of the middle-school's 'most likely to be a man-whore' award) would've made Sora want to have sex right of the bat in a relationship. Kairi felt her love and respect for Sora grow slightly. She leaned in to give him a kiss.

"Oh my god! That was so awesome!" Kyoko bounded out of nowhere and tackled Sora away from Kairi. Kairi stared blankly at the space where Sora had been for a moment before looking over to where Kyoko was now straddling her boyfriend. Kairi felt her anger swell up greatly and she summoned Destiny's Embrace to her hand. She could see Sora trying to push the girl off of him.

"Those scary monster things would've eaten me for sure if you hadn't destroyed them all!" Kyoko said excitedly, continuing to pin Sora to the ground. She quickly described the fight Sora and Kairi had gone through like a small child would when they saw something that got them excited. She even did her own sound effects. Kairi paused her advance on the girl.

_Is this chick an idiot?_ She asked herself as she watched Kyoko attempt to mimic a Neoshadow's face and fail.

"So as thanks for saving me," Kyoko said with a wink towards Kairi, "Here's a fiery kiss from me!" Sora and Kairi both seized up in shock for a split moment. Then Sora struggled harder against Kyoko's grip, desperate to escape. Kairi found that she was unable to move her legs for some reason as Kyoko's lips drew closer to those of the man she loved above all others. She squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to watch it happen since she was unable to move to stop it.

"Meow." Kairi forced her eyes open. Sora had somehow produced a small white cat and was holing it in front of his face so Kyoko ended up kissing the cat. Kyoko slowly opened her eyes and let out a cry of surprise. Sora pushed her off of him and scrambled away.

"Gross!" Kyoko gagged, "Why'd you do that?" Sora glared at her.

"I was about to ask the same thing," he said. Kairi moved so she was standing next to Sora, who gave her a sorry-that-I-was-almost-forced-to-kiss-another-woman look. Kairi gave him a half smile and turned to glare at Kyoko.

"What is your problem?" Kairi demanded. "You can't go around kissing other girls boy-"

"Impressive, Keyblade Master."

Sora and Kairi turned to look down the street. A man dressed in a long black overcoat with matching boots and two foot tall top hat was walking towards them, clapping with his gloved hands.

"Charden! There you are!" Kyoko said excitedly. "Where've you been? I've been looking everywhere for you." The man, Charden, stopped several yards from Sora and Kairi. "You just have to meet my new man, Charden. Oh, I can't believe I'm calling him mine already."

"Your who now?" Sora said, his head whipping back to look at Kyoko in complete shock. Kairi's nostrils flared in anger and sparks flashed at her finger tips.

"YOUR man?" Kairi shouted. "Listen up, slut. He's MINE!" Kairi grabbed Sora's arm tightly as if anchoring herself to him. Sora winced a little as her grip tightened uncomfortably. Kyoko glared at Kairi and opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Charden.

"Allow me to introduce myself," he said, bowing to Sora and Kairi while removing his top hat, revealing his long blonde hair that fell around his shoulders and eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. "It comes as a great pleasure to meet you, Master Sora, Princess Kairi. I am a member of the Apostles of the Star. My name is Charden." Kyoko ran over to Charden's side and flashed a "victory" sign at Sora and Kairi.

"I am too!" she said proudly. Sora and Kairi glanced at each other.

"The Apostles of the Star?" Kairi asked. Kyoko nodded, a huge grin spreading across her face.

"Yes," Charden said, placing his top hat back on his head. "We are revolutionaries led by the great Creed Diskenth, and as such we are now allied with the Queen of Darkness, Maleficent." Shivers ran down Sora's and Kairi's spines. They looked at each other in stunned silence. They thought Maleficent and Pete had been killed in the Castle That Never Was.

"She's… still alive?" Kairi asked nervously. Charden nodded. Sora glared at him.

"So, Maleficent's alive?" he demanded. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't want to believe that evil witch could still possibly be alive.

"She's alive," Charden said simply, "And let me tell you, Master Sora, she can't wait to see you again."

"Tell me, what does she have planned this time?" Sora demanded.

"If you wish to meet with Maleficent, she will be in Radiant Garden in six months time; waiting for you."

"I'll be there too!" Kyoko added excitedly.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked, placing a hand on Sora's shoulder to calm him down.

"A wonderful celebration will begin," Charden replied as a gray, oval-shaped portal appeared behind him and Kyoko. "Please, both of you, join us." He and Kyoko both walked backwards towards the portal. "Until then."

"Bye-bye!" Kyoko said, as she stepped into the portal, pausing long enough to blow Sora a kiss. Sora stared. Was it his imagination, or did she just breathe a tiny bit of fire?

"Stop!" Sora and Kairi shouted, both rushing towards the portal. The portal distorted a little in the center as a woman's hand emerged, wielding a pistol.

"Get down!" Naminé shouted from somewhere behind them. Charden stepped to the side of the portal as the pistol began firing in Sora and Kairi's direction.

"Reflect!" Sora cried out, forming a protective bubble of light around him and Kairi. The woman's hand retreated into the portal and Charden smiled at Sora and Kairi.

"One more thing," he said as he stepped into the portal. "I don't think the Heartless I sent after you are completely done." The portal closed behind him.

"So he sent the Heartless to attack us?" Sora said, dismissing the Oblivion from his hand.

"The next time I see that little slut I'm going to tear her heart out," Kairi growled under her breath, but audibly enough that Sora heard. He looked over at her in concern.

"Kairi?" he asked nervously. Kairi's head whipped around to look up at him. Sora could see anger and jealousy burning in her eyes. Sora placed a hand soothingly on her cheek. "You have nothing to worry about, Kairi," He said softly, taking up one of her hands in his free one.

"I love you and only you. No girl will ever be able to steal me from you." He removed his hand from her face and closed his fingers, leaving only his pinky finger extended towards her. "I promise." The fire in Kairi's eyes died in an instant. She slowly began to laugh at the childish gesture her boyfriend was making. Kairi raised her hand and intertwined her pinky finger with his. Sora grinned widely, causing Kairi to laugh harder.

"You're a dork, you know?" she said. She leaned up on her toes and kissed him lightly on his lips. They remained like this for a moment before pulling apart.

"I know," Sora replied, still grinning. Then something occurred to him. "Hey, didn't that Charden guy say something about the Heartless not being done with us?" As if on cue, dozens of Shadows and several Neoshadows rose from the ground. Sora and Kairi summoned their Keyblades to their hands. They each grinned at each other.

"This'll be a piece of cake," Sora said, grinning confidently. The ground beneath them shook violently. Behind the other Heartless, two Darksides rose slowly from the ground, their long dark arms reaching for the Keyblade Wielders. Kairi groaned.

"You just had to go and open your mouth didn't you?" she said. Sora stared up at the Darksides in mild surprise.

"It's just one of my many talents," Sora said in response. A Neoshadow leapt at the couple. The pair slashed the Heartless, reducing it to black mist effortlessly. Kairi grinned at Sora before rushing the Shadows, leaving the Neoshadows to Sora. Sora watched Kairi cut her way through at least seven Shadows before any of them could get close to her.

_She's a natural all right._ Roxas said as Sora turned to cut down the nearest Neoshadow.

_Tell me about it, _said Sora as he ducked under a pair of Neoshadows. He spun around them and struck at their backs. Both Heartless vanished in a cloud of black mist. _So what do you think Maleficent and those Apostles of the Star are up to?_

_Knowing Maleficent, I'd have to say she's going after Kingdom Hearts again. And from what that Charden guy said, she's also probably wants revenge against you for killing her the first time._ Sora stabbed another Neoshadow as it attempted to attack Sora from the front, to no avail. Sora wrenched the Oblivion from the fading Heartless and rolled away as a Darkside struck the ground where he had been standing. Sora lit another Neoshadow on fire. The Neoshadow seemed to panic and ran around, attempting to extinguish the flames only to spread the fire to several other Neoshadows.

_Nice._ Roxas laughed as at least eleven Neoshadows burned until there was nothing left. Sora struck another one in the back of the head and sliced it in half as it fell.

_So what do you think Maleficent's going to do to get to Kingdom Hearts this time?_ Sora asked his Nobody. A Neoshadow managed to land a lucky strike against Sora's back, leaving four long scratches and shredding his clothes. Sora let out a cry of pain.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out, striking down the last of the Shadows and running towards him. "I'll be right there!" Both Darksides turned their attention onto Kairi and brought their clenched fists down onto the ground dangerously close to her. Kairi let out a cry of shock as she was knocked off her feet.

"Kairi!" Sora shouted. He struck down the remaining Neoshadows and hurled his Keyblade through one of the eyes of the nearest Darkside. The Darkside reared back and turned towards Sora. The Oblivion flashed back to Sora's hand. The Darkside raised both of its fists and slammed them down towards Sora.

Sora leapt into the air to avoid the attack but the Darksides knuckles grazed him. Sora gasped in pain as he was knocked backwards. He hit the ground hard and rolled back into a fighting stance, wincing slightly as the wounds on his back screamed at him. Sora ran towards the Darkside. He ducked under its massive arms and stuck at its tiny legs.

The Darkside collapsed to its knees, staring down at Sora with its yellow orb like eyes. Sora leapt onto the Heartless' chest, using it as a springboard to propel himself several yards into the air above the Darkside.

"Thundaga!" Sora roared. Lightning descended from the sky and burst through the Darkside. In a matter of seconds, the Heartless collapsed to the ground, causing the ground to shake again as it faded into black mist. Sora landed on the ground and spun to look for Kairi.

"Kairi?" he called. He looked past the other Darkside and spotted the auburn haired teen. She was standing behind the Darkside with her back to it. Both she and the Heartless seemed frozen in place. Sora stared at them confusedly. "Uh, Kairi?"

"Zantetsuken," Kairi said slowly opening her eyes. Behind her, the Darkside split in half, both halves exploding into black mist. Kairi straightened up and smiled excitedly. "Did you see that?" Kairi shouted, running up to Sora. "That was awesome!" Sora stared in amazement at where the Darkside Kairi had been fighting had collapsed.

"Did you seriously take it out in one blow?" Sora said, feeling a little awed. Kairi's smile grew bigger.

"Hell yeah I did!" she exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Sora enthusiastically.

"I have to say Kairi, I'm very impressed," Sora said as he hugged her back. "I've never been able to take down a Darkside in a single blow." Kairi beamed up at him.

"Really?" she asked. "Hot damn, I'm good." Sora laughed.

"Think you could do it more than once?" He asked. Kairi raised an eyebrow at him.

"Possibly," she said slowly as she looked down at her Keyblade. "Why do you ask?" In response, Sora pointed directly behind her. Kairi turned her head to look at where he was pointing. At least half a dozen Darksides were rising from the ground, each one staring directly at the couple.

Kairi's face fell. How many more of these things were going to show up? She was already exhausted and her arms felt like lead. The Heartless began to reach for the couple. Kairi looked up at Sora who had a grim, half smile plastered on his face. He glanced down at Kairi and squeezed her in a brief, tight hug before releasing her and summoning the Oblivion Keyblade to his hands. Kairi sighed and summoned Destiny's Embrace. The couple raised their Keyblades, ready to defend themselves as the first of the Darksides loomed nearer.

Then all of the Heartless froze in place. They slowly began to turn around before they collapsed into hundreds of tiny pieces. The pieces exploded into a thick cloud of black mist that obscured most of the street from view. Sora and Kairi glanced at each other in concern. Who, or what, had the kind of power to take down half a dozen Darksides in a single instant? Footsteps echoed towards them in the calm stillness of the morning. Sora and Kairi raised their Keyblades, prepared to defend themselves.

From the fading black mist emerged a man dressed in black dress pants and shoes, a purple dress shirt that was had the top tree buttons open, exposing the numeral _VII_ tattooed on the right side of his chest, and a black suit jacket. Sora and Kairi found their eyes drawn to the man's right hand, which was covered by a black gloved with silver claw-like decorations on the finger tips. On the back of the glove was a blue gem surrounded by a gold decoration. The numeral _VII _was etched into the gem.

"Man, what a pain," the man said as he approached Sora and Kairi. "I must've wiped out at least fourteen of those things this morning." He stopped a few feet from the couple, carefully examining them from behind his amethyst colored sunglasses. Then he looked a piece of paper in his left hand and back up at Sora and Kairi. "Finally!" he exclaimed, suddenly excited. Sora and Kairi took a step back, surprised at the man's sudden enthusiasm. "I have been looking all over this Island for you two!" Sora's eyes narrowed and he raised his Keyblade again.

"So you've been looking for us?" he asked the man.

"You have no idea how difficult it was for me just to find a hint that you two might be out here in the suburbs," the man said, excitedly. "Talk about a pain in the ass."

"Are you one of the Apostles of the Star?" Kairi asked him, raising her Keyblade as the thought occurred to her. The man looked dumbfounded.

"The Apostles of the Star?" he asked incredulously. "Hell no! I'm one of the Chronos Numbers!" He pulled the glove off of his hand placed it in a pocked of his suit jacket. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Jenos Hazard, Number _VII_ of the Chronos Numbers." He held out his hand towards the couple. Sora and Kairi continued to watch him warily.

"And do the Chronos Numbers work with Maleficent and the Apostles of the Star?" Kairi asked, watching Jenos' face carefully. Jenos looked offended.

"Work with the Apostles of the Star?" he said, sounding legitimately shocked at the idea. "Not even. The Apostles solely exist to destroy Chronos and take over any and all worlds. They're my enemies as much as they are yours." Kairi lowered her Keyblade hesitantly.

"If they're your enemies and we're not your enemies, then why are you looking for me and Sora?" she asked. Jenos continued to hold his hand out towards them.

"I'm simply following orders," he replied. "Number One wanted to let the boy who saved the worlds more than once that he has Chronos on his side since Maleficent has the Apostles. We're here to help." Sora lowered his Keyblade.

"So you were ordered to come all the way here just to tell us that?" he asked, suspiciously. Jenos nodded.

"For the most part at least," he said. "I was sent here because I was asked by your friend Leon in over in Radiant Garden to bring you this." Jenos held out a folded piece of paper towards Sora. Sora's name was scrawled across the front. Sora dismissed the Oblivion and walked up to Jenos, taking the paper. He walked back over to Kairi who looked over his shoulder as he opened it.

_Sora,_

_If you're reading this letter, then I'm assuming that you managed to take down Xemnas and eradicated the Organization. It's been a couple of months since you were last here in Radiant Garden and things have certainly gotten busier. I don't have much time to spend writing anymore these days so I'm going to ask you to do me a favor; when you first get a chance to, I need you to come back to Radiant Garden. There's something here I think you need to see. I think Maleficent is planning to take over here again._

_I'm going to give this letter to a man named Jenos Hazard. He works with a group called Chronos that turned up here in Radiant Garden about a week or so ago. You can trust them Sora. Please hurry. I think the worlds might need your help again already. _

_-Leon_

Sora looked up from the letter and over at Kairi. She looked up at him sadly and nodded.

"I guess that means we're leaving too," she said quitely. Sora nodded.

"Looks that way," He looked over at Jenos, who was casually examining his fingernails. "Does that mean you're going to be coming with as we go from world to world as well?" Sora asked him. Jenos shrugged in response.

"That depends on what my orders are," He said simply. "Once you two are in Radiant Garden, I have to go report to Chronos and get my new orders, so it's possible I might have to, but you never know." Behind them, Sora could her the sounds of their friends and parents leaving Riku's house now that it had been quiet for several minutes. Sora, Kairi and Jenos remained silent as the others approached them.

"What's going on?" Naminé asked as she walked up. She looked from Jenos to the slightly disappointed looks on Sora's and Kairi's faces. "Guys?"

"Sora," Allison said, as she walked up and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. "What's wrong?" Sora took a deep breath and explained all about Maleficent surviving and allying herself with the Apostles of the Star, about Charden's words about a celebration in Radiant Garden, and about Leon's note.

"So you're both leaving as well?" Jonathan asked after Sora had finished. Both Kairi and Sora nodded.

"Yeah, we kind of have to," Kairi said. "It sounds like the worlds are in trouble again and need Sora's help."

"But does that mean you both have to go?" Selphie asked, sadness obvious in her voice. Kairi nodded.

"Yeah, aside fromt the fact that he's my boyfriend and there's no way in hell I'm letting him leave me behind while he goes off on another adventure; he's also my Master so I'm obligated to go him." Tidus and Wakka both covered their mouths to prevent themselves from rattling off a stream of jokes at Kairi's expense for calling Sora her Master. Kim glared at both of them until they calmed down. Allison pulled her son into a tight embrace.

"You two do what you've gotta do," she said, tears of pride forming in the corners of her eyes. "Go show Maleficent who's boss." Sora grinned up at his mother and hugged her back.

"Thanks, Mom," he said. Kairi was joined in a similar embrace with both of her adoptive parents. When both hugging groups broke apart the parents went to go stand over by Sora and Kairi's friends as the pair prepared to warp back to the _Kingdom_.

"Hold on a second!" Naminé said, rushing over to stand by Kairi's side. "You didn't think I'd let you two go off and have all of the adventuring fun without me, did you?" she asked beaming widely at the couple. Kairi and Sora both laughed.

"Of course not!" Kairi said, throwing an arm around her former Nobody and another arm around her boyfriend. "Now how about we get this show on the road?"

"Not without me," Jenos said stepping over to stand by the teens. "I took a one way warp trip here so I need a ride back to Radiant Garden." Sora, Kairi and Naminé all rolled their eyes.

"Okay," Sora said as he pulled out a small rectangular box with blue button in the center of it from his pocket. "See you guys later!" He and the others all waved at their family, friends and (in Jenos' case) complete strangers as Sora slammed his thumb down on the button. The four of them were quickly bathed in a bright white light for a moment before they warped from Destiny Islands. Less than a minute later, a bright flash of red light filled the Warp Room on the _Kingdom_ as the four of them appeared in midair and fell on top of each other in a tangle of limbs and appendages.

After they separated themselves from one another, they headed up to the cockpit, where Sora plotted a course for Radiant Garden, estimated at three days travel from Destiny Islands. Around him, everyone was buckling in except for Jenos, who couldn't find a seat with a buckles and instead chose to strap himself to the hand rail on the stairs with his belt for support. Sora looked at him in confusion. Jenos gave him a thumbs up. Sora shrugged and activated the _Kingdom_'s engines.

"Blast off in three. Two. One. Go!" Sora said excitedly, slamming his foot on the throttle.

"You know what I just thought of?'' Kairi said as the ship began to move forward.

"What?" Sora, Naminé and Jenos all asked at once.

"We forgot to pick up food and clothes before we left," Kairi replied. The _Kingdom_'s engines kicked in full and the ship hurtled deep into space, causing Sora's, Naminé's and Jenos' cries of "Fuck!" to be lost in the cosmos as they left Destiny Islands behind.

_LD _

* * *

_I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Chapter Eight will be posted either tonight or tomorrow night, depending on if my internet will stay on long enough for me to upload it. It's seriously driving me nuts. Oh well. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated, but not required. _

_-Shadow Horizons_


	8. Onboard the Kingdom

_Finally! _

_Internet issues have been resolved and now I present Chapter Eight._

_Thanks again to Ragnarok Warrior, janus-juan, and Linkandzel for reviewing last time._

_Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Black Cat, or the song I include in this chapter. I do however own my ideas, plots, and original characters. _

_Enjoy!_

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Eight: Onboard the Kingdom

_Tuesday, June 1__st__ 4794 P.C._

Several hours after departing Destiny Islands, the _Kingdom_ hurtled through open space. Sora was leaned back in the pilot's seat, letting autopilot do his work for him, occasionally glancing at the radar as he read a book titled _Storm Fall_. Kairi and Naminé had found a deck of cards and were teaching themselves how to play no limit Texas Hold 'Em. Jenos had donned a radio headset and was attempting to contact Chronos, but to no avail.

"Full House!" Naminé exclaimed, startling both Sora and Jenos. "Beat that!" Naminé grinned victoriously at Kairi, who sighed.

"That's hard to beat," Kairi said dejectedly. "Especially with the way my lucks been going," Kairi laid her cards down. Naminé gaped in surprise. "All I've got is a Straight Flush. I guess you win, Naminé." Sora and Jenos both let out a bark of laughter. Kairi glared up at them.

"So you two find it funny that I lost?" Kairi demanded. Sora shook his head.

"Of course not, babe," he said. He pointed at Kairi's cards. "A Straight Flush beats a Full House." Kairi looked down at her cards in shock. "You won, Kairi." Kairi grinned widely and stuck her tongue out at Naminé. Naminé scowled and quickly picked up the cards and began shuffling them again.

"Rematch," Naminé said, determination set into her eyes as she began to deal again. Kairi grinned wickedly.

"You're on."

The next few of hours passed by fairly quickly. Sora watched Kairi and Naminé beat each other repeatedly in Texas Hold 'Em until they both got fed up with the game and decided to go see if there was any canned food in the kitchen. Jenos finally admitted defeat to the COMM system and went to take a nap on the couch, leaving Sora alone with Roxas.

"I'm so bored!" Roxas groaned as he appeared in a flash of blue light on the vacant seat next to Sora. "Isn't there anything to do on this ship for those of us who can't physically interact with everything around us?" Sora considered this.

"Have you considered turning on the TV?" He asked as if it should've been obvious. Roxas stared at him.

"Oh, you're right!" Roxas said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. "I could turn on the TV and watch a show. There's just one little problem; I CAN'T TOUCH ANYTHING! I'M A SPIRITUAL PROJECTION YOU ASS!" Sora laughed hard at Roxas as the Nobody continued to vent about how much he missed being able to interact with the real world and more importantly how much he missed cheeseburgers, which only made Sora laugh even harder. Kairi and Naminé came up the stairs, each carrying an open can of sliced peaches in one hand and a bottle of cream soda in the other.

"What's all the commotion about?" Naminé asked as they watched Roxas attempt to punch Sora only to pass right through him. Sora collapsed to the floor, laughing so hard that he was barely able to breathe. Roxas attempted to kick him, but lost his balance as his foot passed through Sora's stomach, causing the Nobody to fall flat on his backside.

"Why can't I hurt you?" Roxas said, as Sora attempted to get his laughter under control.

"Because you can't touch anything, remember?" Sora said, gasping for breath. "Isn't that what started the whole thing of you trying to hurt me?" Roxas sighed in defeat and went to sit on the couch. Roxas passed right through Jenos' legs as he sat, effectively freaking Jenos out as he woke from dozing.

"Jesus!" Jenos scrambled off the couch and hit his head on the floor, knocking himself out. The others all stared down at him for a moment.

"Uh, Jenos? You okay?" Sora asked, snapping his fingers in front of Jenos' face. Jenos didn't respond. "Yup, he's out cold."

"What should we do with him?" Naminé asked. Sora and Kairi looked at each other and it hit them. Several minutes later, and after hitting Jenos' head against no less than nine different walls and every doorway they had to go through, Sora, Kairi and Naminé managed to navigate Jenos' unconscious body into the dining room, where they dumped him into a chair and laid his head down on the table.

"Well, now that that's done and over with," Sora said as he shut off the lights behind them as they left the room. "Onto the most important question of the day." He turned to face Kairi and Naminé. "Where'd you guys get the food from? I thought we didn't pack any." Kairi and Naminé grinned at him.

"Isn't obvious?" Naminé said, impaling a peach slice on a fork and popping it into her mouth. "We found it in the pantry." Sora stared at her in surprise. "What?" she asked.

"There's a pantry?"

Kairi and Naminé both nodded. Kairi grabbed Sora's hand and began dragging him along after her.

"Of course there is, silly," she said. "Why wouldn't there be?" Sora thought hard about it.

"I don't know," he replied. "I just don't ever remember there being a pantry." Kairi laughed.

"Maybe Donald hid it so you and Goofy wouldn't eat all of the food," she suggested.

_That honestly would not surprise me one bit._ Sora thought as Kairi led him into the kitchen. The kitchen itself wasn't exactly the most spectacular part of the ship. It had white tiled floors and ceiling, the walls were painted a light, candy-apple red, the stove was stainless steel, as were the sink, microwave and refrigerator. The counters were made of white marble and the cabinets were polished oak. Kairi led him through most of the kitchen and knelt down near a corner tile.

"See how this tile here isn't lined up with the others?" Kairi pointed out. Sora stared at the tile. Sure enough, it didn't appear as if the tile had been put in right when the other tiles were set in place. "Watch this." Kairi knelt down and twisted the tile so it lined up with the others and pressed down on it. A brief flash of yellow light illuminated the edges of the tile. There was a low hissing noise and the only wall in the center of the only wall free from decoration in the kitchen opened up to reveal a rather large walk in pantry.

Sora gaped in surprise. After all the weeks he had spent aboard this ship, traveling from world to world with Donald and Goofy, he had never once seen this pantry before. There five rows of shelves, each one running along every wall in the pantry and each one completely covered in hundreds of cans and boxes. Sora stepped into the pantry to get a better look and spotted a note attached to a can of ravioli just above his eye level. He reached up and pulled down the can and peeled the note off of it.

_Dear Sora,_

_Please don't let any of this good food go to waste._

_-Master Yen Sid_

"At least that explains where all of this food came from," Sora said, handing the note off to Kairi and Naminé for them to read. "So at least we know it's all good." He placed the ravioli back on the shelf, making a mental note to come back for it as a midnight snack. The trio stepped out of the pantry and the door closed automatically behind them, leaving no evidence of there being a concealed pantry.

"So," Naminé said as they made their way out of the kitchen and back up to the cockpit. "We've got about a day and a half of flying left before we reach Radiant Garden, right?" Sora nodded, wondering what she was getting at.

"Then how about we go have a _How I Met Your Mother_ marathon?" Naminé suggested. Kairi grinned at the idea.

"I'm sold," she said. She turned to look at Sora. "What about you two?"

"Don't see why not," he said. "We've got the first five seasons on DVD somewhere down in the Rec Room. Tell you what, you two get some snacks together, and Roxas and I will go get the first season. Meet you two up in the cockpit!" Sora dashed out of kitchen and down the hall to the Rec Room.

Several minutes later, Sora walked into the cockpit with the DVD in hand. Kairi and Naminé were busy trying to figure out where the TV was in the cockpit. Sora watched for a minute as the two girls searched the cockpit for the concealed TV Sora chuckled as he watched Naminé search under the couch.

"Where is the damn thing?" she said exasperatedly as she pulled her head out from under the couch. Kairi shrugged as she examined the hologram projector in the middle of the room.

"Who knows?" she said, kicking the hologram projector.

"Where the hell is Sora? He should know where it is." Naminé growled in frustration. Sora cleared his throat. Kairi and Naminé looked up at him. Sora walked over to a row of buttons above the navigation monitor and pressed a small silver button that blended into the chrome paneling. The hologram projector lowered itself into the floor and a large flat-screen rose in its place.

"And that's how it's done," Sora said, smiling smugly. He bowed slightly and Naminé rolled her eyes.

"Show off," she muttered with a slight smile as Sora walked up to the TV and popped the first disc into the built in DVD player.

"Oh hush, Naminé," Kairi said to the former Nobody with a small laugh. Sora grabbed the remote from a pouch Velcro-ed to the side of the TV and threw himself down onto the couch. Kairi and Naminé quickly followed suit. Kairi produced a comically large bowl of popcorn and took a large handful for herself before passing it off to Naminé. Roxas flashed into existence, casually lounging on the couch's armrest next to Naminé. Naminé passed out bottles of cream soda.

"Show time!" Sora said eagerly, pressing _Play_ as the main menu popped up.

_LD_

The next few hours flew by as the three teens and teen Nobody watched the entirety of the first season. When they finished watching the season finale, Sora yawned widely and looked at the clock. It was three in the morning.

"Good lord," Roxas said as he looked at the clock as well. "It's that late?"

"Yeah, it's that late," Jenos said as he walked into the room. Sora and the others all looked at him. "Which means it's time for all of the underage humans to head off to bed." He walked over to the couch and began shoo-ing them all off and towards the door. Sora and Roxas both grumbled as they got to their feet as Kairi and Naminé began picking up the random pieces of popcorn and scattered bottles of cream soda.

"Do you even know how to fly a Gummi ship?" Sora yawned as he and the others shuffled towards the stairs, Roxas whispered something to Naminé and vanished in a flash of blue light. Jenos laughed at Sora.

"But of course!" he exclaimed as he sat down in the pilot's seat and flicked a switch, deactivating the autopilot function. The ship lurched slightly as Jenos took control. "So you kids go get a goodnight's sleep." And with that, Jenos turned on the radio and Bon Jovi's _Livin' on a Prayer_ began playing through the speakers and Jenos began humming along with the chorus. Sora and the others glanced at each other and headed down the stairs.

"So where are the bedrooms?" Naminé asked as they exited the stairs and entered the hallway. "Kairi and I have no idea where they are, remember?" Sora nodded.

"I know," he said. He pointed down the hall. "Down the hall, third door on the left. That'll take you into a semi-circular room with three doors. The door on the right will be my room; you two can have whichever of the other rooms you want and each room has its own adjacent bathroom." Both girls nodded and began heading down the hall to the door Sora had indicated. Kairi paused when she realized Sora wasn't walking with her and Naminé. He was standing by the door to the kitchen about to walk in.

"Sora?" Kairi called out. Sora looked up at her. "You coming?" she asked, gesturing down the hall to where Naminé stood by the doors to the bedrooms, waiting for the couple. Sora gave the auburn haired teen a half smile.

"I will be shortly," he said, holding up the popcorn bowl and empty soda bottles he held under his arm. "I'm just going to go take care of these." Sora smile grew slightly and he disappeared into the kitchen. Kairi stared after him for a moment before she shrugged and headed down the hall after Naminé. The blonde pressed a small red button next to the door Sora had told them to go through. The door slid into the ceiling with a whooshing sound. Kairi and Naminé stepped into the semi-circular room.

As Sora had said, there were three doors in the room, one in the center and two opposite each other on the left and right sides of the room. The lighting was dimmer in here than in the rest of the ship. A hologram projector was displaying a calm beach scene at night, complete with at full moon split in half horizontally by the ocean horizon. A small side table was bolted to the floor. A couple of books were sitting on top of the table. Naminé picked up one of the books and glanced at the back cover.

"_Unholy Storm_," she said, she placed the book back down next to the other. "And _Gathering Storm_. I take it these are Sora's?" Naminé turned to look at Kairi, who nodded.

"How'd you know?" she asked.

"He's the only person I know who leaves books lying around in random places," Naminé said with a shrug as she walked towards the room on the left. "That and those two books are part of the Derrick Storm series by Richard Castle, which is Sora's favorite book series. I call the left room, by the way." Kairi's eyes narrowed at the blonde.

"And just how did you know that?" Kairi asked her former Nobody suspiciously. Naminé laughed as the door to the room she had called opened for her.

"Don't worry yourself, sis," she said as she walked into the room. "You seem to forget that I spent a lot of time in your head and I have access to your memories and Sora's memories whenever I want. Night!" Naminé pressed a button inside her room and the door closed. Kairi remained standing there for a moment.

"Did she just call me sis?" she asked herself. She shrugged and walked over to the center room. The door slid open as she approached and the light inside automatically switched on. She walked into the room and stopped to look around.

_I think I can safely say that this was Donald's room at one point._ Kairi realized. There was a comfy looking, queen sized bed with two bedside tables on either side. Identical lamps sat on each night stand. A large mirror sat atop a beautifully polished cherry oak dresser. A flat screen was situated on the wall with a DVD player situated in a small opening in the wall. Kairi was actually impressed. Although she wasn't exactly a huge fan of the matching blue walls, carpet and sheets.

"Those will have to go," Kairi said. She walked through the room towards another door set a few feet away from the bed. As Kairi approached it, the door slid open, revealing the adjacent bathroom Sora had mentioned. It was far more upscale than she had been expecting.

Matching marble sink and tiling, silver faucets and toilet paper roll, and a large, luxurious bathtub with several jets set along the rim. Kairi approved of Donald's taste, the duck had style. She looked over at the stack of blue towels and immediately revoked her previous thought.

_WAY to much blue._ Kairi sighed. Oh well, no point in letting such a luxurious bath go unused. Kairi pressed a blue button next to the door. Kairi smiled as she knelt down, undid the laces on her lilac shoes and kicked them off. She straightened up and unzipped the front of her mini-dress, letting it fall around her ankles. She slipped out of her white halter top and tossed it to the ground onto her dress. She reached behind her back, undid the clasp of her bra and slid out of it, letting it fall to the ground, adding to the pile. She took off her necklace, adorned with a single silver bead and the bracelets on her wrist and placed them on the sink counter.

She walked over to the tub and turned on the faucet. Steaming hot water gushed from the faucet and several of the jets, quickly filling the tub. Kairi shut off the faucet with a grin. She gently placed her toes into the water, testing the temperature. She quickly pulled her toes out and slipped of the last of her underwear, tossing it over to the pile of her clothes. She slowly lowered herself into the bath with a sigh. The heat of the water helped her muscles loosen up. Kairi sank low into the water, satisfied.

Half an hour later, after the water had cooled off, Kairi climbed out of the tub feeling well relaxed. She wrapped a blue towel around herself, covering herself modestly. She strode over to the door and pressed the blue button. The hand holding her towel slipped and the towel fell to the floor. She cursed under her breath and bent to pick her towel back up as the door opened.

Kairi glanced up as she grabbed her towel. Sora stood in the doorway with one hand raised as if he had been about to knock on the door. The two of them locked eyes. Their faces immediately flushed red in unison. Sora spun on heels and faced away from her.

"I swear I didn't see anything!" Sora said quickly staring out at Kairi's room. Kairi quickly threw her towel around herself, gripping it tightly.

"Of course you didn't," she said with a laugh as she attempted to make their current situation less awkward. Sora continued to blush crimson. "But hey, I forgive you. Besides, since we're going to be living on this ship together for awhile; I'm sure we're going to catch the occasional glimpse of each other without any clothes on, right?" She placed a hand on Sora's shoulder and he turned to face her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sora said, still blushing. "Anyway, I just came in to wish you a goodnight." He pulled Kairi into a tight hug and kissed her on the top of her head."Sweet dreams, Kairi." He kissed her a second time and began walking towards the door. He paused and looked back at her. "I love you." Kairi felt her face grow warm.

"I love you too," she said, blowing Sora a kiss. "Goodnight." Sora grinned and stepped out of the room. Kairi continued to stare after him as the door closed. She smiled softly to herself and hummed tunelessly as she quickly toweled herself off. A few minutes later, after her hair was completely dry, Kairi slipped back into her underwear, crawled into bed and slowly drifted off to sleep as thoughts of Sora danced about in her mind.

_LD_

Sora whistled lightly as he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a fluffy white towel around his waist. His normally, gravity-defying hair was no longer spiky. Sora had to push it back out of his face just to see. He stepped out of the bathroom. Roxas was lying on the bed (which Sora found to be an interesting sight as the Nobody was successfully propped up by the pillows without leaving any sort indent on the pillow or shifting the sheets at all) and was watching the Food Network.

"The Food Network?" Sora asked the Nobody as he walked into the room. Roxas glanced over at him.

"Yes, I watch the Food Network," he replied. "Is that a problem?" Sora shook his head.

"Of course not," he said, sitting himself down on a chair that sat facing the TV. "The Food Network is one of my favorite channels, so I'm not surprised it's yours too." Roxas nodded.

"Makes sense," he looked over at Sora again. "Dude, what the hell is up with your hair?" Sora raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not all-" Roxas gestured with his hands above his head. "You know, gravity-defying and what not. It's lying down." Sora laughed.

"You didn't seriously think my hair stayed spiky when I showered, did you?" he explained. Roxas thought about it for a couple of minutes.

"I guess you're right," he said, turning his attention back to the TV. Sora produced a small towel seemingly from nowhere and began toweling his hair off. Both teens were quiet for a few minutes as a rerun episode of Iron Chef: America.

"Hey Sora," Roxas said, "How do you think shows and books get from world to world?" He turned to look at Sora. Sora looked up at him and removed the other towel from his head. Roxas gaped as Sora's hair, now freshly dried, leapt back into its usual spiky nature. Sora couldn't help but laugh at the bewildered look Roxas was giving him.

"What's with that look?" Sora asked. Roxas pointed at Sora's hair.

"How the hell did you get your hair to be that spiky again without using gel or hair spray?" Roxas demanded.

"To be honest with you, I haven't a clue," Sora replied. "But it's always spiky whenever it's dry and it only flat whenever it's wet. The instant it is dry enough, it jumps right back into place." Sora shrugged. "At least I never have bad hair days." Roxas chuckled.

"Lucky," Roxas said as he yawned widely. "Well, that's it for me. Night, dude." There was a brief flash of blue light and Roxas vanished into the back of Sora's mind. Sora yawned as well.

"I'd almost say the same thing for me, Roxas," Sora said quietly as he finished drying off. He walked back into the bathroom and slipped back into his underwear. "But I have a very good book to finish reading." He grabbed the copy of _Storm Fall_ he had sitting on one of his bedside tables, turned off the TV, threw himself onto his queen sized bed and delved straight into the final chapter of the Derrick Storm series.

_LD_

_Kairi struggled desperately against the chains of Darkness that held her hands above her head. The raw darkness burned her skin and caused her to feel nauseous. She couldn't see much in the darkened room. From what she could tell, she was once again in the Castle That Never Was. Figures moved around in the shadows, all laughing at her feeble attempts to escape. The girl Kyoko stood in the light, smiling at Kairi as the auburn hair teen struggled against the chains of Darkness. _

_Kairi looked to her left. Naminé and Roxas were both also chained in a similar manner as she was, although their chains seemed to be made out of- Kairi shivered. Their chains were made out of blood. Standing past Naminé and Roxas was the man in the top hat, Charden. He had one of his white gloves removed. Blood flowed freely from his palm, but instead of dripping to the ground, the blood rose from his palm and formed the chains that bound Naminé and Roxas. _

_She turned her head to the right. A woman dressed in a red dress with a black, gothic belt around her waist and a white overcoat decorated in a thousand red roses, with heavy, dark makeup, amethyst eyes and long green hair tied into a spiky ponytail on the top of her head except for her bangs, which mostly covered one of her eyes stood with a pistol aimed at Kairi's head. Kairi swallowed hard and turned her head so she was looking straight._

_Kneeling in the center of the small pool of light was Sora. His clothes were ripped to shreds. Blood streamed from dozens of wounds covering his body, slowly pooling around him on the ground. His arms were stretched out to either side by chains of darkness. A long, slender silver knife was stuck in his right shoulder. His head was hung so Kairi couldn't see his face, but she could see the steady dripping of blood falling from his head and adding to the pool already on the ground around him._

_Kairi felt tears streaming down her face. What had happened to them? Who had done that to Sora? She had a million questions but when she opened her mouth to ask them, she found she could only manage a cough. Her lungs screamed painfully at her. Kairi felt as if she had been hit in the chest with a ton of bricks._

_Behind Sora, Kairi could see Maleficent sitting on a throne, smiling evilly as she stroked her pet crow, Diablo. Pete stood next to her grinning widely. A man stepped from the shadows. He was dressed in fur lined black coat. The front of the coat was parted most of the way down the man's chest with an intricate interlace at the covering the opening. He wore a thick black belt with two buckles. His midnight black boots clacked on the ground as he walked towards the center of the room. He had long, silver white hair that parted down the middle with his bangs framing his face._

_His lavender hued eyes locked with Kairi's for a brief moment. Kairi felt fear course through her. In that brief instant of eye contact, Kairi had felt the man's bloodlust and murderous intent. She also felt an immense power radiating from him. She tore her eyes away from the man and forced herself to glare at Maleficent. The evil witch didn't pay her any attention. _

_Maleficent shot a glare at the man as she rose to her feet. Was it her imagination, or did Kairi see a tiny bit of fear in Maleficent's eyes as she glared at the man? The silver haired man reached his right hand around himself and gripped the handle of the sheathed sword he held in his left hand. He slowly drew it. _

_Kairi stared in disbelief. There was no blade, only the hilt of the blade. The man raised the bladeless hilt above his head, as if he were raising a real sword and was about to cleave Sora in half._

"_NO!" Maleficent cried out. "This is MY revenge, Creed, not yours! I will kill the boy!" The man, Creed, stared at Maleficent for a moment. Then he shrugged and slid the bladeless hilt back into the sheath and turned away from Sora._

"_As you wish," he said uncaringly. Maleficent grinned widely. She strode over to Sora and wrenched the knife from his back, far from gently. Sora let out a howl of pain. Kairi tried to cry out to him but only coughed up a small spurt of blood. Maleficent grinned wickedly as she clutched Sora's hair with her free hand, yanking his head up so he was staring at Kairi. Kairi felt her heart break as Sora looked at her with his pained eyes. Kairi realized, both of them knew what was about to happen._

"_Any final words, Keyblade brat?" Maleficent said sinisterly as she rotated the knife in her hand. Sora continued to stare at Kairi. He slowly forced his mouth into a smile. _

"_Kairi," he said weakly. "I love you. I'm so sorry this had to happen." A single tear rolled down his cheek. Kairi felt a river of tears begin to stream from her eyes, blurring her vision._

"_I love you too," she managed to say. Her voice sounded hoarse as she spoke. Sora continued to force a smile for her, even as the knife tip plunged towards Sora's throat. An explosion rocked the room nearby and light flooded the room. Everyone except Maleficent, Kairi and Sora looked at the source. Sora and Kairi refused to take their eyes off one another. The tip of the knife was less than half an inch from ending Sora's life when-_

Kairi woke up screaming Sora's name, terrified for his life. Kairi looked around her and remembered she was still in her bedroom on the _Kingdom_. She shivered. That nightmare had been too realistic for her tastes. Kairi felt tears rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them off on the bed sheets and got off the bed.

_At least I didn't have to watch him die._ Kairi thought as she stumbled towards the door. _I don't think I could handle that; dream or not._ She opened her door with the push of a button and headed out into the semi-circular room. She wasn't sure why, but she felt a need to see Sora, to make sure he was okay. Kairi raised her hand to knock on Sora's door.

_LD_

_She stood there in stunned disbelief as the light in his eyes dimmed. He reached out for her and she took his hand, squeezing it for the very last time. She felt her heart stop a beat and in that moment, she knew he was gone. Darkness fell across the face of the city and across her face as well. _

"_Good "' she thought, as the wind gathered up her hair, "now no one will see my tears."_

Sora closed _Storm Fall_, feeling very satisfied. He couldn't help but wonder; why did Richard Castle end his best-selling Derrick Storm series by putting a bullet through Storm's head? Sora shrugged it off and placed the book on the nightstand. He slid himself under the covers of his bed and pressed a small green button on the nightstand. All of the lights went out at once.

He closed his eyes to finally enjoy a good night's sleep when there was a knock on his door. He let out a barely audible groan and threw the covers off of himself. Sora slowly shuffled to the door. Whoever was on the other side knocked again. Sora yawned widely and pressed the button to open the door.

"Kairi?" Sora said in surprise as the door opened. Kairi was standing there, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes. Sora's face flushed red for a moment as he realized she was only dressed in her underwear but it vanished when he realized she had tears streaming down her face. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" Kairi threw her arms around Sora, pulling him tightly into a hug and burying her face into his chest. Sora was taken slightly aback.

"Um, Kairi?" Sora asked running a hand through her hair. "What are-"

"I just had to make sure you were okay," Kairi muttered into his chest. She pulled back slightly and looked up at Sora. Sora raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a small smile.

"Of course I'm okay," he said as he wiped Kairi's tears from her cheeks. "Why wouldn't I be?" Kairi wiped her nose on the back of her hand and looked past Sora into his room.

"Can I come in?" she asked him. "I really need to sit down." Sora nodded and stepped aside, allowing Kairi room to walk in. Kairi smiled slightly and walked into the room. Sora pressed a button and closed the door behind them. Kairi walked over to Sora's bed and sat down on the edge. She glanced at the messed up covers.

"Did I wake you up?" she asked Sora as he sat down next to her. Sora shook his head.

"Nah, I had literally just climbed into bed," Sora said with a slight shrug. He shifted himself closer to Kairi and placed his hand on hers. "So, what happened that got you all worried?" Kairi took a deep breath and explained all about her nightmare. By the time she was finished, she had tears slowly starting to stream down her face again.

"It was just a dream, Kairi," Sora said soothingly as his thumb traced circles on the back of her hand. Kairi leaned over and rested her head on Sora's shoulder.

"I know," she said, wiping her tears away on the back of her free hand. "But it just felt so real, I actually felt the Darkness in those chains I told you about hurting me." Sora placed and arm across her back and pulled her closer to him.

"It's okay Kairi," he said, kissing the top of her head gently. "I promise you it was just a dream." Kairi looked up at Sora as if she didn't believe him. "Besides, do you really think Maleficent could capture me?" Kairi considered this.

"I guess you're right," she said slowly. Then she brightened up a tiny bit. "Besides, that Creed guy I saw must've been a figment of my imagination. After all, who uses a sword with no blade?" She smiled up at Sora and he smiled back down at her.

"There you go!" he said, briefly tightening his hug. "Feel better now?" Kairi nodded and kissed Sora on the cheek."Thank you."

"No big deal," Sora said. He got to his feet and stretched his arms above his head, feeling the vertebrae in his back pop satisfyingly. "Now, how about we both get to bed so that when we get to Radiant Garden tomorrow we'll be well rested, okay?" Sora walked over to his door and opened it. He glanced behind him. Kairi was still sitting on the bed, watching him.

"Kairi?" he said. Kairi took a deep breath.

"Is it alright if I sleep here tonight?" she asked. Sora felt his heart skip a beat.

"Wh-what?" he stammered. "Why?"

"Because I don't think I'll be able to go to sleep if I have to be alone," she explained. "I almost had to watch you die, Sora." Kairi's voice began to rise slightly and tears were beginning to form in the corners of her eyes again. Sora could see a tiny bit of fear in her eyes as well. "It'll be easier for me to sleep if I'm here with you. Is that okay?" Sora felt his heart pound rapidly. He thought about it for a moment.

"Of-of course it's okay, Kairi," he said, swallowing hard as he looked over at Kairi, suddenly very aware of the fact that she was in nothing but her underwear. He pressed the button to close the door behind him and walked back over to the bed. Sora pulled back the covers for her. Kairi smiled warmly at him.

"Thank you for understanding, Sora," she said as she slid under the covers. Sora circled around to the other side of the bed and flipped back the covers on his side before climbing in. As he pulled the covers back over himself, Kairi shifted herself so she was pressed up against Sora. "Goodnight," she whispered. She planted a soft kiss on his cheek and closed her eyes. Sora smiled softly down at her.

"Sweet dreams, Kairi," he said gently. He kissed the top of her head softly and closed his eyes as well, and the pair of them drifted slowly to sleep.

_LD_

_Wednesday, June 2__nd__ 4794 P.C._

Naminé's eyes fluttered open. She yawned widely and sat up to stretch, causing the covers to slip off her bare chest. She lunged for them and pulled them nearly back up to her chin before she remembered that she was alone in her room. She didn't have to worry about anyone seeing her naked.

Naminé grinned at the thought and slowly climbed out of bed. She hummed softly to herself as she strode over to the tower stereo that stood in one corner of her room, exaggerating her hip swings for her own amusement. She let out a small laugh to herself and opened the small CD cabinet that rested on the ground next to the radio and began rifling through the CDs that were available.

It took her about a minute to find one she felt like listening to. She popped the disc into the player and pressed the SKIP button repeatedly until she found the track she was looking for. A lone guitar began playing. Naminé grabbed a pen that was sitting on her empty dresser and began singing along to the lyrics as drums began to beat through the speakers of the stereo.

_Right, right, turn off the lights.  
We gonna lose our minds tonight  
What's the dealio?_

_I love when it's all too much  
Five AM turn the radio up  
Where's the rock and roll? _

Naminé began dancing around her room, imagining herself up on a stage with a thousand screaming fans cheering for her as she sang.

_Party crasher, penny snatcher  
Call me up if you are gangster  
Don't be fancy  
Just get dancy  
Why so serious?  
So raise your glass if you are wrong  
In all the right ways,  
All my underdogs, we will never be, never be  
Anything but loud  
And nitty gritty dirty little freaks  
Won't you come on, and come on, and  
Raise your glass  
Just come on and come and  
Raise Your Glass!_

_Slam, slam, oh hot damn.  
What part of party don't you understand?  
Wish you'd just freak out (freak out already)  
Can't stop coming in hot  
I should be locked up right on the spot  
It's so on right now (so fuckin' on right now)_

_Party crasher, penny snatcher  
Call me up if you a gangster  
Don't be fancy  
Just get dancy  
Why so serious?_

_So raise your glass if you are wrong  
In all the right ways  
All my underdogs, we will never be, never be  
Anything but loud  
And nitty gritty dirty little freaks_

_Won't you come on, and come on, and  
Raise your glass  
Just come on and come and  
Raise Your Glass!  
Won't you come on and come on and  
Raise your glass!  
Just come on and come and  
Raise your glass!_

_Oh shit my glass is empty...  
That sucks !_

_So if you're too school for cool (I mean...)  
And you're treated like a fool (treated like a fool)  
You could choose to let it go  
We can always, we can always  
party on our own..._

_So raise your (Aw fuck)  
So raise your glass if you are wrong  
In all the right ways,  
All my underdogs, we will never be, never be  
Anything but loud.  
And nitty gritty dirty little freaks  
So raise your glass if you are wrong  
In all the right ways,  
All my underdogs, we will never be, never be,  
Anything but loud  
And nitty gritty dirty little freaks  
Won't you come on and come on and  
Raise your glass!  
Just come on and come and  
Raise your glass!  
Won't you come on and come on and  
Raise your glass!  
For me!  
Just come on and come and  
Raise your glass...for me._

Naminé stopped dancing around her room, she felt exhilarated. Her cheeks were flushed red at the thought of being a rock star. She let out a small chuckle and took a deep breath to steady her heart rate and glanced at the clock. It was almost ten thirty. She pressed a hand to her stomach as it let out a long low growl. Naminé sighed and shut off the stereo. She grabbed her black cloak from the back of the chair where she had folded and left it the previous night. She quickly slipped into the cloak, gasping in slight surprise as black pants and matching heeled boots magically appeared on her body.

"That's going to take some getting used to," she muttered. She walked over to the mirror that hung next to her door and examined her hair. Perfectly straight and golden blonde, as always. Naminé smiled to herself and inhaled deeply. A faint aroma drifted into her nostrils, causing her stomach to growl again. Her mouth began to water.

"Is that bacon and eggs I smell?" Naminé exclaimed eagerly. She darted to her door and slammed her palm against the button. She ducked under her door before it was even halfway open and bolted for the kitchen. She slid to a stop just outside the kitchen door.

Jenos was inside, flipping freshly prepared waffles onto a plate. Naminé's stomach let out another loud growl as Jenos topped the waffles with butter, whipped cream, and a strawberry. Jenos turned at the sound of the growl. He let out a small laugh when he saw the look of hunger on Naminé's face. He held out the plate of waffles he had just prepared to her.

"Morning," he said cheerily. "Bacon and eggs are on the table and coffee's in the pot." Naminé grinned and took the plate from Jenos.

"Thanks, Jenos," she said as she walked past him to add bacon and eggs to her plate. Jenos nodded and poured more batter onto the waffle iron. Naminé poured herself a cup of coffee, tossing in a couple of packets of sugar and some Irish crème creamer, before sitting down at the table. She eagerly cut into the waffles and took a bite.

"Oh my god," Naminé said in surprise. "Jenos, these are delicious!" Jenos grinned at her and tossed the next set of freshly prepared waffles onto a plate. Naminé took another bite. Extremely light, fluffy, cooked just long enough and with a mouth-wateringly strong taste; these waffles were the best waffles Naminé had ever had.

_Definitely better than the ones Axel always made when I was in Castle Oblivion._ Naminé thought as she took another bite. _He always seemed to cook them just a little bit too long._ She glanced around the table. No sign of Sora or Kairi anywhere. Naminé swallowed and spun in her seat to look over at Jenos.

"Hey Jenos," she said, raising her voice over the sound of popping grease as Jenos slapped more slices of bacon down on the frying pan on the stove. "Where are Kairi and Sora at? Did they already eat?" Jenos shrugged.

"As far as I know, both of them are still in bed," he replied as he poured another batch of waffle batter onto the iron. "You can go wake them up if you want. I'm sure they're both hungry." Naminé nodded, wondering why she had thought that Sora and Kairi would be up before she was. Especially considering Sora was the laziest out of all three of them.

Naminé got to her feet and grabbed her plate. There was no way in hell she was going to let waffles as delicious as these grow cold while she went to wake up the others. She walked out of the kitchen, munching on a piece of bacon as she left. Hell, even the bacon was delicious! She took her time walking down the hall to the semi-circular room that led to the bedrooms. She paid more attention to her surroundings as she strode down the hall. There was an oil painting of a magnificent white castle with blue topped towers. There was a picture of Sora, Donald and Goofy from the time the three of them first met over two and a half years ago in Traverse Town.

Naminé smiled at the photo as she walked past it, taking a large bite of waffle in the process. She elbowed the button to open the door to the semi-circular room and headed straight for Kairi's room. She kicked the base of Kairi's door.

"Kairi!" she called. "Rise and shine! Jenos made waffles! And more importantly, bacon! I know you have a mildly unhealthy love for bacon!" There was no response. Naminé frowned. "Kairi? Are you in the bath? Are you ignoring me? What'd I ever do to you?" Still no response. Naminé growled. "Alright, I'm coming in." Naminé nudged the button to open Kairi's door with her chin. Naminé poked her head into Kairi's room as the door rose.

"Kairi?" Naminé called out. The covers on Kairi's bed appeared to have been thrown back in a rush. Naminé walked further into the room and stuck her head through the door to Kairi's bathroom. Still no sign of Kairi anywhere.

"Where the hell is she?" Naminé asked herself as she left Kairi's room. She glanced over at Sora's room. "Hopefully Sora's starting to get up," she muttered as she walked up to his door. Naminé pressed the button to open Sora's door. "Hey Sora, are you up? I need your help with finding-" she froze as Sora's door opened and she found herself staring at his bed. "Oh my god."

_LD_

Kairi yawned widely and slowly opened her eyes. She smiled softly as she immediately saw Sora's still sleeping face. She shifted herself closer to him so the tip of her nose was pressed up against his. She tilted her head up, lightly nudging Sora with her nose.

"Sora," she whispered softly. "Are you awake?" Sora slowly grinned and opened his eyes, staring straight into Kairi's.

"I hope so," he said with a yawn. "Because if this turns out to be just a dream, it's gonna suck." Kairi giggled as Sora flashed his trademark goofy grin. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a brief kiss.

"Good morning, beautiful," Sora said as they pulled apart. Kairi rolled her eyes.

"Oh please," she said, glancing at her reflection on Sora's flat screen. "My hair is a mess, my eyes still have a sleepy sort of look in them and I don't even have makeup on. I am not beautiful." Sora let out a small sigh as he sat up straighter. He grabbed Kairi's shoulders and spun her gently so she was facing him again.

"You don't need makeup to be beautiful, Kairi," he said softly, staring her directly in the eyes. "And it doesn't matter to me one way or the other if your hairs a mess or not. You are always beautiful, even when you think you look hideous. Trust me." Kairi smiled and planted a soft kiss on Sora's cheek.

"If you say so," she said. "I guess I'll believe you this one time." Sora rolled his eyes and Kairi punched him playfully in the arm. Kairi's nose twitched slightly. "Do you smell bacon?" Sora chuckled and took a whiff of the air. Sure enough, there was a strong smell of bacon and… waffles? Sora took another sniff. Definitely waffles. And they were practically right outside his door. Kairi seemed to realize this just as Sora did. They exchanged a brief glance of confusion. The pair of them nearly leapt out of their skins as Sora's door opened unexpectedly.

"Hey Sora, are you up? I need your help with finding-" Naminé said as she poked her head into Sora's room. She froze when she caught sight of Sora and Kairi both staring at her with wide eyes, neither of them dressed in more than their underwear. "Oh my god." Naminé's face slowly broke into a grin. Sora and Kairi's faces both flushed crimson as they realized what Naminé must be thinking.

"So sorry to bother you," Naminé said as she backed away from Sora's door. "I didn't realize you two were, ahem, busy. I'll just be on my way then." The door closed as Naminé walked away. Sora and Kairi both glanced at each other.

"Well that was slightly awkward," Sora said after a few moments of silence. Kairi nodded and bit her lower lip nervously.

"Come on," she said as she got to her feet and stretched her arms above her head. "Let's get dressed so we can explain the situation to Naminé before she can tell Jenos, or call anyone and tell them." Sora briefly considered what would happen if Naminé told Riku about what she had seen.

"Good idea," he said. He rolled out of bed, grabbing his pants from the floor in the process and slipped them on. "I'll meet you up in the kitchen." Kairi nodded and gave him a quick kiss before leaving for her own bedroom. Sora smiled after her as he slipped on his shirt, jacket and silver crown pendant.

He left his room and headed up to the kitchen. Naminé and Jenos both stared at him as he walked in. Sora paused at the looks on their faces. The pair each had an eyebrow cocked, as if they were waiting for him to finish telling a story. Sora walked past them and placed a couple of waffles onto a plate.

"Well," Jenos said as a grin spread across his face. "Spill it." Sora looked down at the waffles on his plate and back up at Jenos.

"Why should I spill my waffles?" he asked the older man. "They look delicious and that seems like a waste of food to me." Naminé rolled her eyes.

"He means spill the beans about you and Kairi and all of the weird stuff you did to each other last night," she explained. "And you can either tell us, or I can dig around inside both of your memories for the details. I'm not picky." She grinned at Sora. There was something about that grin that sent a shiver up Sora's spine. He knew instantly that Naminé wasn't joking around.

"Nothing happened, Naminé," Kairi said as she entered the kitchen. "So please stop prying for details of things Sora and I have yet to do." Naminé studied Kairi carefully as the auburn-haired girl poured herself a cup of coffee. Naminé sighed.

"Damn, and here I was hoping you two had done something so I could have an interesting story to tell everyone." Sora accidentally swallowed a large bite of waffle without chewing as Naminé spoke, resulting in him gagging terribly. He quickly grabbed a glass of orange juice (which Jenos had just poured for himself) and chugged it, making it easier to down the un-chewed food.

"Hey! That was my orange juice!" Jenos exclaimed as Sora set the empty glass down on the table. Sora grinned sheepishly at him.

"Sorry about that Jenos," he said. Jenos looked sadly at the glass for a moment before getting to his feet to pour himself a new glass. Sora turned his attention to Naminé. "And just why would you want to tell everyone about what me and Kairi are up to?" Naminé grinned devilishly back at him.

"Oh, you know. Personal amusements, settle some bets, the usual," she said slyly. Sora and Kairi stared at her, eyebrows raised.

"Who exactly is betting on when Sora and I have sex for the first time?" Kairi asked. Naminé started counting on her fingers.

"Well there's definitely Selp-" Naminé began, but she was cut off as two separate alarms went off. Sora leapt from his seat and bolted out of the kitchen for the bridge. Kairi, Naminé and Jenos quickly followed suit with Jenos pausing long enough to pick up his glass of orange juice. Sora reached the bridge and practically threw himself into the pilot's chair. He kicked the switch labeled _Autopilot_, giving himself manual controls.

Sora grabbed hold of the steering wheel and flicked a switch set into the side of it. Immediately, one of the alarms stopped blaring.

"What's going on?" Kairi shouted over the alarm as she and Naminé buckled themselves into the remaining two chairs.

"That was the World Proximity Alarm and the Potential Hostile Gummi Ship Alarm!" Sora shouted over the still blaring alarm. "I shut of the WPA but I can't get the PHGSA to shut off! Donald never taught me how!"

"Maybe it's one of those clap things!" Naminé suggested. She clapped her hands twice and the alarm went silent. "There we go." Everyone stared at her.

"How the hell did you figure that out so quickly?" Sora asked. "I've been on this ship and had to deal with that alarm a thousand times. I've never been able to shut that thing off!" Naminé shrugged.

"Luck I guess," she said with a grin. Sora stared at her for a moment before shrugging and turning his attention back to piloting the _Kingdom_. A purple and pink hued world appeared in front of them; Radiant Garden. Naminé turned to Kairi.

"So, are you excited to finally see your home world after all these years?" the former Nobody asked.

"Way to make her sound like an alien, Naminé," Roxas said as he appeared in a blue flash of light, lounging on the couch in a pair of black and white checkered pajama bottoms. Naminé, Kairi and Jenos stared at him. Roxas smiled and waved at them. "Morning everyone!"

"Incoming!" Jenos shouted suddenly, pointing at the radar. Two red dots were rapidly approaching the yellow triangle in the center of the radar that represented the _Kingdom_'s location. Outside of the cockpit, a pair of yellow Gummi fighter's shot past the _Kingdom_.

The _Kingdom_ rocked back and forth as the other ships zoomed past. The other ships slowed down so they were flying parallel to the _Kingdom_. Each ship was triangular in shape, with a pair of small Fira-class engines on the wider end of the triangle. In the center of each ship was a cockpit large enough for one pilot.

"Um, Sora," Kairi said nervously. "What's going on?" Sora swallowed hard.

"I don't know, Kairi," he said. "But I get the feeling it's not going to end well." The COMM system began to crackle.

"You are entering Radiant Garden Airspace," a tough sounding female voice said. "Due to the Heartless threat, you are required to present your security codes." Sora glanced over at Jenos and mouthed "Security codes?" Jenos shrugged, a small bead of sweat forming on his brow from nerves.

"If you fail to comply, we will be forced to shoot your ship down." Another female voice said on the COMM. "Present your codes now."

"Umm, we don't have any codes," Sora said. "It's been a while since we were last here and that was before there was a security-"

"No codes huh?" the first female voice spoke up. "That's a pity." Sora glanced out of the window. A panel opened up underneath each of the other Gummi ships. Missile pods lowered themselves and turned to face the _Kingdom_.

"Oh shit," Sora and Jenos said in unison. The second female spoke again on the COMM again.

"Goodbye."

_LD _

* * *

_Talk about a welcoming committee. Don't you hate it when you don't have the security codes you need? I know I do._

_Chapter Nine is almost done, all I have left to do is add the finishing touches and make sure it's edited. I should have it up and running in the next week or so. But I promise not to vanish for a month and a half again. _

_I've also decided that I'm going to answer any questions I get from the previous chapter's reviews i receive at the end of each new chapter. Well, I'll answer what I can without spoiling future events in the story._

_**janus-juan: **__This is one of those questions I can't answer without giving away more than I want to, so all I'm going to say is that one way or the other, your question will be answered in Chapter Ten. And, either way, I do have plans for Naminé._  
_**Ragnarok Warrior: **__I'm not entirely sure off the top of my head when Sora learned Zantetsuken. I'm going to have to go look that one up._

_**Linkandzel:**__ Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of Riku. He'll be showing up more often starting a few chapters from now. Mostly because he's not doing anything right now other than flying around. But he will be returning in the very near future, I promise._

_That's it for now! Chapter Nine will be up in the near future. And as always, reviews are greatly appreciated! Hope everyone is having a good year!_

_-Shadow Horizons_


	9. Back in the Garden

_And I'm back!_

_As of Sunday, my computer has been officialy repaired and my and my Beta were finally able to go through the chapters I had prepared to release two weeks ago. About time. _

_Thanks go out to__** janus-juan**__, __**Ragnarok warrior**__, __**Linkandzel**__, __**Shire Folk**__, __**LordSilegna**__, __**Xtrepe Nobody**__, and __**knarf2010**__ for reviewing last time._

_Once again, I present a three-chapter update!_

_Disclaimer: Despite my best efforts, I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Black Cat or any music I may or may not choose to use. I do however own my original characters, my plot, my ideas and this bottle of Dr. Pepper I just finished drinking._

Enjoy!

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Nine: Back in the Garden

_Wednesday, June 2__nd__ 4794 P.C._

"Jenos!" Sora shouted as he began to angle the _Kingdom_ away from the other two Gummi ships. "I need you to reroute all power not being used to boost shield energy!" Jenos ran over to a control panel covered in a multitude of various switches and readouts. A flash of gold enveloped the _Kingdom_ for a brief second as the shields received the energy boost.

"Do you really think a ship like yours can outrun a Rapier Class Gummi Fighter?" the first female voice asked over the COMM. "Seriously? Just surrender and accept your death. It's a lot easier than attempting to flee." The two Rapiers dove from above the _Kingdom_ and shot straight for them. The _Kingdom_'s shields flashed gold as each of the fighters unleashed a volley of shots from a pair of small Thundaga turrets set into the nose of each Rapier.

"Shields down to seventy-four percent power!" Jenos shouted, staring at one of the readouts. "Two more hits like that and we're dead in the water!"

"But we're in space," Roxas commented. "Not the ocean." Jenos shot him a glare.

"It's figure of speech!" he snapped at the Nobody. Roxas held up his hands in an _I surrender_ sort of way.

"Stop shooting at us!" Sora shouted into a microphone. "We're with the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee!" Seven missiles streaked towards the _Kingdom_. Sora jerked the steering wheel to the right, throwing the ship into a barrel roll. Jenos let out a cry of shock as he was hurled across the cockpit. The missiles barely missed the _Kingdom_ and collided with each other a split second after Sora righted the ship. A massive orange fireball lit up the space near the _Kingdom_.

"We haven't done anything wrong!" Kairi shouted into her headset as Sora accelerated to avoid another volley of cannon fire. "Why do you want to kill us?"

"Protocol," the first female pilot said. "Any ship without proper clearance and is not a Civilian Cruiser or escorting a Civilian Cruiser is to be shot down. You're flying a Kingdom-Class Fighter so you aren't refugees and you obviously aren't a Civilian Cruiser or escorting one. Need I go on?"

"I told you," Sora growled into his headset. "We're with the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee! You can ask any of the Restoration Committee! They'll tell you it's true!"

"Your lies won't spare you," the second female pilot said. "Now hold still so we have a clear shot at you." Sora groaned in response. "Have it your way then." She said. Then another voice, male this time crackled onto the COMM.

"Rapier Fourteen, Rapier Fifteen. Cease your assault immediately. Please confirm."

"What?" One of the female pilots shouted. "But, sir!"

"Please confirm, Fifteen." The male voice barked. The other female pilot, whom Sora assumed was Rapier Fourteen, sighed heavily.

"Acknowledged, Command," she said. "Breaking off pursuit. I hope you know what you're doing."

"Of course I know what I'm doing!" a new voice said. "So quit your belly-achin'!" Sora grinned. He'd recognize that gruff voice anywhere. "Howdy, Sora! How've you been since you last decided to stop by?"

"I've been doing great, Cid," Sora said. "Thanks for calling off those fighters. You had us worried there for a moment." Sora and the others could hear Cid chuckle softly on the other end.

"Don't you mention it," he said. "Tell you what, I'll come meet you down in Hangar Forty-two. How's that sound? Then you can tell me all about what you've been up to since you took off last." Sora stared out the window as Radiant Garden grew larger, completely dominating the view on the bridge.

"Um, sure," Sora said hesitantly. "But I have one quick question for you, Cid."

"Fire away, kiddo."

"Where's Hangar Forty-two? Because the last time I was here there were no Hangars or anything like that." There was an audible slap on the other end of the COMM. Sora figured Cid had just smacked himself in the face.

"That's right!" he exclaimed, I completely forgot that you weren't here when the Gummi Station was finally finished! Just a moment, Sora." On the other end of the COMM they could hear Cid clearing his throat loudly. "Rapier Fourteen, do you copy?"

"Loud and clear, Command," the first female pilot said in response.

"Rapier Fourteen, I need you to escort that ship you blew to Kingdom Come a couple of minutes ago to Hangar Forty-two." Cid said.

"Roger that, Command," the female pilot said. "Rapier Fourteen out." One of the yellow Rapier fighters flew up next to the _Kingdom_. "Just follow me." Sora did as he was told and followed the fighter as it slowly changed its path so they were headed straight for the world.

"Oh, my head," Jenos said, as he pulled himself up, using the couch for support. "Are we dead yet?" Roxas looked over at him.

"Nope, we're still alive," the Nobody said with a grin. Jenos sighed in relief.

"Thank God," he said as he slumped onto the couch.

"Entering the atmosphere," Sora said. "You better hang on to something, Jenos; it's about to get pretty bumpy." Jenos let out a snort of laughter.

"I'm one of the Chronos Numbers, Sora. I highly doubt a little turbulence is going to be able to do anything to me." As if on cue the _Kingdom_ shook violently as it pierced through Radiant Garden's atmosphere. Jenos was thrown from couch into the ceiling and back down where he landed face first on the floor. Kairi, Naminé and Roxas all laughed as he fell. Sora grinned.

"I warned you," he said with a small laugh. Jenos let out a low groan and muttered a curse under his breath. For a minute, they couldn't see anything out of the cockpit except bright orange and red. Then the view cleared, revealing an ocean. That spread endlessly in one direction. Dark purple and blue mountains, valleys and plains bordered the sea. Clearly visible at the top of a plateau was the city for which the world was named, Radiant Garden. Sora noticed they weren't headed for the city though.

"Um, where exactly is the Gummi Station?" Sora said, speaking into the microphone.

"Not too far from the city," their escort replied. "The Radiant Garden Restoration Committee had it built into the side of Mt. Kathleines, which is basically a hollowed out dead volcano." Sora glanced around at the mountain sides nearby the city. Sure enough, he could see the tiny, multi-colored dots of Gummi Ships entering and leaving a mountainside.

"We've gotten heavy traffic this week," the escort continued. "Ever since Traverse Town was lost to the Darkness, we've been receiving all of the inter-world traffic. So proceed with caution as we get closer to the Station." Sora gasped in surprise.

"Traverse Town was taken?" he said, deeply shocked.

"Unfortunately. Be careful. A squadron of Broadsword Class Fighter Gummi ships is about to take off from the nearest hangar to escort a civilian transport." Sora and the others watched as the Station grew nearer.

Gummi ships of all shapes, sizes and colors were flying around. Several single pilot fighter ships were running flying drills over the mountain's peak. A section of the mountain opened up and a group of five fighters, each one shaped like an arrow, but with large wings armed with missiles and four Thundaga cannons, blasted out of a concealed hangar, and immediately made a ninety degree vertical turn up and shot off into the atmosphere.

"Hangar Forty-two opening now," their escort said as they neared the mountain side. A pair of massive bay doors decorated with at large Forty-two opened before them slowly, revealing a hangar that could fit the _Kingdom_ at least four times over.

"Hey Naminé," Sora said as he navigated them towards the hangar. "Could you be a pal and hit that bright orange switch on you left there and lower our landing gear?" Naminé complied and hit the switch for Sora. The words _Landing Gear Lowered_ appeared on a small screen in front of the blonde.

"Okay, you're all set for landing," Naminé said, rotating her seat to look at Sora. Sora gave her the thumbs up.

"Thanks Naminé," he said. The _Kingdom_ slowed down as it entered the Hangar. Sora gently set the ship down on its four legs with a loud hiss from the suspension. Sora locked the steering wheel in place and powered down the engines. He and the others all unbuckled themselves and made their way off of the ship. Sora lowered the ramp for them as they walked down the hallway to the exit. Waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp was a woman dressed in a long pink and white dress with long, braided brown hair, bangs framing her face and emerald green eyes.

"Hello everyone," she said as they all walked down the ramp.

"Hey Aerith," Sora said cheerily. "How've things been going since I left?" Aerith smiled at him.

"They've been going great, as you can see," she gestured around at the hangar. "But they've also been incredibly busy. Our population has skyrocketed ever since you last left, Sora. Now, instead of only having a couple hundred citizens, we have at least thirty thousand people living here." Sora, Kairi and Naminé all gaped at Aerith in shock.

"Are you serious?" Naminé asked in surprise. Aerith nodded.

"I am quite serious," she replied. She looked down at Naminé quizzically."I don't believe you and I have met. I'm Aerith." Aerith held out her hand towards Naminé. Naminé took it with a smile.

"Nice to meet you Aerith," she said. "I'm Naminé, Kairi's former Nobody." Aerith raised her eyebrows at this.

"What do you mean by 'former Nobody'?" she asked.

"Basically, I used to be a Nobody with my own body. Then I rejoined with Kairi and lost my body so I lived inside her head for a few weeks. Then when Sora took his Mark of Mastery Exam to become a Keyblade Master, I was looking into the memories of a Chaser and I accidentally accessed his power. That power created me a body and heart and now I'm no longer a Nobody," Naminé explained quickly without taking a breath until she finished. Aerith looked over at Sora in confusion.

"That's about as much sense as anyone can get out of that," Sora said with a laugh. He glanced around the mostly empty hangar. "Hey, where's Cid? I thought he said on the COMM that he was going to meet us here."

"I'm right here; don't get your panties in a bunch!" Cid said walking through a large door that opened on the wall, leading deeper into the mountain. "Long time no-see, eh Sora?" he said as he approached. He was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt. A pair of pilot's goggles rested on top of his spiky blonde hair. He walked up to Sora, pulled him into a headlock and proceeded to give him a noogie. Sora managed to escape the older man's grasp.

"Good to see you, Cid," Sora said. He tenderly massaged the top of his head. "I'm sure you remember Kairi?" Sora gestured at his auburn-haired girlfriend who waved at Cid. Cid nodded.

"Of course I remember her!" he said, smiling back at her. "I'm not that old!" Everyone laughed at that.

"And this is Naminé, Kairi's former Nobody. And that guy over there in the suit is Jenos," Sora said, introducing the other two. Cid glanced at Jenos.

"Already met him," he said gruffly before turning to Naminé. "And how exactly can you be a former Nobody, little miss?" Naminé gave him the same explanation she had given Aerith. Cid's brow furrowed in confusion after Naminé finished giving her explanation. "Um, care to repeat that?" Sora, Kairi and Naminé all let out a brief laugh.

"I promise it'll make more sense once we've had time to catch up," Sora explained. Cid nodded.

"You're probably right," he said. He turned on his heel and headed for the doorway, waving for everyone to follow as he did so. "If that's the case, let's go meet up with the others so you can explain it to all of us." Everyone followed Cid out of the hangar and into a long, steel hallway. Sora glanced behind them and saw the bay doors to the outside close, effectively protecting the Kingdom from anything flying around on the outside.

The group followed Cid down the long hallway for several minutes before they reached a large circular room with a domed ceiling. There were several hundred people milling about in the room, most of who were standing in lines. There was a single line marked "Departures" that nobody was waiting in. Sora glanced around. There were at least a dozen lines, all marked "To Radiant Garden". Each line led to a row of at least half a dozen pods similar to the ones in the _Kingdom_'s Warp Room. Flashes of white light cast strange shadows around the room.

"How exactly are we getting to the city?" Sora asked Cid. He had to raise his voice to be head over the din that was being made by almost all of the other people in the room. They had to sidestep a harassed looking woman leading a group of four screaming children.

"We're going to be using a modified version of the Warp System," Cid said loudly. "Basically, instead of warping from orbit to the world, we'll be warping from here to the city. Keep close so we don't lose each other in the crowds." They continued to weave their way through the crowd. They finally found themselves on the opposite side of the room, standing in front of a door labeled _Radiant Garden Restoration Committee Members Only_. Cid pulled out a small key card and swiped it through a scanner that was attached to the side of the door.

The door swung open, revealing a small room lined with ten warp pods. The group slowly filed in with Cid closing the door behind Jenos.

"Alright, everyone get in a pod," Cid said as he began typing something in on a small computer set into one of the walls. They all did as they were told. One by one they climbed into the pods and closed the doors, sealing themselves in. Cid finished typing and hoisted himself into one of the remaining pods. A large red crystal lowered itself from the ceiling. As Cid closed the door of his pod, the crystal flashed blue for a fraction of a second. Each pod was flooded with white light for a moment.

_LD_

The great wizard, Merlin, dressed in his usual attire of a long blue robe and matching pointed hat, sat in his home sipping a cup of tea. He let out a small sigh of content. Ever since the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee had set up their headquarters at his house, he had rarely had a day of quiet.

And those days were even harder to come by now that the population of the city was growing at an exponential rate, what with the constant babble from the marketplace a few blocks away and the never ending construction work that had to be done so homes could be built for all of the newcomers so no one would be homeless. Merlin glanced up at the clock on the wall. Just a little past two.

"Sora and Princess Kairi should arrive on this world any minute now, Archimedes," the old wizard said as he took another sip of his tea. He looked up at the bird house that hung above the book covered dais in the center of the living room. No response.

"Lazy bird," Merlin muttered.

"I heard that!" Archimedes the owl said, poking his head out of the small opening in the front of his house. "And I am not lazy! I'm sleepy. There is a difference." The owl withdrew his head. Merlin snorted.

"It's past two!" Merlin retorted. "That makes you lazy!"

"Need I remind you that I am a _nocturnal_ animal?" Archimedes said, not even bothering to stick his head out. "That means I'm up at night and asleep during the day!"

"You're just using that as an excuse!" Merlin said as he finished off the last of his tea. He set the cup back down on its saucer as the house began to shake slightly. Merlin glanced up at the clock.

"Hmm, they're earlier than expected," he said. He conjured up a door onto the wall and opened it, revealing a staircase that led to a basement. As he headed down the basement, flames magically flickered to life in small notches carved into the wall. He opened a door at the bottom of the stairs, revealing a room filled with ten man-sized pods and a large red crystal. There was a pile of about six people tangled up together in the middle of the room.

"Oh my," Merlin said as the group began to untangle themselves from one another. "This is why I prefer magical travel to using technology to teleport." Cid groaned as he pulled himself to his feet.

"You prefer magic to virtually everything, you old coot!" he said, slowly making his way to the stairs. "Even doing laundry!" Merlin huffed and glared at him.

"That's because magic doesn't have nearly as many problems as your technology!" he followed Cid back upstairs, arguing the entire way about why technology was superior to magic and vice-versa.

Sora helped Kairi to her feet as Jenos offered a hand to both Aerith and Naminé. Naminé refused and pushed herself to her feet. Aerith accepted and allowed Jenos to help her up. Jenos kissed the back of her hand gently before heading up the stairs himself. Naminé and Aerith followed suit with Sora and Kairi bringing up the rear.

They emerged from the staircase into Merlin's now cramped living room. Aside from the fact that hundreds of books covered most available surfaces, there were now seven people crammed into a room that was probably designed for about twelve or so people, with the books taking up the space designed for most of the twelve, leaving not a lot of room to move around.

Cid was now sitting in front of a large computer that was sitting in one corner of the room, rapidly typing out a long line of zeros and ones. Sora and Kairi leapt back in surprise as a cup of warm tea floated in front of each of them.

"Tea?" Merlin offered, taking a sip from his own cup. Sora and Kairi nodded graciously and grabbed their cups from midair. Sora stared at his hesitantly. He wasn't sure if he should trust tea that could float on its own. Kairi however, didn't have a problem with it and quickly took a sip. She paused for a moment as she tasted it. Something seemed off.

"Could I get some cream and sugar please?" she asked Merlin. The wizard nodded and waved his hand. Kairi's cup floated from her hand and landed on the table. "One scoop or two?"

"Two please," Kairi answered. Merlin clapped his hands together once.

"You heard the princess," he said. "Cream and sugar please!" Kairi blushed a little at being called 'princess'. She figured a lot of people might.

_That'll take some getting used to._ She thought. She watched as the cream jar poured the perfect amount of cream into her cup. The sugar bowl hobbled over to the cup, lifted off its own lid and began scooping copious amounts of sugar into the tea. Kairi stared as the sugar bowl dumped at least ten scoops of sugar into the tea, making it more sugar than tea.

"Uh," Kairi wasn't sure what to say. She pointed at the sugar cup. Merlin glared down at the sugar bowl.

"How many times have I told you?" Merlin barked, snatching the spoon from bowl. "One or two scoops only unless I tell you to do more, you stupid dish." The sugar bowl shook its fist/handle at Merlin and began to hop off. "Oh no you don't." The wizard snatched up the escaping dish. Another cup of tea with cream already added to it. Merlin took the lid off the bowl and added the two scoops of sugar Kairi requested to it. The cup floated over to Kairi.

"Um, thanks," she said hesitantly. She no longer trusted dishes that could move on their own.

Merlin's front door swung open and a man and young woman entered. The man was taller than everyone else. He had long brown hair and blue eyes. A scar ran across his face from above his right eye to down along his left cheek. He wore a white t-shirt underneath a black vest and a pair of matching black pants. The woman was at least a foot and a half shorter than the man. She had lavender colored eyes and short black hair. She wore a black combat jacket over a navy blue shirt decorated with a white floral design and black short-shorts. She had on a black head band and was carrying a massive shuriken her gloved left hand.

The woman cried out when she saw Sora and disappeared in puff of gray smoke. Kairi glanced confusedly at Sora, who had a similar expression on his face. The woman reappeared inches from Sora in another puff of smoke and immediately embraced him in a hug.

"Sora!" she exclaimed, crushing Sora to herself in a tight hug. Sora felt as if she was squeezing the life out of him. "It's so great to see you! How've you been, you knucklehead?"

"Yuffie," Sora gasped. "I can't breathe." Yuffie's eyes widened in shock. She released Sora immediately and took a step back. Sora gasped and inhaled deeply. "Did you have to squeeze so hard?" he asked her. Yuffie grinned.

"Of course," she said cheerily. "That's how I roll." She looked over at Kairi. "Damn girl, you grew up quick since we all met you in Traverse Town over a year and a half ago." Kairi smiled, but it faded quickly as the self proclaimed "Great Ninja" gave her a bone-crushing hug like she had given Sora.

"And you have a sense of fashion!" Yuffie commented as she released the now gasping Kairi. "I absolutely love how that pink mini-dress looks on you! It really compliments your breasts!" Kairi stopped gasping for air and looked over at Yuffie in mild surprise. Her face turned red in an instant as Yuffie continued to talk about them. "What size are they now? B? C? D? Nah, they're not big enough to be a D yet." The scarred man cleared his throat and strode further into the room.

"Good to see you again, Sora," he said, grasping Sora's hand in a firm handshake. Sora grinned.

"It's good to see you too, Leon." Leon gave Sora his usual half smile and turned to hold out his hand to Kairi. "It's been awhile since we've seen each other, Kairi." Kairi shook Leon's hand.

"It's great seeing you again, Leon," she said. Leon looked over at Naminé.

"I don't believe we've met," he said, extending his hand towards her. "My name's Leon." Naminé took his hand.

"I'm Naminé," she said with a smile. "Kairi's former Nobody." Merlin, Leon and Yuffie all stared at her for a brief moment before looking over at Sora in confusion. Sora let out a laugh.

"I guess it's catching up time, huh?" he said.

_LD_

"Well, that left more questions than I expected," Merlin said as Sora finished the retelling of everything that he had been through since his last visit to Radiant Garden. "Mostly because of this Xanthos fellow. I must remember to find him; I feel we have much to discuss." A pad of paper and a goose-feather quill tipped with bright blue ink floated next to him and began writing a memo for him. "And I need more sugar now as well." He glared down at the sugar bowl, which responded to Merlin's comment by placing itself behind a large vase.

"I'm more curious as to how Naminé's access of the Chaser's power created her a body," Cid said. "It just doesn't make sense to me." He shrugged it off and turned his attention back to the computer. Naminé shrugged.

"I guess it's something to look into eventually," she said. "I'm just glad that I've got my own body again." She lifted a cup of tea to her lips and took a sip. Leon and Yuffie exchanged a glance.

"Putting aside new questions that no one has answers for," Leon spoke up, "congratulations are in order." He clapped Sora on the shoulder. "Congratulations on passing your Exam, Master Sora." Sora grinned. He was really starting to enjoy being called 'Master Sora'. Leon squeezed his way through the crowded living room towards the door. "I'll see you guys later, I have to address the Senate in a half hour." Sora turned to Aerith as Leon left.

"Senate?" he asked. "I don't remember there being a government here the last few times I've been here." Aerith smiled at him.

"That's right," she said. "We didn't have a government the last time you were here. We didn't need one then though. We had a population of less than three hundred; now our population exceeds thirty-thousand. We needed a government set up. Most of these past few weeks have been all about electing a leader. As a matter of fact, Leon was elected Governor just a few days ago." She let out a small laugh. "He's still getting used to his new title."

"What sort of things do they discuss in a new government?" Naminé asked, genuinely curious. Aerith placed a hand to her chin.

"Well, Leon hasn't shared too much about what's been going on," she said slowly. "But from what he has told us, they're mostly working on setting up who has jurisdiction over what, how budgets will be handled, and setting up a police force." She paused for a moment, briefly counting off on her fingers. "Oh! And Scrooge McDuck has been talking to them about reaching out to other worlds and forming an alliance, mostly so he can get a jumpstart on the Gummi industry before anyone else gets the chance to." Aerith tilted her head slightly towards Cid, who was too absorbed in whatever he was doing on his computer to pay attention to them.

"I see," Naminé said taking another sip from her cup. "If you don't mind me asking, what sort of governmental system did Radiant Garden have before it fell to darkness?" Aerith smiled at her.

"I don't mind answering questions," she said. "As for the type of government we had here, we were ruled by Ansem the Wise, who became our ruler after our last king, Dranek, passed away.

"Ansem kept Dranek's way of ruling, but he refused to let himself be called 'King Ansem'." Aerith sighed. "Sadly enough, even though Leon is trying his best to run things the way Ansem did, several members of our new government would rather reinstate a monarch to the throne." At the word "monarch", most of the eyes in the room darted to glance at Kairi for a second before darting back to Aerith.

"Why would they want to go back to being in a monarchy?" Kairi asked, trying to distract herself from the fact that nearly everyone had just glanced at her. "Wouldn't they rather have a democracy where they can get a say in what happens rather than one person making all the decisions for them?" Aerith's smile faded.

"Actually," she said sadly, looking Kairi straight in the eye, "they want to bring a monarch into power who has no political experience, no knowledge of every law our monarchs are required to follow, and who is young and therefore malleable. Then they could 'advise' the monarch into passing laws that they want passed.

"They would be the real rulers of Radiant Garden. And as long as there is no one of royal blood that was born here on Radiant Garden soil, then they can't have the power they crave." Aerith took a drink from her own cup of tea before setting it down and giving a Kairi a look of grave seriousness. "And because Leon forgot to mention this to you while he was here, I'm going to warn you." Kairi swallowed. From what she knew of Aerith, she was normally a happy person and seeing the look she was now receiving from the older woman, she felt her stomach knot up in fearful anticipation.

"The people who want to make monarchy our primary form of government are willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen," Aerith said. "And they're doing all they can to find someone to take the throne. As it stands now, you would be a primary 'target' for them." Kairi was taken aback.

"Me?" she said. "That can't be true. I don't have any royal blood in my veins." She paused for a second and looked around at the adults nervously. "Do I?" Aerith glanced at Jenos, who cleared his throat.

"Chronos is currently looking into that," he said in a monotone voice as if he had been forced to memorize those exact words, "at the Restoration Committee's request, mostly to show our thanks for allowing us to take up residence here since the Apostles of the Star used the Heartless to destroy our world." Aerith looked back at Kairi.

"More than likely no one will have royal blood anymore," she said. Kairi breathed a sigh of relief. "Ansem the Wise was the last of the throne, had no heirs and no blood relatives. But all that means is that we have to go to extra lengths to make sure the Monarchist party doesn't learn that you're one of the Princesses of Heart." Kairi stared at her in confusion.

"Why though?" she asked. "If I have no royal blood, then I can't be made a queen or the Princess of Radiant Garden, can I?"

"If only that were the case," Aerith said. "But our constitution, which has been in place for over three hundred years clearly states that if the royal family all dies off and no one with royal blood can be found; then the next best candidate for royalty, who will be chosen by a select group of delegates, will take up the throne as the next monarch ruler of Radiant Garden. And with you being a _Princess_ of Heart, Kairi," Aerith placed extra emphasis on the word, "then the Monarchist party will have no trouble getting you onto the throne and putting Leon out of office." Kairi gaped at her.

"And if I say no?" she said after thinking for a moment. Aerith's face darkened.

"Then they will attempt to convict you of treason against Radiant Garden and have you executed." Kairi, Naminé and Sora all let out gasps. "And that's why we have to keep the fact that you're a Princess of Heart secret from most of the people here." Aerith finished. She set down her empty cup and got to her feet. "I'm truly sorry that I had to be the one to tell you all of that. So please be careful whenever you're here." She bowed to them briefly and made her way out of the room.

"Oh, don't let all that crappy news get you guys down!" Yuffie said cheerily as Aerith closed the door behind her. "When fighting the forces of Darkness and Evil, you have to look at the bright things in life! For example;" she reached behind her head and mysteriously produced a stack of flyers and newspaper advertisements. "There is a huge three day sale going on in the market place and it starts today!" She tossed half of the stack onto Naminé's lap and dropped the other half into Kairi's hands. She grabbed the two girls by their wrists and starting dragging them along after her. "Alright you two, let's go shopping!"

"Um," Kairi said, looking back at Sora for help as Yuffie dragged her and Naminé from Merlin's house. "Won't we need munny to go shopping?" Yuffie let out a laugh.

"Well duh," she said, she released Kairi's wrist long enough to dangle a small bag that jingled in front of the auburn-haired teen's face before pocketing it and grabbing her wrist again. "Thirty thousand munny! Courtesy of Sora!"

Sora's amused expression he was wearing at the sight of Kairi and Naminé being dragged off by the self proclaimed "Great Ninja" vanished in an instant. He quickly plunged his hand into one of his enormous pockets and pulled out the small bag he kept his munny in. Sure enough, it felt like he was suddenly thirty thousand munny short.

"When did you take my munny?" Sora demanded, looking up at Yuffie. The ninja laughed at him.

"What part of 'Great Ninja Yuffie' have you never understood?" she teased him as she dragged Kairi and Naminé out the door, slamming it shut behind them. Sora and the three adults left stared at the door for a moment before shrugging. Jenos muttered something about going to see someone named Sephiria and stepped out. Cid went back to working on his computer and Merlin conjured up a copy of a newspaper called _The New York Times_ and began perusing it.

Sora tilted his head from side to side, popping the vertebrae in his neck. He glanced down at the few dregs of tea he had left in his cup with a tiny bit of disappointment before setting it down on the table. He glanced around the room. No one else was paying him any attention.

"I'm just going to head out and take a look around town," he said. Merlin waved a hand at him from behind the _Times_. Cid let out a grunt, never once taking his attention off his computer. Sora shrugged and headed out the door.

_LD_

Two figures stood in the darkness of an alley near Merlin's house, watching as Sora walked out and began heading in the general direction of the Marketplace. One was wearing a black cloak identical to the ones Organization XIII used to wear. The shorter of the two simply wore a hooded black cape. Both of them kept their hoods pulled low concealing their faces from view.

"So, that's the Keyblade's Chosen One?" the shorter one, obviously female, asked. The taller one nodded.

"Yup, that's him," the taller one said coldly. The shorter chuckled.

"That scrawny little brat wouldn't last thirty seconds against me," she said. "Why would the Keyblade make him its Chosen One? I'm better than him."

"Calm yourself, young one. I trust you know what to do?" The taller one asked as a Portal of Darkness formed behind the pair. The shorter one nodded.

"Of course, Master Cynthia," she said with a small chuckle. Cynthia smiled.

"Don't forget Master Xehanort's orders," she warned the shorter one who nodded.

"I won't, Master," she said.

"You'd best fulfill Xehanort's orders as quickly as possible, my Apprentice. He needs you on the inside as soon as possible," Cynthia said as she back towards the portal, the metal on her cloak clinking softly as she moved. "Good luck."

"Thank you, my Master," the shorter woman said as Cynthia vanished into the portal. The apprentice turned to look at the disappearing Sora.

"Soon," she whispered. Faint wisps of darkness surrounded her, cloaking her in shadow. "Soon, Sora, Kingdom Hearts will be ours and you will be the tool that hands it over to us." She let out a small chuckle as she vanished from sight, leaving only a tiny bit of darkness floating in the air like a black mist.

_LD_

Sora couldn't help but stare around at the buildings as he strode through the streets of Radiant Garden. The last time he had been here, the buildings were all still being repaired and there weren't as many people crowding the streets. Sora slowly shuffled his way through the crowd, steadily making his way to the Marketplace.

_Good lord._ Roxas said from somewhere in the back of Sora's mind. _There sure are a lot of people here. It kind of reminds me of Twilight Town during the summer._

_Tell me about it._ Sora said as he attempted to avoid being trampled by a group of loudly babbling teenage girls. _I wonder just how much larger the city is now as compared to the last time I was here._ Sora's question was answered a half hour later after he got lost trying to find the Marketplace. He found himself at least a mile or so away from Merlin's house and, as far as he could tell, was nowhere near the Marketplace.

"Holy crap," he said as he climbed a staircase and emerged onto a small observation deck lined with binoculars. Below the deck, he could see at least half of the city. The last time he had been here, the city must've been just over a mile and a half in diameter. Now Sora could see that the outer walls were several miles away from the castle in the city's center. The only large open spaces Sora could see were where homes were being built nearby a section of the city walls. The only city he had ever seen that was larger than Radiant Garden was Twilight Town.

"That's a pretty nice view," Roxas commented appearing in a flash of blue light next to him. "Not as nice as watching the sunset from the top of the clock tower at the train station in Twilight Town, but it's still pretty nice." Sora let out a chuckle and walked towards the railing. He checked the price of using the binoculars; a measly thirty-five munny. Sora grinned and slid the munny into the payment slot.

"What're you looking for?" Roxas asked as Sora placed the binoculars over his eyes and began scanning the city below.

"I'm looking for the Marketplace," Sora replied. "Things have changed so much since I was last here and now I'm hopelessly lost." Roxas nodded and wandered over to a small garden filled with red and gold flowers that was growing in the center of the observation deck. After a couple of minutes, Sora spotted a rather large square that was packed with people that seemed to be carrying shopping bags. He quickly mapped a path through Radiant Garden's streets to where he thought the Marketplace was.

"Found it!" Sora exclaimed as he pulled away from the binoculars. "Come on, Roxas!" The Nobody grinned and vanished in a flash of blue light. Sora headed off in the direction of the Marketplace.

Two hours and thirty-seven wrong turns later, Sora finally arrived in the Marketplace. Sora's mouth opened a little in surprise as he looked around. Instead of being the tiny square with a handful of shops and the occasional shopper that he had been used to, the Marketplace was a large square now; bustling with dozens of shops, street vendor stalls, and cafés.

People of all ages filled the square, laden with shopping bags. Small children clung to their mothers and fathers. Seniors walked around the square, simply enjoying the sunshine and the cheery atmosphere. Sora was surprised to see that most of the people in the square were in their teens and early to mid-twenties. Sora couldn't help but think he would be able to appreciate the growth of the Marketplace more if Roxas hadn't been singing non-stop in the back of his head.

_I'm here without you, baby,_

_But you're still on my lonely mind._

_I think about you, baby, _

_And I dream about you all the time._

_I'm here without you, baby,_

_But you're still with me in my dreams._

_And tonight, it's only you and-_

_Seriously dude, you've done nothing but sing 3 Doors Down for the last forty-five minutes._ Sora groaned mentally as he headed into the crowd. _Could you sing something else or please stop?_

_Got a problem with 3 Doors Down there buddy?_

_No, it's just that I like a little variety in the songs. You know, as in not the same song or artist two songs in a row?_

_Ah, I see. I'll just stop for now. Besides, my throat hurts. _

_You're throat can hurt?_

_Bite me. Any particular reason why you wanted to come to the Marketplace?_ Roxas asked as Sora worked his way through the crowded towards a row of street vendor carts. Sora glanced each vendor's wares before making his way towards one displaying a wide variety of jewelry. _Shopping for a certain auburn-haired princess are we?_

_Of course._ Sora said with a small smile as he approached the cart. _Kairi's birthday is just a few weeks away. I need to get her something now in case I don't have time later while we're going from world to world. Don't change the subject._

_Ah, I see. Hmm…_ Sora raised his eyebrows slightly as his Nobody fell silent for a moment. _Since Naminé and Kairi are technically the same person, does that mean Naminé's birthday is the same as Kairi's?_ Sora smiled at the vendor, a kind looking old woman dressed in bright red robe. The old woman smiled back.

_Sounds like a question for the two of them, not me. _

"Hello my dear boy," the woman said warmly as Sora began looking around at the wares. "Looking for something for a special someone of yours?" Sora grinned.

"Yup," he said. He craned his head to examine the necklaces the old woman had displayed. "It's gonna be her birthday in a few weeks and this might be my only chance to shop for her. So I want to get her something perfect." The old woman smiled softly.

"Ah, young love," she said. "Such a wonderful blessing in dark times. I take it she's beautiful?" Sora couldn't help but grin.

"She's the most beautiful girl in all of the worlds," he said. "She has the most wonderful personality, the most beautiful eyes, her hair is gorgeous," Sora continued to rant on for several minutes, listing off everyone of Kairi's qualities that made her beautiful. The old woman smiled warmly the entire time Sora spoke.

"She sounds gorgeous," she said after Sora had finished. "You are a lucky young man to have such a beautiful princess fall in love with you." Sora looked up from a case filled with rings to stare at the old woman. He had never once mentioned that Kairi was a princess. The old woman grinned knowingly at Sora. "And she's a lucky girl to have the Chosen Wielder of the Keyblade fall in love with her as well."

Sora's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before they narrowed in suspicion. He took a step back from the cart. His right hand clenched tightly as he fought the urge to summon the Oblivion to his hand.

"I never said I was the Keyblade's Chosen One," Sora said. "How did you know? And more importantly, who are you?" The old woman smiled.

"Do not fret, lad," she said gently. "I am not a servant of Darkness. I'm just someone who knows more than you would believe. I am simply an old woman, saddened by the growing Darkness that threatens to consume the worlds." The old woman got to her feet and hobbled slowly over to Sora. She placed a hand on his forearm. "I can see the future, well, that which has been set in stone by actions of the past anyway.

"So listen to what I am able to tell you for this is what is set in stone: Someone close to your heart, lost to Darkness so long ago, to be led back to Light. A friend's final sacrifice. The dead revived. Betrayal by someone you never expected. An unseen enemy, slinking around in the Darkness. Both doors opened. A love tested. An enemy disguised as friend that shall attempt to steal your Light. And you will either save the worlds, or they will be consumed by Darkness under your command." Sora swallowed hard. Out of everything the old woman had said, the only good thing seemed to be the first about someone he knew being brought back to Light from the Darkness.

"But I have faith in you, lad," the old woman said. "I sense that Destiny herself has blessed you. I strongly believe that you will never allow the Darkness to consume the worlds." Sora wasn't sure why, but he suddenly felt relieved at the old woman's words. He had a gut feeling that this old woman knew what she was talking about. "And I do have the perfect gift for your Princess of Heart." The old woman reached into a small bag that dangled at her waist and produced a golden chained necklace. Seven charms dangled off of the side.

She handed the necklace to Sora. He took it, and found his breath taken away by its beauty. Six of the seven charms were simple gems. A golden topaz, an amethyst, a ruby, a lapis lazuli, an opal and an emerald. The seventh charm rested in the center of the other six. Sora stared in surprise. The charm was shaped like a three pointed crown, identical to the crown pendant he always wore, although the charm on the necklace in his hand was made out of a pink metal. A diamond was set into the center of the crown charm.

"This necklace is very special," the old woman said as Sora examined said piece of jewelry. "This necklace was blessed with ancient magic. It will protect the wearer from many forms of Darkness. And each gem is special individually as well." She reached over and grasped the lapis lazuli.

"The lapis lazuli is a heavenly stone. It wards off many forms of evil and represents light. It can lessen the darkness when there is no light." She grasped the opal next. "The opal has the power to give people weak glimpses into the future, and aids those with weak sight. It has a special bond with the Lapis Lazuli and symbolizes hope.

"The amethyst," she said as she clutched the gem, "changes color in the presence of illness, pales near poisoned food or drink, and guides the wearer towards sincerity, security and peace of mind. It symbolizes truth. The emerald dulls in the presence of evil and when a vow is broken. It is a remedy for sores and ulcers and is an antidote to poison. It is the sister gem of the amethyst. It symbolizes honor.

"The topaz gives the holder some contact with the spirit world, and strengthens and clears the mind. It symbolizes loyalty. The ruby grows pale when misfortune threatens its wearer. It wards off evil spirits, and is an antidote to snake venom. It symbolizes joy." She grasped the crown charm last.

"The diamond gives courage and strength, protects from pestilence, and helps the cause of true love. It symbolizes strength and love. It rests in the center of a symbol that was very important to the Keyblade Wielders of the Light during the Keyblade War." Sora looked up from the necklace.

"What does the crown represent?" Sora asked eagerly. The old woman smiled at Sora and stared at the pendant around his neck.

"I'm afraid no one knows anymore," she said sadly. "All records from the time up until the end of the War were destroyed when the survivors of the War burned everything in an attempt to prevent another Keyblade War in the future." Sora nodded.

_I might know someone who can tell me what the crown represents._ Sora thought. His mind's eye briefly pictured the flashing silver eyes and scarred face of Xanthos.

"The necklace is perfect," he said as a smile spread across his face. "How much?" The old woman smiled and shook her head.

"You can have it for free," She said, smiling broadly at him. Sora's mouth dropped in surprise.

"Seriously? It has to be worth more than fifteen-thousand munny at least! And you're just letting me have it?" Sora asked. "I can pay for it. I have plenty of munny!" The old woman smiled and produced a small, black velvet box large enough to place the necklace in. She took the necklace from Sora, placed it in the box and gave it back to Sora. Sora continued to stare at her.

"I don't need the munny, lad," she said warmly. Sora slowly pocketed the box.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Sora asked one last time. The woman smiled and nodded.

"Consider it a gift from Destiny," she said.

"Sora!" Sora turned to look behind him as he heard his name. He could see Kairi, Naminé and Yuffie headed towards him, each carrying armfuls of shopping bags. Sora smiled at them and waved. He turned back to thank the old woman.

She and her cart had vanished. In its place was a small fountain that flowed into a small pool with dozens of white lilies floating in the water. A small sign next to the pool read:

_A gift from Destiny. _

"_May the Light guide you through the deepest Darkness."_

–_Commissioned by Aelener, the First King of Radiant Garden_

Sora stared at the fountain in shock and placed his hand against his pocket. The necklace was still there. A light breeze blew through the Marketplace. Sora could swear hear the old woman laughing softly on the wind.

_LD_

Kairi and Naminé both groaned under the weight of their shopping bags. They had only been shopping for a couple of hours and they had already managed to burn through the entirety of the thirty-thousand munny Yuffie had swiped from Sora. Both Kairi and Naminé were worn out and desperate for something cool to drink to reprieve them from the sweltering summer heat.

"Come on you two slowpokes!" Yuffie said cheerily as she clapped both Kairi and Naminé on their backs. The two younger teens stumbled forward. "Now that the shopping's out of the way, I want to take you on the grand tour of Radiant Garden, Great Ninja Yuffie style!" Kairi and Naminé both groaned. They both just wanted to sit down for a few minutes.

Naminé quickly spotted their escape. Sora was standing across from them in the square, staring down at a fountain. Naminé nudged Kairi's shin with her toes. The auburn-haired teen turned and raised an eyebrow at the blonde former Nobody. Naminé tilted her head slightly in Sora's direction. Kairi glanced in the direction Naminé had gestured.

The first thing she saw was the immediately recognizable, gravity defying, caramel colored spikes of Sora's hair over the crowd. Kairi gave Naminé an appreciative grin and immediately began working her way through the crowd towards him.

"Where's Kairi going?" Yuffie asked. The self-proclaimed Great Ninja swiftly scanned the crowd three times before she finally spotted Sora. "Ah, I see then." She shifted her grip on her bags and took off through the crowd in pursuit of Kairi with Naminé closely following her.

"Sora!" Kairi called as she got closer to her boyfriend. Sora looked up at her. He flashed her his usual goofy grin and waved at her for a moment before turning back around and glancing down at the fountain in shock. Kairi's brow furrowed in confusion. Sora had just been standing there staring at the fountain for at least a minute. Why was he looking at it now like he was seeing it for the first time and he expected something else to be there? Kairi shook it off as she reached him. It was probably just her imagination.

"Hey you," Sora said as Kairi threw her arms around him. At least she attempted to throw her arms around him. The multitude of shopping bags dangling from her arms combined with the weight of their contents only succeeded in whacking Sora upside his head. Sora let out a small cry of surprise and stumbled to the side while laughing. Kairi let out a small giggle and stepped over to him and leaned into kiss him on the cheek. Sora laughed at how Kairi held her arms out like a bird about to take flight so the bags wouldn't interfere.

"Would you like me to take some of those for you?" Sora asked. He gestured with one hand towards the bags. Kairi grinned in thanks and immediately handed Sora at least half of her bags. She let out a sigh of relief as her arms suddenly felt a hundred pounds lighter. Sora gasped slightly in surprise at how heavy the bags were.

"Geez Kairi," he said jokingly. "What all did you-" Sora trailed off as a small pink bag decorated with the letters VS that Kairi was doing her best to keep hidden with the other bags she was carrying caught his attention. Sora cleared his throat nervously and looked up from the bag to Kairi's eyes. "Um, Kairi?"

"Yes, Sora?" she replied, smiling innocently. Sora swallowed.

"Um, why do you have a Victoria's Secret bag?" he asked. Kairi's innocent smile vanished and her face turned a shade of red that put her hair to shame.

_Oh crap._ She thought, her heart suddenly racing nervously. _I was hoping he wouldn't see. Why, oh why did I let Yuffie talk me into getting underwear from there?_

"Yuffie forced me to," she replied quickly. Her face was burning and she could see a tiny bit of red on Sora's cheeks. "She said I needed sexy underwear for days when I don't feel beautiful so that all I have to do is put on my sexy underwear and I'll feel better again." Naminé and Yuffie quickly caught up to Kairi.

"Oh," Sora said, slowly nodding in understanding. "I guess that makes sense." Kairi's eyebrows raised slightly.

_He bought it?_ She asked herself in disbelief. Then she noticed something on Sora's face she hadn't really ever seen before. _Is he… disappointed?_ Kairi fought back the urge to giggle. Sora raised his gaze from the pink bag and stared Kairi straight in the face.

"But you're always beautiful, Kairi," Sora said quietly. "Even on days when you don't feel beautiful or you somehow manage to convince yourself that you're the most hideous girl in all of the worlds, I promise that you are beautiful." Kairi felt her face grow even warmer at Sora's compliment.

"That's so sweet," Yuffie said. "But I didn't tell her to buy the lingerie so she could feel sexy whenever she doesn't feel beautiful." Sora looked at Yuffie confusedly. Kairi's face continued to grow redder.

_God damn it, Yuffie. _She thought. _Why'd you have to go and open your mouth?_

"Then what did you tell her?" Sora asked. Yuffie grinned mischievously at him.

"I told her she should buy some so she can get you to-" Yuffie began, but she was cut off by a loud, high pitch scream several yards behind her. The four of them quickly turned their gazes to the source of the scream. People were fleeing from the center of the square. Half a dozen Neoshadows and a handful of Shadows were slowly rising from the ground.

"Heartless!"Yuffie shouted. "Everyone clear the square at once!" People ran screaming. Yuffie turned to the other three and snapped her fingers. All of the shopping bags disappeared in numerous puffs of gray smoke.

"Thanks Yuffie," Kairi said as Destiny's Embrace appeared in her hand. Sora summoned the Oblivion into existence as Yuffie produced a large four pointed shuriken seemingly from nowhere.

"Don't mention it," Yuffie said. She and Kairi ran towards the Heartless. Naminé hung back; there was nothing she could do but watch. Sora glanced around quickly to make sure no Heartless were near Naminé that could sneak up and harm the defenseless girl. Confident that she was safe, Sora charged headfirst towards the fray.

He was halfway to the crowd of Heartless that Kairi and Yuffie were about to fight when Naminé screamed behind him. Sora and Kairi both spun around. Naminé was being circled by seven Heartless. For the most part, they were nearly identical to Neoshadows, except these Heartless had dark brown skin covered in faint red veins and only four long claws instead of five. A name leapt into Sora's mind; _Novashadows_.

Sora turned to run to Naminé's aid but froze as Kairi and Yuffie both let out cries of surprise. A barrier of transparent light encircled Kairi, Yuffie, and the Heartless they were preparing to fight. Sora recognized the barrier and knew he wouldn't be able to help either of the girls trapped inside. Sora turned back and sprinted towards Naminé. The Novashadows slowly circled the blonde teen, but none of them seemed ready to attack. Naminé glanced at Sora, briefly relieved to see him rushing to help her. Her relief vanished as she saw the shadows cast on the ground shift and quickly rise.

"Sora!" she cried out, pointing at Sora's feet. Sora stopped and looked down. A fist burst from the shadows at his feet and connected with his jaw. Sora felt himself bite his tongue hard as he was lifted off his feet and hurled backwards. He quickly recovered, leaping back to his feet and spitting out a globule of blood from his tongue.

A young woman, dressed in a black, hooded cape that obscured any defining features appeared. The hood was pulled low over her face, hiding it in shadow. Her right arm was extended out towards Sora through the folds of the cape. Sora's eyes widened in surprise at the weapon she clutched. It was the Inverse Kingdom Key, identical to the Kingdom Key but with a gold blade instead of a silver one and a silver guard instead of a gold one.

"Hello, _Master _Sora," the woman said. Sora shot her a glare as she used his new title to mock him. "I'd love to introduce myself, but there isn't much of a point in doing so, considering you'll be dead in a few seconds and I'll prove that I'm worthy of being the Keyblade's Chosen One and that it was mistaken in choosing you!" Darkness swirled around the girl's feet as she pointed her Keyblade towards Sora's throat.

"Give into the eternal, blessed Darkness!" the girl shouted as she charged towards Sora. "Open your heart and be consumed!"

_LD_

* * *

_Questions, comments, concerns?_

_Reviews are greatly appreciated! I love hearing feedback from all you readers out there!_

_Shadow Horizons_


	10. Wielder of Shadows

_Hooray! Ten chapters! (Blows into a party noise maker)_

_I kind of wish I had cake to celebrate. _

_... Maybe I'll go bake one._

_Disclaimer: It's getting repetitive. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Black Cat or batteries for my tv remote which just died on me. Awesome._

_Enjoy!_

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Ten: Wielder of Shadows

_Wednesday, June 2__nd__ 4794 P.C._

Sora threw himself to the side as an orb of Darkness burst forth from the woman's Keyblade. The Darkness exploded against a tree, which withered and died in a matter of seconds. Sora stared in complete shock at the tree. The woman laughed at him.

"Never faced the true strength of Darkness before, oh great Chosen One?" she mocked. She snapped her fingers. Two thin strands of Darkness rose from Sora's shadow and wrapped themselves around his ankles. Sora's eyes darted down in shock as the strands rose further from the ground, yanking Sora off his feet and leaving him dangling twenty feet in the air. "Or the power of shadow?" The woman lowered her Keyblade and slowly approached Sora as he dangled.

"Firaga!" Sora shouted, aiming the Oblivion at the strands of shadow. Two fireballs burst from the obsidian blade. The shadow strands that suspended Sora in the air grew additional strands and lashed out at the fireballs. Before the fire had time to leave the Oblivions tip, it was extinguished by shadow. The woman laughed.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" she asked breathlessly. "Nothing compares to the power of shadow. There is almost nothing that can't be accomplished by simply commanding the shadows to do your bidding." She glanced up at Sora and let out a snort of laughter. "You look ridiculous." Sora felt the air knocked from his lungs as the shadows that bound him spun him around in a wide circle.

Below him, the woman jerked her head towards the barrier that surrounded Kairi and Yuffie as they battled the Heartless. The shadows obeyed her unspoken command and released Sora mid spin, hurling him into the barrier. Sora let out a cry of pain as he struck the barrier and fell to the concrete waiting him below. The woman laughed as Sora slowly pushed himself back up.

_LD_

"Looks like it's just you and me, Kairi," Yuffie said as the barrier of light finished forming around them. "You ever had to fight this many Heartless before, Princess?" Kairi grinned in response.

"I took down a Darkside in a single blow a few days ago," Kairi said proudly. "These weaker Heartless seem laughably easy compared to that." Yuffie let out a chuckle.

"That's the spirit!" She hurled her shuriken and sent it flying, reducing several Neoshadows to nothing more than black mist in a matter of seconds. Kairi dashed between the Neoshadows, dodging their claws and hacking her way through their outstretched limbs.

Both females froze as Naminé's scream of surprise echoed to them across the square. Kairi sliced the head off of a Shadow and spun to look at Naminé. The blonde was surrounded by Novashadows. Kairi looked around for Sora, wondering why he wasn't protecting Naminé. She spotted him in the middle of the square, facing off against a woman in a black hooded cape who was wielding a-

"Keyblade?" Kairi exclaimed in shock. Yuffie sliced another Neoshadow in two and spun to look. Sure enough, the woman Sora was facing had a Keyblade clenched in her right hand. Yuffie glanced at Kairi. Kairi seemed frozen in place as she watched Sora lifted off his feet, spun around and hurled against the barrier. Kairi cried out as Sora crumpled to the ground. Yuffie let out a growl of frustration. On top of Naminé needing to be protected, now Sora was having his ass handed to him. She turned back to face the remaining ten or so Heartless.

"Kairi!" Yuffie shouted. The auburn-haired teen turned to look at her, worry filling her eyes. "The only way the barrier will drop is if we defeat all of these Heartless! So let's take them out and then we can go save Sora and Naminé!" Kairi stared at her for a second before nodding and turning to face the Heartless again.

"Then what are we waiting for?" she said with a grin. The two girls let out a battle cry and charged at the remaining Heartless.

_LD_

Sora coughed, slowly regaining his breath as he forced himself to his feet. The woman continued to laugh at him. Sora growled and rushed towards the woman. She stopped smiling and flicked her Keyblade in an upwards direction. Sora felt something collide painfully with his legs, knocking him high into the air. He glanced down at the ground and saw a pillar made of shadow rising up from where he had stepped right before he was made airborne.

The pillar quickly shifted shape, becoming a large, clawed hand on a thin wisp of an arm. The hand shot up and snatched Sora up midair. He let out a cry of pain as the claws dug into his skin.

"And down you go!" the woman said, pointing her Keyblade at the ground. The shadow hand pulled Sora down and slammed him into the ground. Sora let out another cry of pain. The woman continued to laugh at him. "Oh this is so much fun!" She exclaimed. "Wouldn't you agree, _Master_ Sora?"

"Coward!" Sora coughed. The woman stopped laughing and glared at him.

"What did you call me?" she said through clenched teeth.

"I called you a coward," Sora said as he stood up. "You call yourself a Keyblade Wielder and yet you hide behind your magic. That makes you a coward." The woman let out what sounded like a growl.

"And you want proof that you can't be the Keyblade's Chosen One?" Sora continued, slowly advancing towards the woman while egging her on. "You're a coward. I'm not. You fight because you want power and you feel cheated because you don't get the power you want." The woman let out a snort.

"Please, you act like you know me from atom," she said. She raised the Inverse Kingdom Key so it was level with Sora's face as he continued his slow advance towards her. "It's not so much that I want to be the Keyblade's Chosen One, it's more the fact that I want to prove to myself that I'm better than the Chosen One." She lunged at Sora and swung at his waist.

Sora rolled to the side, easily dodging the woman's attack. He stabbed the Oblivion at her knees as he passed and jumped to his feet. The woman spun away from Sora and threw her Keyblade at him. Sora grinned as the Inverse Kingdom Key spun towards his head and tilted his neck so the blade missed him by inches. The woman growled in frustration and ran at Sora as her Keyblade flashed back to her hand.

Sora held his ground and parried the strike she aimed at his right shoulder with ease. She twisted her body and flipped backwards. Her booted foot connected with Sora's jaw, knocking his head back violently. Sora gasped in surprise. The woman's flip continued and she brought her other foot down on Sora's left shoulder, knocking him off his center of gravity and causing him to fall to one knee. Sora quickly got to his feet and brought the Oblivion back up in a defensive stance as the woman struck at Sora's knees.

He flipped up and over her attack and landed behind her. The woman spun and stabbed at Sora, who easily parried the blow and knocked her blade to the side. The woman let out a small gasp of surprise as she realized that Sora now had an opening. Sora did a full circle spin, continuing through with his parry and turning it into an offensive strike in the blink of an eye.

The woman leaned back, bending her waist as far back as she physically could as Sora's blade swept over her. She felt a shiver of brief terror as she felt the edge of the Oblivion barely sweep across the midnight blue corset she wore underneath the black cape. She flipped herself backwards, placing several feet of space between her and Sora. Sora's mouth fell open as the woman's hood slipped off her head.

She had large, indigo colored eyes, ruby red lips and caramel colored hair that was tied into a ponytail with the loose bangs framing her face. The woman's brow furrowed in confusion as Sora stared at her. Sora couldn't help himself, it was almost like looking in a mirror, if his reflection had a different hairstyle and was female. Her hair was the exact same caramel color his was and her eyes were a perfect reflection of his.

"What? Never seen a girl before in your life?" the woman asked. Sora quickly snapped out of it.

_I'm imagining things._

_Holy shit! That chick is like your female clone dude!_ Roxas said suddenly.

_Roxas, no offense but please butt out for now! We'll talk about it later but I'm busy trying not to be killed by this girl!_ Roxas immediately fell silent.

"Of course I've seen girls before!" Sora shouted. He gestured at Kairi and Yuffie then at Naminé. The woman shrugged.

"Details, details," she said as she charged at Sora.

_LD_

Naminé carefully watched as the Novashadows circled her.

_I need a weapon. _She thought to herself. _Anything to fight these bastards off!_ She glanced around herself. There was nothing in her reach that would help her fight a group of Heartless. She raised her fists, preparing to take the Heartless on in hand to hand combat.

_I'm going to get myself killed or I'm going to lose my brand new heart. This sucks._ She shot a glance at Sora's battled with the woman in the hooded cape and watched as a black pillar rose from the ground and knocked Sora into the air only to suddenly become a giant clawed hand that seized Sora and slammed him into the ground.

_Why can't I have a Keyblade?_ Naminé lamented to herself. _Then I wouldn't have to worry about the others protecting me. _

_**Have you even considered trying to summon a Keyblade, you silly girl?**_

Naminé froze in place. The voice that had echoed through her mind sounded familiar but she couldn't quite place her finger on it.

_Of course not._ She replied. _If I had one, wouldn't it have appeared when these Heartless showed up?_

_**A Wielder has to summon the Keyblade or be handed a Keyblade for the first time in order for it to appear in times of danger. So why not try now?**_

Naminé swallowed hard and extended her right hand in front of herself. She felt silly holding her arm out there.

_See? Noth-_

A bright flash of light emanated from her palm for a brief moment. The Heartless surrounding her took a few steps back. In her hand was a four and a half foot, silver and black Keyblade. The handle was a sea-green color and shorter than most other Keyblades Naminé had seen before. The guard was as black as midnight and curved around the handle but didn't connect with the pommel. The blade was silver in color and had two semi-circular indentations in the middle. The "teeth" of the blade were comprised of two jet-black, triangular blades that slanted downward and slightly overlapped each other. Each triangle had slanted, heart-shaped gap in the center.

_**You were saying?**_

Naminé let out a low whistle. To her, this Keyblade looked more lethal than any of Sora's she had seen. And it definitely looked more lethal than Kairi's Destiny's Embrace Keyblade. Naminé smirked slightly.

_I wonder what this one is named?_ She considered for a second.

_**This is the Rejection of Fate Keyblade. I think it's suiting seeing as how you were probably going to spend eternity in that Princess of Hearts' mind. In a way, you defied Fate and forged your own destiny; one that you and you alone have control over.**_

_Okay, well I have just one more question; what good does it do to have a Keyblade to fight with if I've never fought anything before?_

_**The Princess over there had never fought anything before in her life either. But she inherited her skills with the Keyblade through having her heart protected within The Chosen One. The Key of Destiny, Roxas, also inherited Sora's Keyblade skills when he came into existence. **_

_**Because you were created from Kairi's heart, you inherited everything she did which means you inherited all of Sora's fighting abilities from his first journey up until he released Kairi's heart. So go kick some Heartless ass!**_ Naminé grinned widely and shifted her stance, placing her left leg behind her right, her left arm behind her back and raising the Rejection of Fate in a normal fencing stance.

_Thanks, disembodied voice inside my head._ Naminé said, she noticed the Heartless around her suddenly adjust their stances. Instinctively she knew they were preparing to attack. _But who are you?_ In response, the voice chuckled.

_**I am no one in particular; just the shepherd to those who truly need me. Good luck, Naminé, Wielder of the Keyblade.**_

Naminé had the sudden feeling as though someone was walking away from the inside her mind. One of the Novashadows leapt at her, brown claws outstretched. Naminé sidestepped the Heartless and brought her Keyblade's pointed tip down through its back. As the Novashadow exploded into black mist, Naminé let out a wild laugh. For the first time since she had come into existence, she felt truly alive.

_LD_

Sora held his ground and widened his stance as the woman charged. He was mildly taken aback by her speed as he went to block the attack. Sparks flew as the Keyblades clashed against each other. The woman grinned mischievously at Sora and brought her foot up to the fork of his legs. Sora's mouth opened in a silent cry of pain. Sora fell to one knee and the woman stepped back.

She raised her Keyblade above her head and swung down. Sora brought the Oblivion up above his head, using both hands to support it as the two Keyblades struck each other. The woman grunted in irritation as her attack was stopped short. Sora grinned up at her.

"Wind," he called out. The wind began to circle around them at a high velocity. The woman looked up from Sora in surprise as a small tornado surrounded the pair of them. The wind lifted the woman and threw her across the square into a street lamp. Sora straightened up as the winds died down.

The woman sat up at the base of the lamp she had just struck, holding a hand to her head in an attempt to stop the excessive bleeding coming from a nasty cut above her left eye. Sora slowly limped towards her, wincing as every step caused pain to shoot through his body.

"Cheap shot," the woman groaned as Sora approached her. Sora glared down at her and raised the Oblivion so its obsidian tip was placed right between her eyes.

"Who are you?" Sora asked, a threatening tone dominating his voice. The woman smiled up at him with a sinister grin. She vanished suddenly, only faint wisps of shadow floating towards the ground in her place. Sora's eyes widened in shock for a moment. He heard the sound of gravel being crunched by a footstep just inches behind him. He spun around, swinging the Oblivion in a wide arc.

The woman let out a cry of shock and leapt back to avoid the Oblivion. Sora shot her a nasty grin. The woman flipped him off and thrust her palm out towards him. An orb of shadow burst from her and rocketed towards Sora. Sora aimed the tip of the Oblivion at the shadow and fired off a beam of brilliant white light which struck the center of the shadow. The two attacks exploded violently upon contact. The resulting shockwave crashed into Sora and the woman, sending both of them sprawling across the pavement.

Sora quickly recovered and pushed himself to his feet. Across the square, the woman was doing the same. Sora called the Oblivion back to his hand and charged at the woman. The woman glared up at Sora and let out a cry of rage. Shadows swirled around her feet and she darted towards him. The Oblivion's edge became bathed in light as Sora rushed across the square and the Inverse Kingdom Key became cloaked in shadows as the two neared each other again. The two Keyblades clashed against each other. Black and white sparks flew between the two Wielders as each applied all of the strength they could muster into breaking past their opponent and striking them down.

"Give up!" The woman shouted in Sora's face. "You can't hope to defeat the darkness! Darkness is everything! It was all that there was in the beginning and it's all that will be left in the end! Your feeble light is nothing compared to my almighty darkness!" Sora shook his head sadly at her.

"You're wrong," he said. "No matter how deep the darkness, there is always a light that shines bright enough to overcome it." The Oblivion glowed brightly, forcing Sora and the woman to look away from each other to avoid being blinded. Then Sora got an idea on how to end the fight. He thrust his empty hand towards the ground at their feet.

"Firaga!" A fireball burst from his hand and exploded immediately, sending both Sora and the woman flying away from one another. Both Keyblades went spinning up into the air and came back down , embedding themselves in the ground where Sora and the woman had been locked in combat a moment before. The woman let out a cry of pain as she smashed into a wooden bench. Sora simply grinned as he rolled with the explosion, which had had the desired effect. The woman attempted to get to her feet but instead collapsed, groaning with pain.

Sora got to his feet and limped over to her. She glared up at him as he stopped short of her. He summoned the Oblivion back to his hand and lightly pressed the obsidian tipped Keyblade to the woman's throat.

"I'll ask you again," he said. "Who are you?"

_LD_

Naminé let out a cheerful peal of laughter as she sliced her way through a pair of Novashadows. The first wave of Novashadows that had surrounded her before she learned she could wield a Keyblade had been more difficult to take on by herself than she had expected. The second wave had been somewhat easier so far, despite the fact that she had been surrounded by about forty Novashadows.

None of the Novashadows claws ever came close to cutting her. It took her less than a minute to decimate more than half of the Heartless. As she hacked her way through another, she realized that the more enemies there were, the easier it was to destroy them because they lumped themselves close together, making it easier to land hits and defeat them quickly.

It only took her a couple more minutes to completely take out the remaining Novashadows. Naminé stood panting, the Rejection of Fate hanging loosely in her hand as she finally allowed herself to relax. That had been more tiring than she had expected. She felt completely worn out. She took a deep breath and examined her shaking hands.

_I really am worn out. I'm shaking terribly. That, or I was scared. Maybe both._ She looked around the square. Kairi and Yuffie had eliminated most of the Neoshadows they had been trapped with, leaving them with only three left. The barrier around them was starting to fade.

Naminé looked over to see how Sora was faring and saw standing over his opponent. The Rejection of Fate vanished from her hand as she walked over to the pair.

_LD_

Kairi had to admit, it was rather amusing to duck under a Heartless' attack and come up behind it while the Heartless would pause to look for her before realizing she was behind it. So far, she had been tricking the same Neoshadow for the better part of three minutes and was finding it hard to breathe now. Yuffie rolled her eyes at the auburn-haired teen.

"Would you stop messing around and just finish that thing off?" the "Great Ninja" asked as she stabbed a Neoshadow in its face with one of the points of her giant shuriken. Kairi gave her a sheepish grin.

"But it's so much fun!" she exclaimed as she flipped up and over the Heartless she had been toying with. Yuffie chuckled as she ripped the shuriken from the vanishing Heartless' head.

"I know! But Naminé's in danger and Sora's getting his butt kicked!" she said as she spun around to face Kairi.

_Oh crap,_ Kairi thought, mentally kicking herself for forgetting. The Neoshadow she had been avoiding for her amusement lashed out at her. Kairi let out a brief cry of pain as the black claws sliced open her exposed shoulder. Kairi stared at the wound on her shoulder for a moment.

"Cure," she said. The pain quickly went away and the bleeding stopped as the wounds slowly began to close. Kairi turned her gaze on the Neoshadow and with two swift strokes of Destiny's Embrace, reduced it to nothing. She spun on her heel and sent her Keyblade spinning towards the remaining Neoshadow.

Destiny's Embrace pierced the Heartless' side as Yuffie's shuriken decapitated it. The shuriken spun back to Yuffie like a boomerang as Kairi called her Keyblade back to her. Around them, the barrier of light shattered. The two girls immediately turned towards where they had seen Naminé surrounded by Heartless. There were no Heartless. Naminé looked exhausted but fine. Kairi let out a sigh of relief knowing that Naminé was alright. She looked around for Sora and saw him, Oblivion in hand; standing over the woman he had been fighting. She glanced at Yuffie and the raven-haired teen nodded. The pair of them went to join Sora and Naminé.

"I'll ask you again," Sora was saying as they got nearer. "Who are you and why did you attack me?" He had the Oblivion pressed against the woman's throat. The woman simply laughed.

"Okay, fine, since you so desperately want to know who I am," she held her hand out towards Sora. "My name's Keila, Dark Wielder of the Keyblade and expert in shadow magic." She snapped her fingers and the shadows on the ground at her feet twisted and spelled out _Keila, future Keyblade Master and better than you'll ever hope to be!_ Sora stared at the shadow writing and applied a little more pressure against her throat.

"And why did you attack me?" he said. Kairi walked up and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. Sora smiled at her for a brief second before glaring back down at Keila as Kairi pointed Destiny's embrace at her throat. Keila sneered up at Kairi before looking at Sora.

"Didn't I already answer that question?" she said. "I wanted to see if I was better than the Keyblade's Chosen One. As we can all see, I'm not." She paused for a moment and glanced at something behind Sora. "Not yet anyway. Give it time." Sora let out a snort of disbelief.

"I dare you to try," he said. Keila grinned and waved up at him.

"Ciao, Master Sora," she said cheerily. Shadows rose from the ground and quickly wrapped themselves around her.

"Wait!" Sora and Kairi cried out, both rushing forward to stop her. The shadows receded back to the ground, leaving no trace of Keila. Sora kicked the ground angrily.

"Well that was exciting," Naminé said sarcastically. The others all looked over at her. Naminé stared back at them. "What?"

"How did you escape all of those Heartless?" Kairi asked. "I don't see anyone else that could have helped you out." Naminé smiled and held out her hand. There was a bright flash of light and the Rejection of Fate appeared. Kairi's and Sora's mouths dropped in surprise. Yuffie didn't seem fazed by it.

"And what makes you think I need someone to help me take on Heartless?" Naminé said smugly.

"Since when did you start wielding a Keyblade?" Kairi asked in disbelief, staring down at the Rejection of Fate.

"Since about ten minutes ago," Naminé explained. "I was surrounded by Heartless and this voice suddenly spoke in my mind and it suggested that I try to summon the Keyblade and bam! It's suddenly in my hand and I take out the Heartless that had me surrounded and that basically sums it up." The other three stared at her like she was crazy.

"Uh-huh," Yuffie said. "You know Naminé, battles can be really stressful. Let's go have you lie down in some shade."

"I'm not crazy!" Naminé snapped at her.

"Naminé, do you hear the mysterious voice right now? Is it here with us?"

"Don't psychoanalyze me."

"I'd like to talk to the voice for a minute, Naminé."

"Shut up."

Kairi let out a snort of laughter at the banter between Naminé and Yuffie as the four of them began to make their way back to Merlin's house.

_LD_

The former number II of Organization XIII watched as the three Keyblade Wielders and their ninja friend walked from the square through the telescopic sight on his rifle. People were slowly starting to emerge from their hiding places and quickly repopulated the square. Xigbar lowered his combined arrowguns, and separated them into their normal twin gun form.

"Well that was certainly interesting," he muttered to himself. "Never thought I'd see that blonde chick again, let alone with her wielding a Keyblade." He let out a sigh. "Just what I need in my life, another Keyblade wielding brat."

"I heard that," a voice behind him said. Xigbar glanced behind him and watched as the shadows took the shape of a young woman briefly before vanishing from around Keila as she stepped out onto the roof he had been hiding on.

"I'm not the one who was about to defeat spiky only to have him turn around and completely kick my ass," Xigbar said with a wide grin. How he loved the way he enjoyed her defeat without having to fake the feeling. It was good to be a Somebody again. Keila glared at him before grinning nastily.

"So the fact that he destroyed you as a Nobody doesn't count?" she asked. Xigbar's face fell and he growled menacingly at her. Keila laughed. "Cat got your tongue there, one-eye?" Xigbar bared his teeth at her.

"Go to hell, bitch," he snapped at her. Keila rolled her eyes.

"Is that really the best comeback you've got for me?" she taunted. "I thought you used to be Xehanort's second in command; always scheming with him and plotting to take over the worlds?"

"Do you want me to shoot you?"Xigbar said. "Because you're really starting to get on my nerves." Keila ignored him and watched Sora's back as he and his female friends vanished into the crowd.

_Next time, Sora. Next time._

_LD_

Leon was waiting for them outside of Merlin's house. He gave them a half smile as they drew nearer.

"You four okay?" he asked, slowly walking towards them. "Had an easy time with the Heartless I take it?" Yuffie smacked him on the shoulder.

"Why the hell didn't the Claymores activate?" She shouted at him. "There were a shit-ton of Heartless, some chick wielding a Keyblade who's not on our side, even more Heartless on top of that and the freaking Claymores didn't help out!" Leon took a step back as Yuffie took another swing.

"Someone took out our security up at the castle and hacked into the city's security system. Tron had a difficult time getting through the blocks they set up to keep him out," Leon explained. Yuffie slowly lowered her fist.

"Do you think it was Maleficent?" she asked. Leon shook his head slowly.

"No, I don't think so. Maleficent wouldn't knock out our security system for such a small scale attack. She'd wait until she has her Heartless army invade," he said. Sora, Kairi and Naminé all looked at each other in shock.

"Did you just say Maleficent has an army of Heartless?" Naminé asked. Both Leon and Yuffie nodded solemnly.

"Follow me," Leon said. He walked past the others and led them towards the wall that encircled the city. They followed Leon across the top of the wall until they arrived at a stone tower. Leon led them up the tower to the open roof where several telescopes were aimed out over the Great Maw at the city's edge.

"Look out past the Maw," Leon said, gesturing at the telescopes. Sora, Kairi and Naminé all did as they were told and peered through the telescope. The first thing Sora saw was the ruins of an ancient castle, Villain's Vale, before he saw what Leon wanted him to see.

Behind Villain's Vale, covering the first few hillsides and an entire mountain were thousands upon thousands of Heartless. Sora felt his mouth drop and heard Kairi's and Naminé s gasps of surprise at the sight in front of them. There were far more Heartless now than there had been when Sora had taken on a thousand Heartless single-handedly. Sora backed away from the telescope and looked at Leon, still feeling mildly shocked at the sheer size of the army gathering just a few miles away.

"Is that the thing you wanted me to see that you mentioned in your letter?" Sora asked, even though he already knew the answer. Leon nodded.

"How are we supposed to fight that many Heartless?" Kairi asked as she stepped away from the telescope. She stepped closer to Sora feeling slightly shaken. Leon hung his head.

"I honestly don't know," he said gravely. "That army's been growing steadily for the past couple of weeks and I don't know how much longer we have until Maleficent decides to attack."

"Then we need to start getting ready!" Sora said. "We need to be able to fight all of those Heartless, which means Kairi and Naminé are going to need me to train them every day." He looked up at Leon. "Hey Leon, where can I train these two out in the open without a lot of people around?" Leon glanced at Yuffie, who gave him a get-on-with-it look, and sighed.

"I need to ask you to do me a favor, Sora," he said, staring down at the teen. Sora was taken aback for a moment before nodding his head.

"Anything I can," he said. Leon smiled softly.

"I need you to do everything you can to stop this army from growing. Which means you have to travel to as many worlds as you can and seal their Keyholes so they won't fall to Darkness," Sora, Kairi and Naminé all stared at Leon.

"You don't want us to stay and get ready to fight that army?" Kairi said in disbelief. Leon shook his head.

"It's not that at all," he said. Leon pointed a finger at the sky. "I know you heard about Traverse Town. The stars have been going out again." The trio of teens gasped. "Maleficent is casting world after world into Darkness, and for every world that falls, her army grows. I need you three to stop that from happening on as many worlds as you possibly can.

"It's the only thing we can do right now to fight against Maleficent because that's her only move so far. We have no idea where she is or what she's up to; and until we do, we have to try to stop her forces from growing the only way we can, by preventing as many worlds as we can from falling into Darkness." He placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. "I know it's asking a lot of you, but you're the best person for the job. So will you please do this for me, Master Sora?" Sora nodded.

"Of course," he said. "Anything to stop Maleficent before she can ruin anymore lives. Besides," he turned to face Kairi and Naminé, "I can show these two to other worlds. It's a win-win situation!" Kairi and Naminé both nodded earnestly in agreement. Leon smiled.

"Then the three of you should get going." He pulled out at small blue box from his pocket and pressed a button in its center. A bright white light surrounded the five of them for a brief moment, obscuring their surroundings from view. When the light faded, they found themselves in the middle of Hangar Forty-two. Cid, Aerith and Jenos were all standing by the _Kingdom_.

"We came to wish you three a safe trip," Aerith explained as the five of them walked over. She gave all three of them hugs. Merlin cleared his throat loudly and stepped forward.

"I happen to have a gift for the three of you," he said. He snapped his fingers twice and a scroll of parchment appeared in the air in front of Naminé, who eyed the scroll warily. "Take it my dear, go on. It doesn't bite, uh, I think. I don't think I gave you the biting scroll by accident. The damn things all look the same you know." Naminé carefully gripped the scroll with the tips of her index finger and thumb.

"That scroll contains a list of spells and various ways to use them in combat situations," the old wizard explained. "It was written by two Keyblade Wielders during the time just before the Keyblade War." The trio of teens all looked at the scroll enthusiastically at the mention of the Keyblade War. "Master Ambrus and his favorite apprentice, Xanthos, were the authors if I remember correctly." Sora, Kairi and Naminé all glanced at each other. "I'm sure you will find it enlightening."

"I bet we will," Kairi said softly. "Thank you, Merlin." The old wizard nodded and stepped to the side as Jenos stepped forward.

"I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of you three," he said. "I wish I could go with you but duty calls. I just received orders from my superiors to remain here a few minutes ago." He and Sora shook hands. "Maybe next time." He took Kairi and Naminé each by the hand, gently placing a kiss on the back of each hand in a chivalrous gesture. "See you three around." And on that note, Jenos turned around and left the hangar.

"I had all of your weapons and shields upgraded while you all were out in the city," Cid said, gesturing proudly at the shiny new guns that were attached to the hull. "And I've included a cloaking device that will make your ship literally invisible to both the naked eye and radar. You're food stores have been stocked with more than enough food to get the three of you through the next five or six weeks, and Aerith here made sure you guys have plenty of toiletries."

"Thanks Cid," Sora said.

"You did all that in just a couple of hours?" Kairi asked in disbelief. Cid snorted in indignation.

"Of course!" He said proudly. "Hell, I've built entire ships in less time than that!"

"What about the security codes?" Naminé interjectied. "I'd rather not get blasted into oblivion next time we come back just because we don't have the codes." Sora and Kairi both nodded along in agreement. Cid let out a small chuckle.

"Way ahead of you, blondie," he said. Naminé fumed at being called blondie. "Anytime you guys enter Radiant Garden Airspace, your ship will automatically start broadcasting your security codes. So there's nothing for you three to worry about." The trio sighed with relief.

"I guess we'll be off then," Sora said. "See you guys!" He waved at Leon and the others before heading off towards the _Kingdom_'s boarding ramp. Kairi and Naminé turned to face Yuffie.

"Could we get our bags back from you?" Kairi asked. Yuffie nodded and snapped her fingers.

"Of course," she said as the two girls bags appeared at their feet in a puff of gray smoke. "They're not my bags, after all." Kairi and Naminé both expressed their thanks to Yuffie as they gathered up their bags into their arms and headed off to the _Kingdom_. They bid the others one final farewell as they climbed the ramp and raised it behind them. The two girls immediately went to put their bags into their respective bedrooms before heading up to the bridge to keep Sora company. Sora looked back from the pilot's chair as Kairi and Naminé made their way onto the bridge and buckled themselves in.

"You two ready to go?" Sora asked. Kairi and Naminé both nodded. Sora grinned widely and pressed several buttons on the control panel in front of him. The _Kingdom_'s engines roared to life and the ship shook slightly as the repulsor-lifts came on, lifting the _Kingdom_ several feet off the ground. Sora's hand hovered above the throttle as the bay doors of the Hangar slowly opened. Cid's voice crackled over the COMM system.

"This is Cid to the _Kingdom_," he said as the bay doors locked into place. "You are clear for takeoff. Go kick some Heartless ass for us." Sora, Kairi and Naminé all laughed as Sora slammed the throttle down. The Kingdom burst from the hangar and into the sky. In a matter of minutes, they had broken free from Radiant Garden's atmosphere and were headed out into open space. Sora turned to Naminé.

"Naminé, could you bring up the coordinates for the nearest world?" he asked her. Naminé nodded and pressed a button on the console in front of her. A series of numbers quickly filled the console's screen for a few brief moments before fading away to display an image of three golden ziggurats against a beautiful, multi-colored sunset and a series of coordinates.

"Um, we have coordinates but we don't have a name for the world," Naminé said as she examined the screen. Sora nodded in understanding.

"Most worlds are like that," he said. "We get a picture and coordinates but no name. Let's set a course for there." He pressed a couple of buttons that were in front of him. Naminé's screen immediately turned black except for the green words that said _Course for unknown world set. Autopilot is now enabled. Estimated travel time: Twenty-seven hours and four minutes._

"That's more like it," Sora said as he undid his seat belt and got to his feet. "I'm gonna go get something to eat. Would either of you two like me to make you something?" Naminé shook her head. Sora shrugged and looked at Kairi, who seemed to be thinking really hard. "Kairi?"

"Lasagna," the auburn-haired teen said simply. Sora and Naminé stared at her. "What? I'm in the mood for lasagna. Is there a problem with that?" Sora smiled and shook his head.

"No problem at all, Kairi," he said with a chuckle. "I'd better go get started since I'm making lasagna." Kairi and Naminé both laughed as Sora headed down the stairs. As soon as he was out of sight, Naminé spun her chair around so she was facing Kairi.

"So tell me, what was it like for you to visit home?" she asked eagerly. Kairi gave her a half smile.

"That's not my home," she answered. "I was born there, but I grew up on Destiny Islands with Sora. Radiant Garden can't ever be home to me." Naminé nodded in understanding and glanced at the stairs.

"So, I take it your home is wherever Sora is?" she teased. Kairi's face flushed a little and she turned her head so Naminé wouldn't see the sappy grin that was appearing on her face.

"So what if it is?" she mumbled. Naminé laughed at her former Somebody.

"That sounds like something out of a cheesy romance novel or chick-flick," she teased. Kairi laughed along with her.

"It's true though. People always say that home is where the heart is and all that. Which means that my home is wherever Sora is," Kairi said as her face blushed an even brighter pink than it had been.

"I know, sis," Naminé said. "I feel the same way about Roxas." Naminé's expression fell slightly.

"Is it hard?" Kairi asked her former Nobody in a quiet tone. Naminé raised an eyebrow at her.

"Is what hard?"

"You having a body, being able to be your own person while Roxas is stuck living inside Sora's mind," Kairi said. Naminé nodded sadly.

"Yeah, it is," she replied. "Even though he's always around because he's always with Sora, I still miss him a lot. I just have to stay positive and hope we find a way to get him his own body soon, right?" Kairi nodded.

"Right," she said comfortingly. "And do you think we're sisters?" Naminé looked at her confusedly.

"What brought that up?" she asked. Kairi shrugged.

"Just wondering. It's mostly because you called me 'sis'," she said. Naminé quickly replayed their conversation in her head.

"I did, didn't I," she realized. Kairi nodded. "I guess we could be sisters. I was your Nobody after all. Does that mean we're technically twins then?" Kairi thought about it for a minute or so.

"I guess so," she said, still lost in thought. "Not identical twins though."

"Definitely fraternal twins, then," Naminé said. Both she and Kairi nodded their heads in unison and broke out into a brief fit of laughter.

"Alright, I'm going to go redecorate my room," Kairi said as she wiped a tear of mirth from her eyes. "What're you going to do?" For an answer, Naminé held up the scroll Merlin had given them.

"I'm going to head down to the training simulator and learn some magic," she said as she got to her feet. "Give me a shout when Sora's done making that lasagna because I could go for a slice." Kairi nodded and followed the blonde out of the bridge. They parted ways in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. Naminé proceeded through a door marked _More Stairs_ while Kairi headed off to her room.

Once she was inside her room, she reached into the small bag that hung off her belt and pulled out a small instruction book on remodeling a bedroom in a Gummi-ship and laid it out on her bed. Thirty minutes later, after reading the instructions a dozen times, moving furniture around, stubbing her toes and piling Gummi blocks that weren't needed any more out in the hallway, Kairi's room was now to her liking.

The walls and carpet were now deep shades of purple. The old blue sheets and towels were now out in the hallway (along with the Gummi blocks she had removed from the wall to make herself a walk-in closet complete with shoe rack) and had been replaced with violet sheets and crimson towels. She let out a sigh of contentment. Now it was her room. She hummed softly to herself as she walked into her closet and began to put her new clothes away.

_LD_

Naminé closed the door to the training simulator and took a look around her. When powered off, the simulator looked like a small room covered in white tiles and tiny green dots; but Naminé didn't feel like learning magic in a boring room like that. So she had gone to the computer that controlled the simulations and had spent several minutes deciding where she wanted to train before finally settling for a forest clearing in the middle of the day.

Naminé watched in fascination as the door slowly disappeared as she closed it. She glanced around the clearing. The trees surrounding her grew thick and close together, obscuring her view into the forest beyond. The sun hung directly above her, casting warm rays of light all around the clearing.

She was very impressed with how realistic the simulator was. She could smell the forest, hear the sounds of a river somewhere in the distance, see the occasional bird fly over head or hop from tree to tree and she could even feel a slight breeze that ran through the clearing. She walked over to an old log that sat in the clearing's center, perfect for sitting and reading. She sat down and slowly unraveled the scroll.

The spells were listed out into two categories: destructive and pure. The destructive spells included spells along the lines of fire, thunder and gravity, while the pure spells included spells like cure, light, and wind. Each spell described various uses for it and even included detailed illustrations. Naminé quickly found herself absorbed in the scroll. She kept unraveling it until the text finally stopped.

She let out a disappointed sigh. The text only seemed to take up half of the scroll while the other half just appeared blank. She let the scroll finish unraveling itself as she began to read about using thunder magic. She spent several minutes studying the paragraph on thunder before deciding to give it a try herself. The Rejection of Fate appeared in her hand and she slowly raised it above her head so the tip was pointed at the sky. She took a deep breath to calm herself and focused on the crackling boom of a thunder-clap, the bright flash of lightning, the destructive force of a storm.

"Thunder!" Naminé cried out. Her eyes snapped open as a bright yellow bolt of lightning descended from the heavens. She let out a shout of joy, which turned into a cry of horror as the lightning struck the scroll. Naminé stared, inwardly cursing her bad luck as the scroll was blasted from the ground. She watched as the scroll spun up into the air.

_Sora and Kairi are going to kill me._ She thought. She stared up at the scroll which remained hanging in the air. Her jaw dropped. Electricity was coursing through the scroll. Tiny sparks danced on its edges. The blank half of the scroll quickly filled with text. Naminé walked up to it and read the first new set of lines.

_If you are reading this that means you've discovered how to unlock the powerful spells hidden on this scroll. Well, either that or you're just learning magic and you don't have any control whatsoever yet and zapped the scroll with a thunder spell. _Naminé's face flushed in embarrassment. _Either way, congratulations. My master and I wrote the spells above barely a week before the Keyblade War began. As I write this now, the War is over here in the Sunset Forest. _

_Tomorrow, the other Chasers and I will be headed back to the Kingdom of Keys, the original home to all Keyblade Wielders and the birthplace of the Keyblade. There is a very good chance I might not survive the coming battles. I have decided to write down spells of mine that only I know, and I do so without my Master's permission. I hope these spells benefit you, Wielder of the Keyblade. I know that you and I will most likely never meet. _Naminé fought back the urge to laugh sarcastically. _But I wish you the best of luck. May the Light guide you._

Naminé checked the signature at the bottom of the message. _–Xanthos, Chaser of the Keyblade._ She glanced down at the first spell listed that, according to the message, only Xanthos had known. An eager grin broke out across Naminé's face as she read the name of the spell, _Invisibility._

_LD_

"Someone to see you, Maleficent," Pete said as he strode into The Place Where Nothing Gathers. Maleficent turned from the stone basin filled with a glowing green liquid and faced Pete.

"And you just let them in?" Maleficent said menacingly. "You incompetent buffoon! You are by far the worst guard in existence!"

"B-bu-but," Pete stammered nervously. "She said she has an offer for you that she thinks you can't refuse." Maleficent stared down at Pete.

"Very well," she said, striding away from him to sit at her thorn covered throne. "Send her in."

"I think I can let myself in, thank you very much," said Keila as she entered. Maleficent's eyes widened in anger. This girl looked nearly identical to the boy she hated the most in all of the worlds. "By the way, I think you need to hire an interior decorator. This room is very depressing." Maleficent glared at her.

"This inarticulate bumble says you have an offer I can't refuse," she said, gesturing at Pete, who looked put out. "Tell me girl, what is it you offer me?" Keila knelt to one knee and bowed her head.

"I offer you my loyalty," she said. "Maleficent, Mistress of all Evil. Queen of Darkness. My Master." Maleficent stared down at the kneeling girl with interest.

"Show me why I should allow you to serve me," the Queen of Darkness said. Keila held out her hand. The Inverse Kingdom Key flashed into existence. Both Maleficent and Pete gasped in surprise. A malicious grin spread across Maleficent's face as her evil mind instantly concocted a plan to ruin Sora and make Kingdom Hearts hers.

"I may have a use for you after all, girl."

_LD_

* * *

_Hmmm, a double-agent? Just who is this Keila? _

_I would very much like to hear theories._

_Reviews are greatly welcomed!_

_Shadow Horizons_


	11. The Trail We Blaze

_Not much else to say since this is my third chapter update of the evening. _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Disney, Black Cat, or Dreamworks._

_**EDIT: **__Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. Timeline corrected._

* * *

Chapter Eleven: The Trail We Blaze

_Wednesday, June 2nd 4794 P.C._

After the two and a half hours Kairi had spent putting away her new clothes and organizing them (before she decided to try them all on again in front of the mirror and had to go through the process all over again), her stomach had finally started to growl at her. Kairi conceded to her stomach's demands and headed to the kitchen to see how much longer the lasagna was going to take. As she made her way from the semi-circular room where the doorways to the other bedrooms were into the main hallway that ran most of the length of the ship, she could her Sora's and Roxas' voices drifting to her. Both of them sounded angry.

"I told you to read me the recipe!" Sora was shouting. "I never once said 'Add random ingredients to make it taste better'!"

"Well excuse me for trying to improve the lasagna!" Roxas retorted.

"You told me to add chili powder!" Sora said exasperatedly.

"That's your fault for listening to me then. That was a joke." Roxas laughed.

Then why didn't you stop me?" Sora demanded.

"Because I didn't realize that you thought I was being serious until I saw the can of chili powder on the counter next to you." Roxas said. Kairi pressed the button that opened the kitchen door.

"Hey guys," she said cheerily as the door opened. "What are you two-" she slowly fell silent, staring around at the kitchen. Dark red sauce was splattered everywhere. Cheese hung from the ceiling. Sora was standing in front of the open oven. He was covered from head to toe in the majority of the lasagna.

"Hey Kairi," Roxas said with a smirk. "What's up?" Kairi continued to stare around at the sauce covered kitchen.

"What the hell happened?" She asked.

"This guy thought it would be funny to tell me to add chili powder to the sauce," Sora said, pointing over his shoulder at the spectral image of Roxas. "And I thought he was being serious so I did. The jerk didn't even bother to stop me from doing so and now look at the mess."

"Not my fault," Roxas said with a shrug. "I don't think chili powder is what made the lasagna explode anyway."

"Shut up," Sora said as he grabbed a rag and began cleaning the sauce off of himself before setting to work on scrubbing the counters, floor, table, chairs, ceiling and appliances. Kairi laughed at Sora's bad luck for a moment before taking pity on him and grabbing a rag from the sink to help out. It took them nearly another hour to properly clear all of the sauce from every surface in the kitchen. Roxas, even though he couldn't exactly help clean, was less than helpful by pointing out that the two Somebodies 'missed a spot' every thirty seconds. Naminé walked into the kitchen as Sora and Kairi collapsed onto the freshly cleaned chairs.

"Is that lasagna ready yet?" The blonde asked. "I'm starving." Her eyes wandered around the now spotless kitchen before settling on the tiny bit of sauce still in Sora's hair. Naminé sighed. "Never mind, I'll just go make myself a sandwich." Sora and Kairi looked at each other and shrugged. The couple got up and joined Naminé in the sandwich making.

The next few hours flew by as the four of them ate their food, laughed at Roxas' lamenting of the fact that he couldn't eat, and watched movies. Their night came to an end as Sora, Kairi and Naminé all passed out on the couch with Kairi using Sora's chest as a pillow. Sora watched her as he slowly drifted off to sleep. He wished that the two of them could always be like this without ever having to worry about the threat Maleficent and the Apostles of the Star posed to the worlds. His eyes slowly closed and he drifted off to sleep.

_LD_

_Darkness clouded Sora's vision. He was all alone in the endless abyss. He could hear voices all around him, overlapping so he only occasionally managed to make out what was being said._

"_Soon, all worlds will bow before me."_

"_Fear for the one you love makes you weak."_

"_I think I want to be forgiven."_

"_And you will lose, Sora."_

"_You still understand nothing."_

"_I merely wished to witness the end of someone who has the gall to abuse the power I have given them."_

"_Fools. Now Kingdom Hearts shall belong to me."_

"_You know, I'm getting really tired of dealing with you Keyblade Wielders."_

"_How long has it been since I met him? At least a year now, perhaps more."_

"_Get them out safely. I'm going to end this."_

"_This is Shadowgate. This is where you will have to die."_

"_You've only got one shot at this. If you don't make it in time, we're all doomed."_

"_Don't you dare lay a hand on my brother!"_

"_You can't stop me now!"_

"_Do you fear death?"_

"_Him. He's coming back."_

"_My life is eternal now. I have become… __**God**__."_

"_You're not alone."_

"_I've waited for this moment for over four and a half thousands years. Today, you pay for what you did!"_

"_I am a monument to the sins of the Keyblade Wielders."_

"_Even the Keyblade is no match for my power!"_

"_How'd you get a Keyblade? You're a weak-hearted coward!"_

"_Tell me what you regret most, Princess, so I can enjoy your death that much more."_

_Sora clutched his hands to his head, begging for a reprieve from the never-ending voices. All at once, silence dominated the darkness, except for one last voice._

"_Shouldn't you be waking up now?"_

Sora's eyes snapped open. He glanced at a clock that hung above the couch. It was almost noon. He looked down at Kairi, who was still sleeping peacefully with her head on his chest. Naminé was sprawled out across the remaining free space on the couch with her feet propped up on Kairi's calves. His eyes traveled upward and he saw their destination growing larger with each passing second. A new world.

_LD_

_Thursday, June 3rd 4794 P.C._

Thirty minutes later, as the _Kingdom_ finally entered orbit around the golden-colored world, Sora, Kairi and Naminé were preparing to warp down to the surface. Sora's face had two bright red palm prints on each cheek from where Kairi and Naminé had both slapped him when he had tried to wake them up to tell them they had arrived. The two girls were both smiling apologetically at Sora, who was setting up the Warp system.

"Did you both have to slap me?" Sora asked, rubbing one of his cheeks tenderly as the red light above the door turned yellow. The three teens climbed into the pods and sealed them shut. Kairi glanced at Naminé through her pod. The pair of them looked over at Sora and shrugged.

"Reflex," they said in unison, as if the answer should've been obvious. Sora rolled his eyes. The yellow light turned green and the trio was bathed in white light for a moment before they were warped onto the world.

_LD_

A bright flash of light illuminated the darkened deck of the boat. Sora, Kairi and Naminé quickly glanced around at their surroundings. They were on an older style war ship that was making decent headway across the ocean under a beautiful star filled sky. But the three of them didn't pay the stars any heed and instead focused on the blades of the swords and the barrels of the guns that the ships' crew was now pointing at them.

"Stowaways!" One man shouted. Kairi and Naminé shared a nervous glance.

"Bring forth three sets of irons!" Another man, clad in highly polished armor cried out. "We'll let _him _decide their fate!" The man gestured at the door to the ships' cabin. The three teens quickly found their hands locked behind their backs by cold iron cuffs.

"Talk about a warm welcome," Kairi grumbled under her breath as she, Sora and Naminé were forced to walk towards the cabin. Once inside, another armor-clad soldier closed the door behind them as another two soldiers forced the teens to their knees next to a pair of men.

One was dressed in a dark blue shirt and a brown vest. He had long black hair tied into a ponytail and a bit of stubble covering his cheeks. The other man had shoulder length blonde hair, a goatee and was dressed in a loose red shirt. The two men raised their eyebrows at the trio of teens before looking up at a large man who stood looking down at a map illuminated by a single candle.

"Cortes," the blonde-haired man whispered, seemingly awestruck. The large man slowly turned around. He was dressed in the same armor as the other soldiers, but the way he moved and acted told Sora and the others that this was not a man to be trifled with. He had short black hair and a well groomed beard. His eyes were full of loathing as he stared down at the five captives.

"My crew," he said in a slow deep voice that sent shivers down the spines of the five 'stowaways', "was as carefully chosen as the disciples of Christ." He cracked his gauntleted knuckles menacingly. "And I will _not_ tolerate stowaways." Sora, Kairi, and Naminé all swallowed hard, their nerves slowly getting the better of them.

"You will be flogged," Cortes said matter-of-factly. "And when we put into Cuba to resupply, God willing, you will be flogged some more. And then enslaved on the sugar plantations for the rest of your miserable lives."

The three teens all shared a terrified glance with one another. Cortes looked up from the stowaways at his soldiers and jerked his head towards the door.

"To the brig," he said coldly, turning away from them to look back at the map on the table. Cortes' men nodded and hoisted the five prisoners to their feet.

"All right!" The blonde-haired man said excitedly. Sora, Kairi, Naminé and the man in the blue shirt all stared at him, dumbfounded. He smiled around at them. "Cuba!" A soldier rolled his eyes and dragged the blonde-haired man out of the room by his neck.

They were led, one by one, to the grate that sealed the brig in the center of the deck. One soldier unlocked the grate and pulled it back while another unlocked the shackles binding the trio and the two men. Kairi and Naminé both glanced at Sora expectantly. Sora nodded and held out his hand to summon his Keyblade. Kairi and Naminé quickly followed suit, however, they were all suddenly hoisted off their feet and thrown into the brig one floor below the deck before they had a chance.

Sora landed face first onto the straw covered floor and was quickly crushed by Kairi and Naminé falling on top of his back. The two girls quickly scrambled off Sora and helped him to his feet. The other two men were thrown in after them, landing in a heap where Sora had been laying moments before. Sora let out a small sigh of relief; these two would definitely be heavier than Kairi and Naminé were and he probably would've been flattened.

"Well this is just great!" The black-haired man said. "Now we're going to be slaves for the rest of our lives. Just fantastic."

"Tulio, look on the positive side!" The blonde-haired man said cheerily. "We get to make meet new people who are in the same boat as us!" Sora snickered at the lame pun. The blonde-haired man held out his hand towards the three teens. "My name is Miguel," he said, a wide smile on his face. "That depressing fellow over there is my partner in crime, Tulio." He jerked his thumb towards the black-haired man who waved at them dejectedly.

"Nice to meet you two," Naminé said. "I'm Naminé. This is Kairi and that's Sora." Sora and Kairi grinned warmly at Miguel. Miguel smiled back at them.

"It's nice to meet you three," he said as he sat down on a pile of straw. "Although I wish it was under better circumstance. How did you three get onto the ship anyway?" Kairi and Naminé glanced at Sora nervously. Sora thought for a brief second before clearing his throat.

"We, um, just kind of fell onto the deck and got caught," he said hesitantly. Miguel and Tulio exchanged a glance and then burst into laughter.

"That's less embarrassing than how we got caught," Miguel said. "Tulio and I were hiding in a couple of barrels that ended up being loaded onto the ship and we popped out only to be caught." He grinned over at Tulio, who stared back with narrowed eyes until Miguel's smile faded.

"I'm going to work on an escape plan," Tulio said as he walked over to a corner of the tiny cell. Miguel gave the three teens a half smile and laid down on the straw, falling asleep in a matter of minutes. Kairi and Naminé moved closer to Sora and leaned in so their foreheads were all practically touching.

"Can't we just use our Keyblades to escape?" Naminé asked. "It should be easy. All we have to do is unlock the grate or bash our way through one of these walls right?" Kairi shook her head.

"We're out in the middle of the ocean on a ship of people who would probably try to kill us on sight if we escaped," she said. "And even if we escaped without being noticed, eventually they'd realized we were gone and they'd probably throw us overboard."

"So?" Naminé said. "Sora could just warp us back to the _Kingdom_ and we'd get away scot-free!" Both girls' eyes darted over to meet Sora's. Sora shook his head.

"We could always do that," he said slowly. "But we can't take Miguel and Tulio with us; we can't upset the World Order that much." The three of them glanced at the sleeping form of Miguel. "And we can't just leave them to be enslaved for the rest of their lives or die at sea, can we?" Kairi and Naminé both nodded.

"So that means our only option is to wait until the ship reaches land so we can help those two escape before we leave, right?" Naminé suggested. Sora shrugged.

"I guess so," he said with a sigh. "This is going to be a long trip." The two girls both let out sighs. Naminé leaned back against a wall and produced a sketchbook and a small set of colored pencils and slowly began to sketch their surroundings. Kairi and Sora shifted the straw around them to make it as comfortable as possible. Kairi rested her back against Sora's chest and quickly fell asleep.

Sora stared up at the grate set into the ceiling of the cell for what felt like hours, gently running the tips of his fingers along Kairi's bare arms. One thought kept replaying itself in his mind; the words that the old woman who had sold him Kairi's birthday present had said to him.

"_You will either save the worlds, or they will be consumed by Darkness under your command."_

He looked down at the auburn-haired girl currently using him as a pillow and smiled softly. Why was he worrying so much about the worlds being destroyed by him using Darkness when such a pure Light had his heart in her grasp? He gently planted a kiss on the crown of her head and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep.

_LD_

_Friday, June 4th 4794 P.C._

Sora woke up several hours later with a wide yawn and glanced around. The cell was now filled with the bright sunshine of noon. Naminé was still sketching but was now making a portrait of a dozing Miguel, who sat on a small pile of straw with his hands folded on his lap. Kairi was sitting next to him reading a book with a cover worn to the point that Sora couldn't quite make out the title. Kairi glanced up at him as he yawned again.

"Good afternoon, lazy bum," she said with a small chuckle. Sora smiled down at her.

"Hey," he said as he kissed her gently. A faint, rhythmic thumping sound was resonating through the cell. Sora pulled away from the kiss and looked around for the source. Tulio was kneeling in front of a wooden support beam steadily thumping his head against it. On the ground next to him were two tiny cups and a small tin plate with a few old looking peas on it. Sora grimaced at the sight of the peas.

Miguel gave a start from his corner as an apple fell from above deck and into his lap. He waved at Sora and Kairi, both of whom smiled back, before hesitantly moving towards Tulio. Tulio paid them no attention and continued to thump his head against the post.

So, um," Miguel said nervously, "how's the, uh, how's the escape plan coming?" Tulio pulled his head away from the post and held up a hand.

"All right," he said. "All right. Wait! I'm getting something!" Miguel grinned back at the three teens eagerly before turning back to Tulio.

"Yeah?" Miguel asked eagerly. Tulio turned back towards the post and continued hitting his head against it. Kairi and Naminé both sighed. Then Tulio pulled away from the post again.

"Okay!" He said as he turned to face the other four occupants of the cell. "Here's the plan." He gestured for the three teens to join him and Miguel as the two of them laid down on their stomachs next to the dismal meal that was on the tin plate. The trio quickly laid down with them on the floor as Tulio explained the plan.

"In the dead of night," he said, acting dramatic, "the five of us grab some provisions and hijack one of those longboats." He grabbed one of the tin cups, tossed a few peas into it and placed the cup in front of Miguel. "And then we row back to Spain like there's no mañana!" He smacked the tin cup and sent it flying across the cell. The teens all stared at the tin cup as it came to a halt. Miguel slowly looked back at Tulio.

"Back to Spain, yeah?" he asked incredulously. Tulio nodded.

"Yeah."

"In a rowboat."

"You got it!"

"Great," Miguel said as he rolled his eyes. "Sensational. And that's your plan, is it?" Tulio grinned widely and nodded.

"That's pretty much it," he said simply. A smile broke across Miguel's face.

"Well, I like it!" He said eagerly. The teens all stared at the two men. "So, how do we get on deck?"

"Umm," Tulio pondered for a moment before reaching for the other tin cup and tossing the remainder of the old peas into it. "In the dead of night, the five of us grab some provisions and hijack one of those longboats-" he was cut off as the other four let out a collective groan.

"Great," Miguel said sarcastically. Tulio glared at him.

"Okay," he said angrily. "What's your idea, smart guy?"

"Wh-wh-what do you mean?" Miguel stuttered in frustration. "Don't ask me that! You're the one with the plans!" Kairi and Naminé both sighed and retreated into one of the corners. Clearly this was going to take awhile. Sora groaned and rolled onto his back. On deck, a horse let out a loud whinny. Miguel stared at the apple in his hand for a moment before getting to his feet.

"Wait," he said, "I, uh, I have an idea. Come on, give me a boost." Sora watched as Tulio hoisted Miguel up by his legs so the blonde was able to stick his hands through the bars of the grate.

"Hey," said blonde whispered loudly. "Altivo. Altivo! You want a nice apple? Come and get it!" Kairi and Naminé looked from the tower that was Miguel and Tulio before turning to Sora.

"Uh, what is Miguel doing?" Kairi asked. Sora shrugged and watched. They could hear the clattering of a horse walking towards them from across the deck.

"You have to do a trick for me first," Miguel whispered. The horse's footsteps stopped. "All you have to do is find a pry bar; a long piece of iron with a hooky thing at the end!" Sora raised his eyebrows. Kairi and Naminé both shook their heads. There was no way this was going to work.

"Miguel, you're talking to a horse!" Tulio hissed, clearly thinking along the same lines as the teens. The horse's hooves could be heard clattering on deck again, growing fainter as the horse moved away.

"That's it, Altivo," Miguel said encouragingly. "Find the pry bar!"

"Yes, find the pry bar," Tulio said sarcastically. "He can't understand 'pry bar'!" The hooves clattering were growing louder again. "He's a dumb horse! There's no way-" A ring of keys dropped through the grate and landed on Sora's head.

"Ow!" he exclaimed as he grabbed the keys and dangled them in the air. Everyone stared at the keys as the horse let out a whinny. Tulio looked up at Miguel.

"Well, it's not a pry bar," he said as if he was trying to defend his earlier point. Miguel shrugged. Sora looked over at Kairi and Naminé.

"Tulio's plan actually sounds pretty good now," he said with a grin. Kairi and Naminé both rolled their eyes at him as Tulio and Miguel grinned.

_LD_

The next few hours passed slowly as the five of them waited. After the snores of the ship's crew began to echo into the cell, the five of them escaped their cell into the dead of night. Miguel gently closed the grate to the cell behind them as Tulio looked down at the three teens.

"Okay," he whispered. "I need the three of you to grab as much food and water as you can carry, okay?" The three Keyblade Wielders nodded and began to grab whatever had food in it from the deck. Tulio wandered over to one of the longboats and climbed inside as he prepared to lower it into the water.

"Well this is exciting," Kairi grunted as she and Sora hoisted a couple of barrels of water into the longboat before climbing in along with Tulio. "My second jailbreak in less than six months; I'm starting to feel like a criminal."

She and Sora both laughed as they helped Tulio with the rigging. Naminé and Miguel tossed in the last of the supplies they had gathered. Miguel stepped aside and gestured to Naminé to enter the boat first. Naminé smiled graciously and allowed Miguel to help her in. Miguel was about to climb in when a white horse came up behind him and nudged him in the back with his nose. Miguel gave a start before turning around a breathing a sigh of relief.

"Oh, Altivo," the blonde-haired man said as he gently stroked the horse's nose. "Thank you, old boy. Listen, if we can ever return the favor-" Altivo the horse sniffed Miguel's shirt expectantly. Sora and Kairi watched the scene with mild interest. Tulio simply rolled his eyes.

"For Pete's sake, Miguel," he whispered exasperatedly. "He's a ruthless warhorse, not a poodle. Come on, before he licks you to death." Tulio and the teens began to lower the longboat into the water as Miguel patted Altivo one last time before rushing over to jump into the boat with them.

"Adios," Miguel said to Altivo. The horse let out a loud whinny. Kairi flinched at the noise. Surely he would wake the whole ship. Altivo cantered over to the ships edge and looked down at the escapees. The five of them looked back up at the horse.

"Shh, quiet. Please!" Miguel whispered to Altivo, who let out another loud whinny.

"What's the matter with him?" Naminé whispered.

"Oh! He wants his apple!" Miguel said, pulling said fruit out from his shirt.

"Well, give it to him!" Sora whispered frantically. "Quickly, or he'll wake up the whole ship!" Miguel handed the apple to Kairi, who was the only one not holding onto a rope at the moment. Kairi rolled her eyes and tossed the apple up towards Altivo.

"Here, fetch!" she whispered.

"He's not a dog, Kairi," Naminé teased. Kairi rolled her eyes and helped to lower the longboat as best as she could. Up on deck, the force of Kairi's throw caused the apple to sail right by Altivo, who watched as it flew up and above him. It bounced off a sail, was deflected by a cross-beam, sent spinning up into the air by a fixed telescope and back over the edge of the ship.

The apple fell past the escapee's longboat and plopped into the water. The five all looked around in confusion which turned to shock as Altivo, who was determined to get his apple, leapt off the deck and fell past the longboat a fraction of a second after the apple. The five escapees looked over the longboat's edge as Altivo began whinnying desperately and splashing around.

"Altivo!" Miguel and Kairi both cried out. Sora, Naminé and Tulio watched in surprise as the pair leapt overboard and began to swim towards the floundering horse. "We're coming!" Kairi cried as she and Miguel swam across the choppy waters to Altivo.

"Just hang on!" Miguel shouted. "We're right here, old boy!" He and Kairi reached Altivo and immediately began trying to calm him.

"Help is coming!" Naminé shouted from the longboat.

"Miguel!" Tulio cried out. "Have you lost your mind?" The longboat hit the water and the trio still on the boat released the ropes. Sora and Tulio took up the oars and began rowing towards where Kairi, Miguel and Altivo now floated in the water. Naminé held out her hands to help as best as she could as soon as the boat pulled up alongside where Altivo continued to flounder around.

"Here!" Naminé shouted. "Take my hands! I'll help pull you up!" Sora and Tulio both looked up as one of the other boats from Cortes' fleet came dangerously close.

"Holy-" Tulio cried out.

"Ship!" Sora shouted. The waves that the ship created as it passed the longboat to capsize, throwing Sora, Naminé and Tulio into the water. The five escapees and Altivo all burst from the surf under the capsized longboat, each gasping for breath.

"Loop the rope under the horse!" Tulio shouted. Sora and Miguel both dove underwater. They grabbed the ropes and did as Tulio said, looping the ropes so that they crossed his stomach as they swam back to the surface. The two of them clambered onto the exposed underside of the longboat as Kairi, Naminé and Tulio joined them. The five of them all took hold of the ropes.

"Okay," Tulio shouted. "On the count of three, pull back on the rope!" Sora and Miguel glanced at each other in confusion.

"What?" The pair shouted together. A shadow fell across them as another ship from Cortes' fleet drew dangerously close.

"Three!" Tulio shouted. The five of them all pulled back on the rope as hard as they could. "Pull!" The waves created by the ships passing helped turn the longboat back over, once again causing all five escapees to end up in the ocean. Kairi and Naminé both popped up next to the boat and grasped onto the edges. Altivo flipped himself so he was right-side up on the boat's deck. Sora, Miguel and Tulio emerged from the waves on a crate that had burst open and swam themselves back towards the boat.

"Hey, it worked!" Miguel said excitedly upon seeing that Altivo and the two girls were now safely inside the rowboat. Kairi and Naminé both helped the three males back onto the deck were they all lay, panting from the excitement.

"Did any of the supplies make it?" Tulio asked, as wiped water off of his face. Kairi looked over at the small pile of supplies that had been gathered at the stern of the boat.

"Well, um, yes and no," she said nervously. The other four all turned their heads to look. Altivo was greedily digging into what little food they had left.

"Oh, great!" Tulio and Sora both exclaimed sarcastically. Miguel grinned and elbowed Tulio lightly on the side.

"Tulio, look on the positive side," he said encouragingly. "At least things can't get-" A loud clap of thunder echoed across the ocean and a torrential downpour of bone-chilling rain began out of nowhere. Sora, Kairi and Naminé all laughed at the irony as Tulio slowly turned, glaring, to face Miguel.

"Excuse me," Tulio said slowly, "were you going to say 'worse'?" Miguel's smile vanished and he hung his head dejectedly.

"No," he said.

"No?"

"No."

"You're sure?"

"Absolutely not. I've revised the whole thing."

"Okay, yeah. We're at least in a rowboat."

"We're in a rowboat, exactly. You miss nothing."

Sora, Kairi and Naminé all watched the back and forth banter between the two partners in crime for several long minutes. Only Naminé and Altivo seemed to notice that during the entire time they were in the storm, which ended up lasting several hours, they were being followed by a group of sharks.

_LD_

Due to the lack of food, water and shade, the five of them barely spoke to one another or moved for a week or so to conserve as much energy as possible. Naminé did her best to use her black cloak to provide them with shade, but even unzipped and spread out it only could cover two people at a time, which resulted in the three males forcing Kairi and Naminé to stay under it at all times so the two girls would be protected from the intense sun. They only rowed when they felt like they had enough excess energy to do so.

After about five days, Kairi and Naminé had both gotten slightly mad at Sora for refusing to warp them out of there. Sora insisted that they couldn't just leave Miguel, Tulio and Altivo to die out on the sea. Both girls felt guilty less than a day later but still got Sora to agree to warp them back to the _Kingdom_ if they spent a full two weeks drifting at sea.

_Sunday, June 13th 4794 P.C._

"Tulio," Miguel said weakly, finally breaking four days of silence. "Did you ever imagine it would end like this?" Tulio took a minute to think about it.

"The horse is a surprise," he said finally. Altivo rolled his eyes.

"Any regrets?" Miguel asked.

"Besides dying? Yeah. I never… had enough… gold." Kairi and Naminé both sighed. Gold. That's all those two seemed to talk about.

"My regret," Miguel said slowly, "is… our greatest adventure is over before it began and no one will even remember us." Sora glanced at Naminé who had her sketchpad (which had miraculously remained dry) open to a drawing of Tulio and Miguel. Sora smiled to himself.

_That's not true. The three of us will remember you two after we leave this world._

"Well," Tulio was saying. "If it's any consolation, Miguel, you… made my life… an adventure." Tulio began to let out tears of sorrow, lamenting their deaths before they had even died. Miguel let out a sniffle.

"And if it's any consolation, Tulio," Miguel said as he began to sob as well. "You made… my life… rich." Altivo rolled his eyes again. Sora felt the boat suddenly become still, no longer buffeted by the sea. He looked over the boat's edge and a huge smile broke across his face. Tulio and Miguel lifted their hands from here they had been hanging over the side of the boat, bringing up huge handfuls of sand. Tulio's face broke into a smile. Kairi and Naminé both stared in joyful shock. Miguel shook the sand from his hand sadly. The others all stared at him until a smile snapped onto his face.

"Is it?" Miguel said hesitantly. They all looked up at the lush green forest that was just a few feet from the beach where they had landed.

"It's land!" They all shouted as they leapt from the boat and began kissing the ground, quickly moving away from the water. Miguel's lips eventually stopped kissing sand as they reached a skull with a stone sword jutting out of its crown. The five of them all let out screams of shock. There were two skeletons on the beach, both with swords jutting out of various parts of where their flesh used to be. Miguel quickly began wiping off his lips.

"All in favor of getting back in the boat, say 'aye'," Tulio said as he stared down at the two skeletons. Kairi and Naminé both immediately raised their hands and said "Aye!" in unison with Tulio and Miguel. Sora looked at the other four in mild surprise.

"It's just a couple of skeletons," he said as he poked one of the skulls. "I've seen scarier." The others paid him no heed and made a beeline for the boat, except for Miguel, who stopped at stared at a large rock that was shaped like an eagle's head. Miguel pulled a roll of paper out from his shirt and began examining it closely. Sora stared at the blonde as he looked from the paper to their surroundings. An excited grin was quickly spreading across his face. Sora looked over Miguel's shoulder at the paper. There were several symbols scattered across the entirety of it, joined together by a single winding line.

_A map?_ Sora noticed one of the symbols looked just like the eagle-head stone Miguel was staring at. _A map of this place?_

"Hey, Miguel! Sora!" Tulio called from over by the boat. "We could use a little help!" Sora and Miguel paid him no attention and continued comparing the map to their surroundings. "Miguel! Hello!" Tulio shouted in irritation as he stormed over to Sora and Miguel. Miguel spun to face Tulio and clapped the man on his shoulder.

"Tulio!" he exclaimed with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. "We've done it!" Tulio looked down at the map in surprise.

"What's that?" he asked. His eyes widened slightly as Miguel turned back towards the rock and he saw the symbols on the map. "The map?"

"It's all right here!" Miguel cheered as he looked around at the trees.

"You still have the map?" Tulio demanded in disbelief. Miguel continued to ignore him.

"The whistling rock!" He babbled as he spun to get a better look at the land. "The stream!"

"You kept the map but you couldn't grab a little more food?" Tulio exclaimed, clearly outraged. Kairi and Naminé watched from next to the boat.

"What's Tulio yelling about a map for?" Kairi asked. Naminé waved Kairi along and the two of them made their way to join the others.

"Why don't we go find out?" the blonde-haired teen said with a grin.

"Even those mountains," Miguel was saying as the two girls walked up. "You said so yourself: It could be possible. And it is!" Tulio let out a groan as Miguel held the map up in front of Tulio's face. "It really is! The map to El Dorado!" Both Sora and Kairi gasped in surprise. Naminé looked at them in confusion.

"What's El Dorado?" She whispered to Kairi. Kairi looked at her in mild surprise.

"You don't know?" Naminé shook her head and Kairi sighed. "El Dorado is supposed to be a legend. We heard it on the islands all the time when we were growing up. Supposedly, gods came down from the heavens a thousand years ago and blessed mankind with a glorious city: El Dorado, the city of gold." Naminé's eyes widened.

"An entire city of gold?" She said, her whisper low in amazement. Kairi nodded eagerly.

"And apparently Miguel has a map to El Dorado." A huge grin was spreading across Kairi's face. "I guess sticking with these two was worth it, huh?" Naminé nodded in agreement.

"You drank the seawater, didn't you?" Tulio said. Miguel let out a groan.

"Oh, come on!" Miguel and Sora said in unison, both frustrated.

"I'm not coming on!" Tulio shouted. "I wouldn't set foot in that jungle for a million pesetas!" Tulio began walking back towards the boat. Miguel's face fell for a moment then Sora tapped him on the shoulder. Miguel looked at him curiously.

"Just watch," he whispered before raising his voice so Tulio could hear him. "How about a hundred million?" Tulio stopped walking and turned back to face them slowly.

"What?" Sora could see that had grabbed Tulio's attention.

"I just thought that, after all, since El Dorado is the city of gold-" He let his sentence hang there, causing Tulio's interested expression to grow more noticeable.

"What's your point?" The black haired man asked. Naminé smiled as she saw where Sora was going with this. She stepped forward.

"You know," she said as if it weren't something overly exciting, "dust, nuggets, bricks, as much jewelry as you can wear…" Kairi caught on and chimed in.

"Shoes, knives, swords," she said as she casually examined her fingernails, "A temple of gold where you can pluck gold from the very walls." They could all tell that Tulio was very much into the idea of going to El Dorado now. All they had to do was seal the deal.

"But you don't want to go," Miguel said as he picked up one of the boats oars. "So let's get back into the boat and row back to Spain. After all, it worked so well last time."

"Wait!" Tulio cried out. Everyone stared at him with smug smiles on their faces. "Wait a minute. New plan! We find the city of gold. We _take_ the gold, and _then_ we go back to Spain!"

"And buy Spain!" Miguel said as the three teens all cheered. "That's the spirit, Tulio!" Miguel ran over to the skeletons and pulled one of the stone swords from one of the skulls. "Come on, everyone! We'll follow that trail!" He pointed the sword towards the jungle. The others all looked around. There was no trail to be seen.

"What trail?" Naminé asked. Miguel looked over at a patch of hanging vines and ran up to them.

"The trail that we blaze!" He declared as he quickly hacked through the vines. The vines all fell at once, revealing a wall of stone instead of a path. Kairi and Naminé rolled their eyes. Miguel stared for a moment before recovering and pointing the sword at another patch of vines further down along the beach. "_That _trail that we blaze!" He spent the next seven minutes repeating the process of blazing a trail before they finally found a path.

_Good morning all!_ Roxas said as Miguel slowly carved them a path through the vegetation.

_Dude, I haven't heard from you since before we got to this world._ Sora said in shock. _What have you been doing?_

_I was sleeping._

_It's been a week and a half! That's not sleeping, that's a coma! And Kairi calls ME a lazy bum!_

_Technically, because I'm a part of your mind, I can't be put into a coma unless you get put into one._

_Then how the hell did you sleep for a week and a half?_

_I was tired._

_You don't even have a- never mind. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt._

_You can think?_

_Don't make me come in there._

_How? Can you turn into a spirit and enter your own mind? I don't think so! Ha! Roxas: one. Sora: zero._

_Next time._

_Yeah, yeah. So what are the three of you doing? And what's with the two guys and the horse?_

_Well, the blonde one is Miguel and the black-haired one is Tulio. Long story short; Miguel has a map to El Dorado and so we're going there now._

_No kidding? The fabled city of gold?_

_Yup._ The reached a clearing in the vegetation that was covered in gnarled tree roots.

_That's awesome! Back when I was with the Organization, Luxord and Xigbar were always trying to get me to help them find El Dorado so they could take all of the gold and go blow it in casinos across the worlds._ Sora's jaw dropped in surprise.

_Seriously? That's kind of hilarious. What other quirks did the other Organization members have?_

_Let's see,_ Roxas pondered for a moment. _Demyx worshipped David Bowie like no other. Marluxia's hair was originally crimson until Demyx and I added white paint to his shampoo as a prank. Larxene kept a copy of Marquis de Sade with her at all times. Xaldin listened to country music. Vexen wore a wig. And Xigbar went through a phase where he only used NERF guns as his weapons._

_That's freaking hilarious, dude._

_Yeah, it is now that I think about it. Hey, have you guys had to fight any Heartless yet?_ It finally occurred to Sora that they hadn't seen a single Heartless the entire time they were here.

_No, we haven't. Maybe the Heartless aren't on this world._

_Maybe._

"What are those black things?" Tulio said suddenly, pointing at the dark shapes rapidly approaching them.

_Looks like I spoke too soon._

_Ya think?_

"Heartless!" Naminé shouted. The Rejection of Fate appeared in her hand as several Shadows began rising from the ground. Kairi called Destiny's Embrace to her and quickly joined Naminé in the fray.

"What are Heartless?" Miguel exclaimed as he and Tulio climbed onto Altivo's back. "Where did you get those weapons?" Sora summoned the Oblivion Keyblade and struck down a pair of Shadows as they leapt at him.

"We'll explain after we've finished up!" He shouted back at the two men. A Neoshadow slowly rose, unseen, behind Sora. The Keyblade Master didn't realize he was being attacked until the Neoshadow's claws dug into his shoulders. Sora let out a small cry of shock and pain.

Kairi and Naminé both quickly dispatched the Shadows within their reach and turned to give Sora worried looks. Sora let out a growl and swung the Oblivion at the Neoshadow. Pain seared through Sora's shoulder. The Neoshadow quickly sank back into the ground, easily dodging Sora's attack.

"Get back here and fight me, coward!" Sora shouted at the black shape on the ground as it circled him. "I hate when they do that." The Neoshadow burst from the ground and lunged at Sora. The Oblivion glinted in the dim light of the jungle as it sliced the Neoshadow in half. "Take that!" The Heartless burst into dark mist.

"Is that it?" Kairi asked. Sora looked over as she and Naminé finished off the last of the Shadows with absurd ease. The two females lowered their weapons. There was a loud screech from above them.

Several Powerwild Heartless dropped down from the treetops and swiftly surrounded them. Each Heartless was covered in varying shades of blue fur. Their faces were black as night with jagged edges and the glowing yellow eyes all Heartless possessed. Their tails swayed back and forth as they danced menacingly around the three Keyblade Wielders. In the center of each Heartless' chest was the red outline of an oddly shaped heart with a spiked 'x' in the center.

"Great," Kairi grumbled. "Monkey Heartless. What next?" The Powerwilds all leapt at trio slashing with their jet-black claws. The trio quickly leapt away from the Heartless. Sora kicked one of the Powerwilds into another and stabbed both of them with the Oblivion. He wrenched the Keyblade from the pair and knocked another Powerwild away from him and towards Naminé.

"Batter up!" Sora shouted. Naminé looked around as the Powerwild soared at her head. She brought the Rejection of Fate behind her head, holding it in both hands like a bat. She swung when the Powerwild was within her reach and knocked it flying into a tree where it burst into a dark mist. A small, glowing pink heart rose from the mist and faded away.

"Home run!" Naminé exclaimed as she cleaved the head of another Powerwild in two. Kairi laughed and held her Keyblade above her head.

"Showoff!" She teased as electricity coursed through Destiny's Embrace. "Thunder!" Several bolts of lightning rained down from the heavens and slaughtered several the remaining Powerwilds. "You know, they weren't so tough."

"As long as we don't have to fight Bouncywilds along with them," Sora said, dispelling the Oblivion from his hands.

"What were those things?" Miguel asked. Sora gave a start. He had almost forgotten about Miguel and Tulio.

"Heartless," Naminé explained. "They're creatures that come into existence when someone loses their heart to Darkness. They only exist to cause people to lose their hearts."

"And what about those weapons?" Tulio asked. He looked down at Kairi. And are you a witch?" Kairi glared up at him.

"No!" She said, feeling offended at being called a witch. She hoisted Destiny's Embrace. "This is a Keyblade. It's the only weapon that can truly defeat the Heartless. It also allows me to cast magic spells, but if I didn't have one I don't think I'd be able to."

"Fascinating," Miguel said as he climbed down from Altivo's back and walked over to Kairi. He closely examined Destiny's Embrace. "Just where did you three come from?" Kairi looked over at Sora, unsure how to answer it.

"We came from somewhere very far away," Naminé said, quickly coming to Kairi's rescue. Tulio raised an eyebrow at her.

"Anywhere 'far away' in particular?" He asked. Naminé shook her head.

"We're not allowed to say," Sora said. "It's kind of secret. Basically, bad things would happen if we told you."

"What sort of bad things?" Miguel asked, clearly trying to determine whether or not the 'bad things' would be worth it if he could learn more about the three teens. Sora gave him a very serious look.

"The worst kind of bad," he said gravely. "The kind that make dying from a disease seem peaceful. Miguel and Tulio shared a nervous glance and immediately dropped the subject.

_Is that true? Would bad things happen if we told someone we were from another world?_ Roxas asked.

_Hell if I know. Obviously some people are aware of it. So I think it's okay if they know there are other worlds out there. But since most people on most worlds don't, I think we have to stay quiet about it._

_Makes sense to me._

"Okay!" Miguel said as he pulled out the map. "Now which way were we headed before those Heartfelt things attacked?"

"Heartless," the three teens corrected him. Miguel shrugged and tucked away the map.

"I don't think it matters," he said. He began cutting another path through the jungle. "After all, our destination is El Dorado! What could possibly go wrong?"

As it would turn out, 'wrong' ended up happening several times. They fell down several ravines. They were chased by jaguars. Tulio ended up covered in leeches after he got impatient of waiting for Miguel to cut them a path around a lake and decided to swim across. All in the first day. Fortunately, fate decided to smile down on them by the end of their first night as they strode through a series of caves by leading them to the second landmark depicted on the map, a massive opening in the cave's ceiling that was shaped like a bird in flight. Miguel and the three teens were all excited, but Tulio was still skeptical and insisted they keep moving on.

The next day, they passed the third land mark, a boulder that sat at a river's edge with a large carving of a fish with several teeth. Miguel and the girls walked along the shore while Sora and Tulio attempted to use the stones jutting out of the river to cross it, which resulted in both of them being attacked by piranhas. Kairi and Naminé both made fun of Sora by thanking him for catching their dinner that night.

They were forced to endure a couple days of endless storms and random Heartless attacks before they finally reached the fourth landmark, a natural series of rock formations and waterfalls that when looked at from the right angle appeared to be a crying face. It was there that Tulio finally began to believe the map was leading them to El Dorado as he eagerly led the expedition deeper into the jungle.

The fifth landmark was found on the same day as the sun was setting. They stopped to watch as thousands of butterflies, each one the color of sunset, emerged from a cave opening that was shaped like a dragon's head. All five of them couldn't help but be taken by the beauty of it.

_Thursday, June 17th 4794 P.C._

The next day, they all wandered blindly through a fog thick enough to prevent them from seeing more than a few feet in front of them. They held onto each other's hands and let Altivo lead the way.

"How long have we been in this fog?" Kairi asked as she tripped over a raised tree root for the ninth time. "Shouldn't we have escaped it by now?"

"Who knows?" Miguel said, somewhere ahead of her. "I'd estimate a few hours by now." A large leaf nearly whacked Kairi in the face. Kairi ducked it swiftly and chuckled inwardly as she heard it hit Sora.

"Stupid leaf," Sora said, gently massaging his nose. "How can being hit by a leaf feel like getting hit with a brick?" Naminé laughed from behind him.

"Because they don't like you, Sora," she teased. Sora let out a sarcastic laugh. Kairi chuckled at them but abruptly stopped as she ran into Miguel, who had ran into Tulio, who had ran into Altivo's backside. Sora collided with her and Naminé bumped into Sora.

"Why'd we stop?" Miguel asked. Tulio began to say something when a loud crack interrupted him from below their feet. In unison, they all looked down to see that they were standing on the trunk of a dead tree which was hanging over the edge of a cliff. The tree snapped in two and the adventurers all fell, screaming, down the cliff face. They all were bashed into the cliffs and into several trees that jutted from the cliff side before they came to a stop at the base of a stone carving a few feet from the cliff's bottom.

Tulio let out a groan and sat up, staring at the stone carving. It was at least thirty feet tall and depicted a pair of men riding atop a horse-like creature with no legs. Three figures stood on a pedestal beneath the two men, each one holding large key-shaped objects like swords in front of them. On the ground below the pedestal knelt what appeared to be a woman holding what appeared to be a head up to the two men on the horse-like creature.

The map floated down from above and landed on Tulio's face. The man pulled it off and examined it. The last land mark on the map appeared to be the stone carving in front of them. Next to the drawing of the carving were the words _El Dorado_. Tulio got to his feet and peeked around both sides of the carving. All he could see was a massive waterfall, more rocks and a river. He examined the carving again. He scratched the carving slightly and examined the dust that fell onto his fingers. No golden glimmer, only rock.

Sora let out a groan of pain as he forced himself up. He looked around at their surroundings. Naminé had landed upside down against a boulder a few feet to his right and Kairi was sprawled out at his feet. Sora moved closer to Kairi and gently shook her. She let out a small groan and slowly opened her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Sora asked, worry prominent in his eyes. Kairi smiled up at him comfortingly.

"I'm fine, babe," she said as she allowed Sora to help her sit up. "Just a little sore." Sora's worry receded and he smiled warmly at her.

"Good," he said, giving her a brief kiss. "I don't know what I'd do if you were seriously hurt." Kairi grinned at him.

"You would take good care of me until I got better like the good guy I know you are," she said. Sora chuckled at that and kissed her again. "That, and give me a foot rub even if my feet were fine while feeding me strawberries." Kairi added as an afterthought. Sora's eyebrows raised slightly.

"Do you want a foot massage?" He asked her. Kairi nodded.

"My feet are killing me," she said. "I don't know how you could put up with constant movement in all these worlds." Sora shrugged in response.

"You just kind of get used to it," he said. "Just give it a few more worlds." They both laughed. Naminé let out a groan and righted herself.

"I'm fine, by the way," she said sarcastically. "Don't everybody start panicking about me yet."

"Okay," Sora and Kairi both said in unison. They gave Naminé identical looks of being drop-dead serious about it before bursting into laughter. Naminé rolled her eyes.

Tulio snapped his fingers a couple of times. The three teens all looked over at him and watched him shake Miguel awake.

"Miguel. Miguel. Wake up," he said. Miguel groaned. "We're there." Miguel's eyes snapped open. The three teens looked at each other excitedly.

"We found it?" Kairi and Miguel asked in unison. Tulio nodded.

"Oh yeah," he said. Something about Tulio's tone of voice suddenly caught Sora's attention. Was it his imagination or was Tulio being sarcastic? "We found it."

"Fantastic!" Miguel exclaimed as he leapt to his feet and looking around eagerly. "Where is it? How far?"

"Right here," Tulio answered.

"Where?"

"Here."

"Behind the rock?"

"No, no. This is it," Tulio explained. Sora and Kairi shared a confused glance. If this was it, then where was the gold?

"Give me that!" Miguel said as he snatched the map away from Tulio and began to examine it. "This ca- what?" He looked up at the carving hopelessly.

"Apparently," Tulio said, spinning Miguel to face him. "'El Dorado' is native for great, big… ROCK!" Tulio's shout of 'ROCK!' echoed throughout their surroundings. "Hey, but I tell you what," he said as he climbed onto Altivo's back. "I'm feeling generous, so _you_ can have _my_ share!"

"You don't think," Miguel began thoughtfully, "that Cortes could've gotten here before us and-"

"And what?" Tulio asked sarcastically. "Taken all the really big rocks? The scoundrel!" Miguel continued to stammer in disbelief.

"Tulio, you- we have to think about this," he said. "We've come all this way and we-we-we should really, you know-"

"Get. On. The horse," Tulio said angrily. Miguel's face fell and he let out a sigh. Tulio held out a hand and helped him onto Altivo. "No, no, no, not with the face. Stop." He looked down at the three Keyblade Wielders. "And you three can either come with us or go back to wherever you came from. Your choice." The three teens got up and moved to go walk alongside Altivo and the two men.

A woman suddenly came running from behind the rock and ran straight into Altivo, causing her to fall back. Altivo let out a loud whinny and rose up onto his haunches as he pawed the air. The woman gasped. The three Keyblade Wielders, who couldn't see the woman at first all summoned their Keyblades to their hands, ready to fight off any Heartless that might have been attacking. The woman had mocha colored skin and jet-black hair. She was dressed in a long white loin-cloth that fell to her toes and a white and pink wrapping around her chest. She gasped when she saw the Keyblades.

Sora could hear the shouts of several men coming from behind the stone. He turned away from the shocked face of the woman and peered around the stone. There were at least a dozen men charging at them. All of them had the same mocha colored skin as the girl on the ground in front of them and the same jet-black hair. They all carried spears tipped with stone and a few of them carried shields.

"Uh oh," Sora said. The others all peered around the rock as the group of warriors drew nearer. They all gasped in surprise.

"Time to go!" Naminé shouted as she turned to run. The men quickly surrounded the carving. Altivo let out a loud whinny at the sight of the spears. The men all shouted in shock at the sight of Tulio and Miguel riding on the horse and at the sight of the Keyblades as their Wielders raised them, preparing to defend themselves. The warriors quickly lowered their spears towards the Keyblade Wielders before looking down at the woman who was still on the ground. The woman grabbed the round bundle she had been running with and tossed it at Tulio.

The warriors all watched as Tulio caught it and threw it back to the woman. The woman turned right around and threw it back. The back and forth quickly came to an end when the bundle hit Tulio in the face. Tulio grinned nervously at the warriors.

"Uh, hello," he said. "Is this your rock? Sorry. We were just looking. We're, uh, we're tourists! Tourists." The warriors didn't seem to care for Tulio's excuse. One of them readied his spear to throw at Tulio. "We-we lost our group. May we go now?" Another warrior, who wore what appeared to be a bear skin over his head, held his hand out to stop the other warriors from attacking. The other warriors gave him looks of confusion. The bear warrior pointed the tip of his spear at Tulio's throat. Tulio let out a nervous chuckle.

"Heh, heh, spears," he said as he stared down at said weapon. The bear warrior jerked his head to the right and gestured for the five travelers to follow. Tulio looked nervously at Miguel who swallowed hard and nodded. The pair of them followed the bear warrior towards the waterfall. Sora lowered his Keyblade but didn't dispel it. He nodded to Kairi and Naminé for them to do the same. The remaining warriors flanked them on both sides as they followed the bear warrior.

"Great," Naminé muttered. "This is the second time we've been captured on this world." She turned to Sora. "How often do you get captured?" She asked him.

"Quite a lot, actually," he said in a tone that suggested that it was no big deal. "You kind of get used to it after a few times." Two of the warriors stopped briefly to hoist the woman from the ground and guided her along after them. The bear warrior led them to where the waterfall met the river and paused to look back at the others before walking through the waterfall.

The other warriors forced the five travelers through the cascading water to the other side. They stepped through quickly so as to avoiding getting their clothes wetter than they had to be. They emerged into a large cave that ran deeply into the mountainside. A large river took up most of the cave. There were three gondolas waiting for them. Each one had a torch that burned brightly in the dim light set onto their sterns. The three teens were forced into one of the gondolas with a pair of guards, Tulio, Miguel and Altivo were forced into another boat along with a single guard and the woman, and the rest of the guards climbed into the last one.

As soon as they were all in, one warrior on each gondola picked up a long oar and began to move the gondola's down the river into the heart of the cave. They passed under two large stone pillars, obviously carved by human hands that seemed to act as support beams.

Nobody spoke a word during the hour or so they sailed down the river. Occasionally, the stone carving of a head could be seen through the gloom. Finally, sunlight began to fill the cave again. The captive travelers all looked around. A large, man-made entrance to the cavern was just finally in front of them. The warriors slowly rowed them through the cave's exit and into the nearly blinding sunlight.

Sora turned his head away, allowing his eyes to slowly adjust. Kairi and Naminé both used their hands as sun-visors. Sora heard them both let out soft gasps and looked around. His eyes grew wider and his mouth dropped. In the other gondola, Tulio and Miguel were having similar reactions.

"Oh my-" Miguel whispered in total amazement. "It's-it's-"

"El Dorado," all five of them said in wonder.

There it was before them, the city of gold herself. Every building was made of mostly red and blue stones and was decorated by gold. Three massive ziggurats dominated the skyline. All three were carved from large stones of gold. The entire city seemed to have been built around the river. There were several gondolas along the shore and staircases ran from the river up to the buildings on much higher ground.

Two tiki style fountains, each one made of gold and red stone flanked the cave exit. Butterflies the color of gold fluttered past the gondolas and headed off towards the smoking volcano in the distance. Gigantic fish of every color imaginable swam beneath the gondolas. Altivo took particular notice of this and withdrew his tail from the water. The citizens of El Dorado were all gathering on the shoreline to watch as the warriors sailed the captives to the tallest ziggurat. They all had the same beautiful, mocha colored skin and shining raven hair and were all dressed in bright pastel colors.

Their gondola's came to rest at a large stone platform that was built on the river's edge at the base of the tallest ziggurat. The bear warrior leapt to the platform and ran for a dark red temple while another warrior ran opposite of him towards a humble blue building. The other warriors climbed from the gondolas and gestured for their captives to follow. Sora was the first to get out, his grip tightening on the Oblivion as he did so. Kairi and Naminé followed his lead.

Tulio and Miguel helped Altivo climb up onto the platform and then climbed onto his back. The three teens moved closer to Altivo and the two men as the citizens crowding the platform parted, forming a path to the bottom most stairs of the ziggurat in front of them. The warriors all kept their hands on their spears, watching the captives nervously. Tulio let out a sigh as they moved closer to the stairs.

"Well, it was nice working with you, partner," he said dejectedly. Kairi looked over at Sora.

"Do you think they're going to try to kill us?" She whispered. Sora shrugged.

"Who knows?" He whispered back. "If they do, I've got the remote ready to warp us back to the _Kingdom_."

"What about Tulio and Miguel?" Naminé asked. Sora glanced at her.

"We'll have to knock them out once we get on the ship so they don't know what's going on," he lowered his voice so that the two men wouldn't hear. "Then we'll warp back down to somewhere far from here and see if we can get them back to Spain. Agreed?" Kairi and Naminé both nodded in agreement.

"Tulio," Miguel said quietly. "I just want you to know… I'm sorry about that girl in Barcelona." Tulio's eyes widened in surprise.

"So, you-" he began. "You fu-"

"BEHOLD!" A deep booming voice shouted from the top of the first flight of stairs set into the ziggurat. The captives looked up and saw a single man standing at the fore front of a large group of armed warriors. He was dressed in a long white loin cloth with a red cloth wrapped around his waist and a ceremonial looking red vest. On each wrist he wore cuffs of gold and each ear was pierced with a large square of gold and jade. His raven hair was tied back at the nape of his neck and his face was painted with a long red line that appeared to be blood.

He made large, exaggerated gestures with his arms and held himself with a sense of superiority. A rather round man strode up next to the man addressing everyone. He had long raven hair and wore only a large blue and gold wrapping that fell to his ankles. On his head rested a headdress of gold. The man carried himself with great pride as he stared down at the captives.

"As the prophecies foretold," the man continued, "the time of judgment is now!"

_LD_

* * *

_That's all for this week! Hope you all enjoyed it so far. Chapter Twelve should be up in a week or two, my Beta's stressing with mid-terms so I'm going to give her time to study and relax when she can. She's earned it._

_Reviews are welcome and greatly appreciated! I love hearing feedback from you readers!_

_Shadow Horizons_


	12. A Proper Tribute

_Onto Chapter Twelve._

_Special thanks go out to those who reviewed the chapters from the last update: __**Xtrepe Nobody, janus-juan, SootyThunder, Ragnarok Warrior, knarf2010, Linkadnzel, SisterOfScarletDevil **__and __**adrogoz.**_

_This is the second longest chapter that I've written so far for __**LD**__. Wow. It's also the first time in months that I've only posted one chapter instead of three. I'm falling behind._

_On an unrelated note, I found my copy of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. I forgot the sheer awesomeness that it was since I haven't played it in forever. And I heard Microsoft and 343 Industries might remake Halo: Combat Evolved into HD using Halo Reach's game engine while still keeping loyal to story line and scenery. Just with a graphics update and adding online multiplayer, which would most likely mean new maps!_

_This actually sparked a debate between me and my Beta on whether or not I could include Halo into __**Looming Darkness**__ and have it make sense. It's going to be a long debate. What do you guys think? Yay or Nay to a Halo based world? I might actually make this a poll. I'm undecided._

_Disclaimer: If you haven't figured it out by now, I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, Dreamworks, or Black Cat._

_Enjoy _

**_EDIT: _**_Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies. _

* * *

Chapter Twelve: A Proper Tribute

_Thursday, June 17__th__ 4794 P.C._

Tulio and Miguel both gasped. Kairi reached for Sora's hand and squeezed it tightly to calm herself. Naminé and Sora both stared up at the two men in interest, despite their potential doom looming over their heads. The man with the red line across his face raised his arms high above his head.

"Citizens," he cried out as he began to descend the steps "did I not predict that the gods and their three greatest warriors would come to us?" The citizens all turned to look at Miguel and Tulio. A few of them began to mutter amongst themselves. Sora noticed a few pointing at the Oblivion he still had in his hand.

"Does he think that those two are gods?" Naminé asked. Kairi nodded.

"I think so," she said slowly. "And that means he also thinks the three of us are the 'gods' greatest warriors." Both Sora and Naminé looked genuinely confused.

"Why would he think that those two are gods?" Sora asked, tilting his head to the side as he tried to imagine the two of them being gods.

"Do you remember that stone carving we landed in front of after we fell down the cliff?" Kairi said. The other two nodded. "Well, I think that carving is why they think Tulio and Miguel are gods. That was a carving of two gods riding on a horse while being guarded by three Keyblade Wielders." Both Naminé and Sora made a small 'oh' sound as Kairi explained it for them. Kairi rolled her eyes and watched as the man who had been addressing the citizens of El Dorado bowed low to the two 'gods'.

"My lords," he said as his back bent him low, "I am Tzekel-Kan, your devoted high priest and speaker for the gods." Tulio and Miguel gave him awkward looking smiles and waved down at him.

"Hey," Tulio said. The round man walked up next to Tzekel-Kan and bowed to Tulio and Miguel.

"I am Chief Tannabok," he said proudly. Tzekel-Kan gave the Chief a look of disgust as the two men stood next to each other. "What names may we call you?" Miguel sat up straighter on Altivo's back.

"I am Miguel," he said, deepening his voice in an attempt to make himself sound more god-like.

"And I am Tulio," the other 'god' said, following his partner's lead and deepening his voice. The pair of them climbed off Altivo's back to stand proudly on the ground. Tulio accomplished that much at least. Miguel caught his foot on Altivo's reigns and he ended up standing in an awkward stance with one foot supported in the air.

"And they call us Miguel and Tulio!" Miguel said, clearly unaffected by his failed attempt at a dramatic flair.

"And what are the names of your warriors?" Chief Tannabok asked as he turned to look at the three teens. Sora cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"I am Master Sora," he said loudly so that his voice carried across the city. He gestured towards Kairi and Naminé, both of whom were doing their best to fight back a fit of giggles at the sight of Sora acting high and mighty. "These are my Apprentices, Kairi and Naminé." The Chief bowed.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Master Sora," he said. Tzekel-Kan merely smirked at the three and turned back to face Miguel and Tulio.

"Why did you introduce us as Master and Apprentices?" Naminé asked, still smirking as Sora moved back to stand by them again.

"Do tell us, _Master,_" Kairi said sarcastically. Both she and Naminé doubled over as they tried to fight back their giggles, but to no avail. Sora rolled his eyes.

"We want them to think we're the 'gods' greatest warriors, don't we?" he explained in a whisper. Kairi and Naminé could barely hear him over the sound of their stifled giggling.

"Your arrival has been greatly anticipated," Tzekel-Kan was saying. The Chief held up a hand in front of Tzekel-Kan.

"My lords," Tannabok said, "How long will you be staying in El Dorado?" Tzekel-Kan glared at the Chief and allowed his eyes to wander for a brief moment. They immediately fell upon the woman who had run into them at the stone carving at the base of the waterfall.

"Ah-ha!" Tzekel-Kan cried out before either Miguel or Tulio could open their mouths to speak. "I see you've captured this temple-robbing thief." He rushed forward and grabbed the woman by her forearm, dragging her out from behind Altivo where she had been hiding and over to where Tulio and Miguel stood. He snatched the wrapped object she was carrying from her hands. "How would you have us punish her?" The woman's eyes widened in fear.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" The woman said quickly. She looked up at Tulio. "My lord, I am not a thief. See, the gods sent me a vision to bring them tribute from the temple to guide them here!" Miguel and Tulio exchanged a brief glance. "My only wish is to serve the gods." She looked up at the 'gods' and gave them a please-help-me-out-here look. Tzekel-Kan looked up at Tulio, awaiting an answer.

"Release her," Tulio said. "Don't ya think?" The citizens all gasped at Tulio's compassion. Tzekel-Kan stared at him for a moment before releasing the woman and forcing the wrapped object into her hands.

"Then you will begin by returning this to its rightful place," he said, ushering the woman away from the crowd. Sora watched her go and noticed a Shadow Heartless doing the same. His grip tightened on the Oblivion as the Heartless turned to look right at him before sinking into the ground and vanishing.

"We've got Heartless," he whispered, just audibly enough so that Kairi and Naminé could hear. The two of them immediately began to look around for any Heartless.

"My lords," Chief Tannabok said suddenly. "Why now do you choose to visit us?" Tzekel-Kan rolled his eyes.

"Enough!" He shoved the Chief aside. "You do not question the gods!" The two men glared daggers at each other.

"That's right!" Miguel said as powerfully as he could. "Do not question us, or we shall have to unleash our awesome and terrible power! And you don't want that!" A low rumble echoed through the city.

"Talk about nice timing," Kairi whispered to Naminé. The blonde nodded in agreement, hardly paying attention to her as she watched a pair of Powerwilds stare at them from several trees nearby.

"Well, yes! We do!" Tzekel-Kan exclaimed eagerly. Miguel's confidence in the act broke and his face fell.

"You do?" He repeated hesitantly. Tulio narrowed his eyes angrily.

"Of course we do!" Tzekel-Kan continued enthusiastically. "Visit your wrath upon this nonbeliever!" He gestured at the Chief. "Show us the truth of your divinity!" Miguel and Tulio both began to smile nervously.

"Divinity!" Tulio repeated through clenched teeth. "One moment." He grabbed Miguel and spun him around so that they could whisper to each other without being overheard. Kairi turned to Sora.

"This doesn't look good," she whispered to him. "We need some sort of mega-cosmic event right now." The rumbling that had started earlier was beginning to grow louder. Tulio was whispering angrily at Miguel as the pair tried to come up with a plan.

"Then we're about to have two problems to worry about," Sora said. "The Heartless are all headed for us now. We're surrounded." Kairi's head whipped around. Sure enough, jet-black shadows were moving down the temple steps towards where the three Keyblade Wielders stood. The Powerwilds in the nearby trees had dropped down and were now making a beeline for the three.

"We're boned," Naminé said. "I know we can handle the Heartless, but what do we do about those two?" She tilted her head towards Tulio and Miguel who were both arguing in hushed tones now.

"They're just going to have to come up with something on their own," Sora said. "We'll just have to deal with the Heartless. The rumbling turned into a roar as the volcano in the distance began to erupt. Smoke, debris, hot ash and magma all burst forth into the sky. The citizens all turned to look away from the 'gods' since they had first arrived. They let out a gasp. The mouths of the three teens all dropped in unison.

"That'll work," they all said at once. They looked over at Miguel and Tulio. Miguel had grabbed hold of Tulio's arm and was proceeding to smack him repeatedly on the forehead. Tzekel-Kan looked from the erupting volcano back to the arguing pair with a satisfied smile on his face.

"What on earth are they doing?" Naminé asked as Tulio pushed Miguel away.

"Stop!" Tulio cried out. The rumbling slowly died down as the eruption came to a sudden end. The smoke, ash, and magma all mysteriously retreated back into the volcano. Even the Heartless had stopped their advance. Everyone gasped in amazement. Every citizen dropped to their knees and bowed before the 'gods'. Miguel and Tulio both held their arms out proudly. The citizens all began chanting something in a language none of the three teens could understand.

Tulio and Miguel held themselves proudly as they moved back towards where the Chief and Tzekel-Kan stood. One warrior stood up as they approached.

"Don't make me start it up again," Miguel said as they passed, "Because I will." The warrior fell to his knees again and bowed. Sora smirked and then noticed the Heartless moving quickly again, this time headed for Miguel and Tulio.

Sora nudged Kairi with his elbow and pointed at the Heartless. She nodded and turned to point them out to Naminé only to see that the blonde was already making her way to intercept the Heartless. Sora and Kairi quickly followed her lead. Some of the villagers let out screams of terror as they finally noticed the Heartless and they began to panic.

"Move!" Sora shouted as Shadows began to encircle Tulio and Miguel. He shoved several citizens out of the way and slashed at the nearest Shadow. The Heartless sank into the ground, easily avoiding Sora's slash. The Shadow on the left of Sora's intended target wasn't as lucky. The Oblivion easily tore through the Heartless, reducing it to a small cloud of dark mist.

Kairi rolled past Sora and slashed her way through a pair of Powerwilds that had leapt at Tulio's back. She quickly rose to her feet as a pair of glowing pink hearts emerged from the black mist she had left in her wake. Fire covered Destiny's Embrace as Kairi swung it at another Powerwild. The Heartless dodged the strike but caught its tail on fire by attempting to use it to knock Kairi's Keyblade away from her. The Heartless began to run wildly among its fellows and ended up setting several of them on fire as well. Sora and Naminé both laughed at the Heartless.

"Nice one, Sis," Naminé said as Sora cast a Blizzaga spell on a pair of Powerwilds, thoroughly freezing them. She brought the Rejection of Fate down, shattering the pair into thousands of tiny shards. She spun around and quickly dispatched a small group of Shadows. She let out a small cry of pain as a Powerwild landed a lucky blow on her thigh. The Rejection of Fate swung down and sliced the Powerwild in two. Naminé examined the wound, which wasn't too deep and had already stopped the little bit of bleeding it had done. She looked up in time to see Kairi dispose of the last Heartless with absurd ease. There was a brief moment of silence before the entire city was cheering for them as well.

"Very impressive," Tzekel-Kan said. "Come. Let me show you to your temple." He turned to the Chief who stood in Tzekel-Kan's path. "Step aside." Tzekel-Kan's voice was filled with malice and loathing. Chief Tannabok stood still for a moment before stepping to the side.

"All right!" Miguel said eagerly. "Temple." He and Miguel began to follow Tzekel-Kan as he led them up the stairs of the ziggurat. The three teens followed suit with Chief Tannabok bringing up the rear. It took them half an hour to climb from the base of the ziggurat to the top. Tzekel-Kan and the Chief didn't look worn out at all. The other five were all panting and using their arms to hoist themselves up to the next step. The Chief and Tzekel-Kan pulled back the curtains that covered the door to the temple and bowed for the 'gods'. Miguel and Tulio stepped into the temple and looked around at the magnificent stone carvings, the twin thrones that sat at one end with gold set into the stonework, and the gold-lined pool in the middle of the room. Sora let out a low whistle as he, Kairi and Naminé followed Tulio and Miguel in.

_Definitely fit for the gods._ Roxas said.

_I'll say._

"To commemorate your arrival," Tzekel-Kan said from the doorway, "I propose a reverent ceremony at dawn."

"Ah, then perhaps I can prepare a glorious feast for you tonight," Chief Tannabok suggested. Tzekel-Kan glared at him before looking back at Miguel and Tulio.

"Which would you prefer?" He asked, staring at the pair expectantly. The two 'gods' exchanged a glance.

"Both," They replied. "Both is good." Tzekel-Kan and the chief bowed low.

"My lords," they said in unison as they backed out of the temple, letting the curtains fall back into place.

_LD_

"And so dawns the Age of the Jaguar," Tzekel-Kan said to the Chief as the two stared out at the sunset. He let out a low chuckle. "Happy New Year." Chief Tannabok rolled his eyes.

_LD_

Miguel and Tulio both broke out into laughter as the curtains closed.

"They actually think we're gods!" Miguel said. Sora joined in on the laughter. "And you three! Thanks for helping us sell the charade!" Tulio and Miguel both clapped Sora on his back.

"No problem guys," Sora said with a huge grin. "I still can't believe they bought it!" Tulio laughed.

"It's an entire city of suckers!" He said. "We just have to keep this up long enough to load up on the gold and then get the hell out of here!" Naminé grinned. Despite the fact that she felt a small twinge of guilt in her gut for tricking the citizens of El Dorado, she still felt excited by the idea. She looked around the temple while the others were laughing. She noticed that the woman Tulio had made Tzekel-Kan spare earlier was watching them from behind one of the pillars. Naminé smile vanished.

_Oh shit._

"Tulio, we'll be living like kings!" Miguel exclaimed.

"Uh, guys?" Naminé said pointing at the woman. The two men paid her no heed Sora however, looked at where she was pointing and immediately stopped laughing. Kairi was sitting smugly on one of the thrones watching the woman as she stepped out from behind the pillar.

_This ought to be interesting._ She thought.

"Miguel and Tulio!" Tulio exclaimed, still oblivious to the woman's presence.

"Tulio and Miguel!" Miguel said, holding out his arm and striking a dramatic pose.

"Mighty and powerful gods!" They both said together, doing their best to appear brawny. Kairi and Naminé both rolled their eyes.

"Oh brother," the two girls said.

"Hello," the woman said from behind them. Tulio and Miguel both let out cries of shock and leapt up onto the empty throne. The woman and the three teens broke out laughing at how ridiculous the two men were acting.

"Depart, mortal," Tulio said in as deep a voice as he could manage. "Before we strike you with a lightning bolt!" The woman ignored them and hummed softly to herself while examining a head carved from gold.

"Beware the wrath of the gods!" Miguel said. "Be gone!" He made a hissing sound and did air-quotes directed towards the woman.

"Save it for the high priest, honey," she said, smirking up at the false gods. "You're gonna need it." Miguel repeated the hissing-air-quotes movement again.

"Miguel, it's not working," Tulio said. Miguel made the air quotes and hiss again. "Miguel! We've been caught." Miguel repeated it again, only this time it was weaker as Miguel finally gave up.

"Oh, no. Don't worry about me boys," She said sarcastically. "'My only wish is to serve the gods.' Remember?" She hoisted the golden head onto the neck of a small golden statue.

"How?" Tulio asked.

"Well," the woman said, double-checking to make sure the head was on straight. "If you guys want the gold, then you don't want to get caught, right? You're going to need my help."

"What makes you think we need your help?" Miguel scoffed at her.

_A lot of things._ Sora, Kairi and Naminé all thought in unison. The woman raised an eyebrow and sarcastically mimicked Miguel's air-quote-hiss.

"'Ck-ck'. Are you serious?" She asked. Sora let out a snort of laughter.

"Okay," Miguel said, finally seeing her point. "So, uh, who are you?"

"Yeah," Tulio added. "What's your angle?" The woman let out a snort of indignation.

"No angle," she said matter-of-factly. "I want in." Everyone was taken aback by this revelation.

"In?" Kairi asked.

"On the scam," the woman replied. Tulio let out a nervous chuckle.

"There's no scam!" He said, trying to act innocent. "Why would you think there's a-" He paused as he remembered she was onto them. "Why?"

"So I can get out!" The woman answered.

"I thought she just said she wanted in?" Sora asked in confusion as Tulio and Miguel climbed off the throne.

"She wants in so she can get out," Kairi explained.

"Ah, got it," Sora said. He looked over at the woman. "Why?"

"Think you're the only ones who dream of better things?" She asked. "Of adventure? You've got your reasons, and I've got mine. Let's not make it personal, okay? It's just business." She walked over to the two men and placed her hands on their shoulders. "So when you guys are ready to go back to wherever you came from, I'm going with you." Tulio let out a laugh and removed the woman's hand from his shoulder.

"No!" He said as he began to walk away. "Don't think so." The woman paused for a second while she stared at Tulio.

"Alright, fine," she said, pushing him aside as she headed for the door. "After all, I'm sure you know the proper rituals for blessing a tribute, the holiest days on the calendar, oh, and of course, you know all about Xibalba. Okay? Good luck. See you at the execution." There was a brief moment of silence before Tulio rushed forward to stop the woman from leaving.

"Wait! Hold it!" He cried out. The woman chuckled and held out her hand.

"Deal?" She asked expectantly

"Deal," Miguel said. He was about to shake her hand when Tulio knocked it aside.

"Not yet," he said. "Let's just see how this works out.

"Uh-huh," the woman said. She produced a pair of dice seemingly from nowhere. "Well, then I suppose that means you'll want these back?" Tulio stared at the dice before patting down his vest. He snatched the dice back.

"How'd you get those?" he asked.

"Where was she keeping them?" Sora and Miguel asked.

"Call me Chel," the woman said, "your new partner."

"That's partner in training!" Tulio said as Chel opened up a stone chest and pulled out some brightly colored garments which she threw at Tulio and Miguel.

Now, put these on," she said hurriedly. "Your public's waiting." Tulio and Miguel both sighed and began to remove their clothes. Kairi and Naminé both blushed and quickly ran outside. Sora rolled his eyes and followed them.

He followed Kairi and Naminé down the steps of the ziggurat, which was infinitely easier than climbing them in Sora's opinion, to the base of the ziggurat. It seemed as if the entire city had gathered for the celebration. There were tables piled high with a wide variety of exotic foods and drink.

"Master Sora!" Chief Tannabok cried out warmly as the three teens reached the crowd. "So good of you to join us!" Sora grinned.

"Why wouldn't I?" he said as the Chief clapped him on the back. "Free food!" The Chief laughed.

"Feel free to help yourselves!" He said as the ushered the three through the crowd towards one of the tables. The Chief grabbed a trio of cups and filled them with a bright purple drink. "But first, I insist you have a drink! El Dorado's finest!" The three teens graciously took the cups and thanked the Chief. They all looked down at their cups for a moment before Naminé raised hers in front of her.

"To new friends," she said. Sora and Kairi both nodded and raised their cups as well.

"To new adventures," Kairi said.

"To finding El Dorado," Sora said with a grin. The three of them knocked their glasses together before taking a large swig of the purple drink. Sora's eyes widened at the taste, which was like the sweet mixture of ripe fruits and sugar with a barely noticeable tartness left behind in the aftertaste. Even though the drinks were stilled, it felt warm going down and sent a tingle through his body.

"This stuff is good!" Naminé exclaimed as she downed the rest of her cup and poured herself another. Kairi and Sora both nodded in agreement and got themselves another round.

"Cheers!" the three of them exclaimed as Tulio and Miguel joined the crowd. Somewhere nearby a band played a tribal beat that got everyone on their feet and dancing. The whole night quickly became a blur of neon colors and stumbling around as the city celebrated the coming of their 'gods'.

_LD_

_Friday, June 18__th__ 4794 P.C._

Sora woke up the next morning with his head feeling like it had been split in two. The rising sun in the distance burned his eyes and he raised a hand to shield his eyes. He was laying on one of the steps of the largest ziggurat. All around him the citizens of El Dorado were getting up and heading of together up a long flight of stairs surrounded by trees. He let out a groan and tried to remember what had happened the previous night.

The last thing he remembered for sure was Chief Tannabok giving the three teens the purple drink. Sora placed his head in his hands as the throbbing slowly dulled. He vaguely remembered Tulio and Miguel singing about how tough it was to be gods, using lightning and fire magic to make the two 'gods' appear to have powers and dancing around a lot with a Kairi who couldn't stop giggling.

_Boy, that was some night._ Roxas said. _I can even feel the aftereffects._

Next to him on the steps, Kairi sat up, also shielding her eyes. She looked around, getting her bearings straight before giving Sora a weak smile.

"Morning," she said. Sora smiled back. "My head is killing me."

"Good morning," Sora said back as he gave a hug. "Don't worry, mine is too."

"What'd we do?" she asked. "I remember dancing around with you and giggling a lot."

"I think we just experimented with alcohol," Naminé said as she climbed the steps towards them. Sora and Kairi's eyes widened. "And you two are hung over."

"Then why do you look just fine?" Sora asked Naminé who shrugged.

"I only had two drinks before I decided to gorge myself on that delicious mango tart thing they had out," She said proudly. "You two, on the other hand, had about six drinks each before I realized what had happened. Then I had to drag you away from drink table and keep an eye on you two."

"Thanks," Sora said. "But why did you have to keep an eye on us?" Naminé grinned at them teasingly.

"Because the two of kept trying to undress each other and do the horizontal tango in the middle of the crowd," she said. Sora's and Kairi's mouths both dropped as they began stuttering.

"We didn't though, did we?" Kairi asked nervously. Naminé shrugged.

"Well, after I held your hair back while you puked your guts out, you two managed to disappear for a couple of hours," she said. Kairi and Sora shared a terrified glance. "When I finally found you two, your faces were redder than Kairi's hair and you both had grins on your faces that spread from ear to ear." Sora and Kairi stared at each other in shocked silence.

"I don't remember any of that," Sora said weakly. Kairi shook her head.

"Me neither," she said. "Well, I remember puking my guts out now that Naminé mentioned it. But I can't believe I wouldn't at least remember our first time together." Her face fell slightly as did Sora's.

"I'm sorry, Kairi," Sora said after a moment of silence. Kairi nodded slowly.

"Me too," she said. Her voice shook slightly.

"Good morning Master Sora, Princess Kairi," Chief Tannabok said as he approached. He looked over at Naminé. "Did they buy it?"

"Buy what?" Kairi asked looking up in confusion. Naminé smiled nervously down at her and Sora.

"That, uh, you and Sora didn't actually have sex last night," Naminé said with a nervous chuckle as she slowly began to back away from the couple. Sora and Kairi's looks of confusion quickly became looks of relief before becoming angry.

"So you told us we did?" Kairi demanded, leaping to her feet and raising her voice. Both she and Sora winced at the sudden increase in volume. "That's not funny Naminé." Naminé continued to smile nervously as she slowly backed away.

"So wait, me and Kairi didn't have sex last night?" Sora asked for clarification. Naminé nodded and Sora let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god." Kairi gave him a confused and hurt look. Sora immediately realized what he had just said must've sounded to her.

"I didn't mean it like that," he said hurriedly. "What I meant was, I'm glad our first time wasn't while we were drunk and that we'll be able to have the perfect first time when we're ready." Kairi's hurt look dissolved instantly as a warm smile graced her face. She knelt next to Sora and planted a gentle kiss on his lips.

"You had me worried for a second there," she said. She looked up at the Chief. "Why'd you call me Princess?"

"Because Master Sora told everyone he could about how he sacrificed himself to free a beautiful princess who used her power to bring him back from the Darkness that consumed him," Chief Tannabok explained. He winked down at the couple. "It doesn't take a god to figure out who the princess he saved was." Kairi blushed. The Chief clapped his hands together. "Alright then, follow me so we can attend Tzekel-Kan's 'reverent ceremony'." Sora smirked at the sourness in the Chief's tone. It was obvious that he and Tzekel-Kan had more than a few disagreements.

Kairi helped Sora to his feet and they followed the Chief and Naminé up a long winding staircase to a small red-brick temple. The Chief led them around the temple's side to a large, circular-shaped canyon hidden from view by the trees. On the opposite side of the canyon, several hundred stone bleachers were hewn into the cliff face and what appeared to be most of the city was sitting down, eagerly watching. A stone outcropping, carved to look like a jaguar baring its teeth, jutted out over the canyon. Sora peeked over the cliff edge. A couple hundred feet below, a massive whirlpool roared. Sora swallowed hard and stepped back from the cliff edge.

Tzekel-Kan emerged from the temple, wearing what looked like a skull with golden teeth and five large, curved, golden spikes on his head. Behind him, four burly warriors carried out a litter between them. They carried it out halfway across the jaguar-shaped outcropping. Tzekel-Kan stuck his head into the litter's opening.

"Good morning, my lords!" he said loudly. They could hear Tulio and Miguel cry out in shock. Chief Tannabok went to go stand by the litter as Tzekel-Kan removed his head and walked past him. "And now it's my turn!" He said in satisfaction as he passed the Chief, who narrowed his eyes and glared at Tzekel-Kan. The high priest strode to the edge of the outcropping and inhaled deeply as the crowd on the opposite side fell silent.

"The gods have awakened!" He declared, his voice echoing throughout the canyon. The crowd cheered. Tulio and Miguel stumbled out of the litter, straightening their clothes and hair to make themselves look presentable. Chel passed Sora, Kairi and Naminé as she scattered pink flower petals in front of them and the 'gods'.

"Hey, Chel," Naminé whispered as the woman passed by them. "What's going on?"

"It's not gonna be good," Chel replied, continuing to scatter the flower petals. Behind her, the four warriors lifted up the litter and carried it back into the temple. Naminé swallowed hard.

"Great," she grumbled sarcastically.

"This city has been granted a great blessing," Tzekel-Kan was saying, still addressing the crowd. "And what have we done to show our gratitude? A meager celebration." He looked scornfully over at Chief Tannabok, who glared back. "The gods deserve a proper tribute!"

Three more warriors came forward and hoisted a plank of wood with a large bag into the air at the edge of the outcropping. Tzekel-Kan turned to smile warmly at Miguel and Tulio, both of whom had greedy expressions. Sora, Kairi and Naminé all leaned in closer, each eager to see more gold than they had ever dreamed of seeing. The guards slowly set the bag down in front of Tzekel-Kan.

"The beginning of a new era," the high priest continued. He held out a hand over the bag which glowed a sickly green color and began to dissolve into thin air. "The dawning of a new age demands… sacrifice!" The green glow and the bag vanished, leaving behind a bald man, who knelt at the outcropping's edge, gazing out across the canyon with glazed over, zoned out eyes. The crowd let out a collective gasp.

"No," Chief Tannabok said in shock. One of the warriors handed Tzekel-Kan a wooden paddle lined with sharp, obsidian-colored stones on the edges. He held his hand over the other man's head and raised him to a standing position with some unseen force.

"I don't like this," Kairi said slowly.

"Sora, we've got to do something," Naminé whispered. Sora nodded and summoned the Oblivion to his hand. No one else seemed to notice. Tzekel-Kan pushed the man forward so that he stood dangerously close to the edge and raised the paddle above his head preparing to strike.

"Sora?" Naminé whispered.

"On it," Sora said as he aimed his Keyblade at Tzekel-Kan. "Just be ready to run." A small fireball began to form on the Oblivion's tip.

"Stop!" Tulio cried out. Tzekel-Kan froze mid-strike and Sora's Fire spell lost its fuel and fizzed out. Tzekel-Kan turned to look behind him as the Tulio and Miguel approached him. "This is not a proper tribute!" Miguel strode forward and pulled the would-be-sacrifice away from the edge. The crowd gasped. The Oblivion vanished from Sora's hand before anyone could notice he had it out.

"You do not want the tribute?" Tzekel-Kan asked in confusion.

"No. No, no," Miguel said quickly. "W-we want tribute. Uh, it's just that, uh." He looked up at Tulio for help. "Tulio tell him." Tulio gave Miguel an _are you serious_ look before facing Tzekel-Kan.

"The stars are not in position for this tribute!" Tulio declared. Tzekel-Kan glanced up at the heavens as Miguel dragged the man who was to be sacrificed towards the temple.

"Like he says," Miguel grunted. "Stars. Can't do it. Not today." Tulio slowly raised an eyebrow, awaiting Tzekel-Kan's response. The high priest bowed his head shamefully.

"Ah, well, perhaps it is possible I misread the heavens," he said quietly. Miguel walked up and placed a hand on Tzekel-Kan's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "To err is human. To forgive-" Tulio smacked Miguel on the back of the head to get him to shut up.

"See?" Sora whispered to Naminé. "It worked itself out." Naminé nodded in agreement.

"I'm just glad we didn't have to attack Tzekel-Kan," Kairi said. "That would've blown it for all of us."

"No kidding," Naminé said as Chief Tannabok stepped forward.

"My lords," he said in a deep, carrying voice, "may the people of El Dorado offer you our tribute." He gestured with one hand towards the temple's door. A tray, carried by several women and stacked with gold. Wide grins spread across Tulio's and Miguel's faces at the sight. The mouths of the three teens all hung open. None of them had ever seen so much gold. Additional trays carried by the native women, each one stacked as high as possible with gold emerged from the temple.

"My lords," Chief Tannabok said. "Does this please you?" Miguel and Tulio grinned over at the three teens, all of whom found themselves nodding eagerly. Tulio let out a sigh of joy.

"Yes," Miguel said with a broad smile. "Very nice. Certainly acceptable." Tulio quickly regained his 'godly' composure.

"Yes, lovely," he said, struggling to contain his excitement. "It'll do."

"The gods have chosen!" Chief Tannabok cried out to his citizens. He turned to look at the 'gods'. "To Xibalba?" Tulio and Miguel glanced at each other and began nodding. Chel shook her head, mouthing for them to say no.

"To Xibalba!" Tulio and Miguel proclaimed proudly. The crowd cheered loudly for the 'god's' decision. Chel smacked herself in the forehead.

"Oh, great," she said irritably. The women carrying the trays slowly approached the outcropping's edge and threw the gold high into the air, letting fall down into the whirlpool below. Sora, Kairi, and Naminé all gaped in shock. Sora found himself suddenly thankful that Donald wasn't here. The anthropomorphic duck would be having a conniption fit right about now and would probably leap in after the gold.

"Hey, Chel," Miguel said, obviously confused and stunned at the sight of so much gold being wasted. "Um, w-what are they doing?" Chel walked over to them and folded her arms angrily across her chest.

"They're sending it to Xibalba," she hissed. "The Spirit World."

"The Spirit World," Tulio repeated sadly as more gold continued to fall down into the whirlpool. Chel patted them both on the arm.

"I'll take care of it," she said and she left them. Kairi and Naminé both watched as Chel made her way over to whisper something to Chief Tannabok. Sora, just like Miguel and Tulio, stared sadly as the gold was thrown into the abyss again and again.

"STOP!" Chief Tannabok cried out suddenly. Everyone froze. A single, disc of gold went rolling for the edge and had almost successfully joined the rest of the gold's journey to Xibalba when Tulio's foot came out of nowhere and stopped it in place. "They wish to bask! Take the tribute to the gods' temple!" The women turned around and began marching the gold off, back towards the city. Sora, Kairi and Naminé walked over to join Tulio, Miguel and Chel.

"Nice going," Sora praised. Chel grinned at him and the six of them followed the procession of gold. Tzekel-Kan watched them leave in confusion. He didn't understand why the gods had preferred Tannabok's tribute over his own. Surely the gods preferred sacrifice to gold. Tannabok grinned smugly at Tzekel-Kan and chuckled to himself. The high priest's expression switched from confusion to hate.

"Smile while you can," he said softly enough so that no one could hear him other than himself.

_LD_

A couple hundred miles away, Cortes and his soldiers stepped off their long boats and onto land. Cortes brought his foot down on the skull of a skeleton that lay on the beach and brushed his hair back and out of his face. He looked around the beach and noticed a longboat resting on the edge of the high-tide.

"Well, well, well," he said slowly. "What have we here?" There were five sets of foot prints and a set of horseshoe prints in the sand where the tide couldn't reach, leading away from the longboat and disappearing into the trees. He let out a small, evil sounding chuckle and gestured for his men to follow as they headed into the jungle.

_LD_

"Is there any point to staying here any longer?" Naminé asked, as she bit into an golden colored apple that had been polished to look like real gold. "We've barely encountered any Heartless since we got here and I'm pretty sure that there are other worlds out there that might actually need our help instead of just having us lounge around." She kicked her feet up onto the armrest of the throne she was sitting on.

Sora glanced up from a dagger made entirely out of gold. He was sitting on a small mound of golden objects, which wasn't the most comfortable of places to sit, but it had made for some interesting pictures according to Kairi. Kairi snapped off another picture. Now that the gold was piled in the 'gods' temple and the three teens were the only ones around (since Tulio and Miguel had left to go talk to Chief Tannabok about possibly getting a boat so they could take the gold back to Spain), Kairi had eagerly pulled out the camera King Mickey had given Sora and was happily taking as many pictures as she could. Kairi snapped of another picture, one of Naminé raising her eyebrow at Kairi as the blonde bit into her apple again.

"Well," Sora said as he slowly got off the mound of gold. "I think we should at least wait until Tulio and Miguel are on their way back to Spain before we go so that they don't get caught. It would be kind of odd for the 'gods' three greatest warriors to disappear for no reason." Naminé groaned.

"I know that," she said. "But we've been on this world for a couple of weeks now and we've fought a grand total of maybe thirty Heartless. It's kind of boring."

"I agree," Kairi said as she took a picture of El Dorado from the doorway. "It has been kind of boring. Peaceful, but boring."

"We could always go look for the Keyhole," Sora suggested. Kairi and Naminé both perked up. "That'll keep us busy. Plus we can see more of the city and we might even find some Heartless to fight."

"I like that idea," Kairi said. "And I can take more pictures!"

"Obsessed much?" Naminé teased. Kairi nodded.

"It mostly comes from the fact that when Jiminy showed us the pictures in his journal back when Sora was telling our parents all about his adventures, there were disappointingly few pictures of the places they had been," Kairi explained as she stared down at the camera. "So I resolved to take as many pictures as possible while we're on this adventure, especially of this world so we can prove we found El Dorado and get the bragging rights." Sora and Naminé both laughed.

Tulio and Miguel finally returned a few minutes later with Chel, who began digging through the gold, looking for something to keep. Tulio plucked a set of golden, square-shaped earrings from the pile of gold and began tossing them up and down in the palm of his hand.

"No," Tulio said to Miguel. "Three days is not fine. This is a real-" He paused as Chel tossed aside another set of earrings. He offered her the ones in his hand. "These. These are the ones."

"Oh, thank you," Chel said appreciatively.

"Problem," Tulio finished, addressing Miguel again. "Miguel, how're we gonna keep this up for three days?"

"You worry too much," Miguel said with a yawn.

"Why three days?" Sora asked.

"That's how long it's going to take Chief Tannabok's men to build us a boat to carry all of this," Miguel explained.

"No, I worry exactly the right amount," Tulio said. "You can never worry too much. We just have to lie low."

"But Tulio," Miguel said as he stared down at the city. "This place is amazing! I mean, I wonder what's-"

"No!" Tulio barked. "Don't even move!"

"Tulio-"

"You're moving!"

"A little, but-"

"Hey! Hey! Hey!"

"Come on. I gotta-"

"Stay!"

"I just-"

"Just stand there!" Tulio demanded exasperatedly.

"For three days?" Miguel asked incredulously.

"Yes! Exactly!" Tulio said. "For three days. Don't even breathe. Alright?" Miguel sighed.

"All right," he conceded. "We lie low."

"Promise?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," Miguel said quickly, placing a hand over his heart. "All right, all right." Tulio let out a sigh of relief.

"Great, good, okay," he said, finally appearing more relaxed than Sora and the others had ever seen him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to gloat over my gold." He strode over to one of the dozen or so piles of gold, picked up a goblet and began kissing it. Naminé looked at him like he was insane. Sora shrugged and gestured for the two girls to follow him and the three of them attempted to tiptoe out of the room without being noticed.

"Where are you three going?" Miguel asked. Sora cursed under his breath and tried to come up with something to tell the man.

"Well, we can live up to the title of 'Greatest Warriors'," Naminé said. "Which means that we don't have to lie low so we're going to go take a look around." Sora and Kairi both nodded in agreement.

"Oh," Miguel said as his shoulders sagged slightly in disappointment. The three teens exchanged brief guilt-filled glances at leaving Miguel behind before they slipped out the door and started descending the staircase outside.

"How about we all meet back here in two hours?" Kairi suggested as they reached the bottom of the staircase. "And we'll check in with each other then."

"Sounds good to me," Sora said with a shrug. Naminé smiled. "

"See you two in a couple of hours!" She said cheerily with a wave of her hand. She turned on her heel and headed off towards what appeared to be the residential district. Sora pulled Kairi into a hug and gave her a brief kiss.

"See you soon, babe," he whispered before he began making his way towards one of the other ziggurats that were set off to the side of the center one. Kairi smiled after him for a brief moment. She glanced around her, trying to decide where to go, and settled on heading over to what appeared to be the market place.

She hummed tunelessly to herself as she strode through the many streets and avenues that were usually hidden from view by the trees and the buildings along the river's edge. A flock of brightly colored tropical birds flew overhead. Kairi quickly pulled out the camera and managed to get a couple of decent pictures of the birds before they flew too far away. She glanced down at the tiny LCD screen on the back of the camera, admiring her photography skills for a moment before she remembered that she was in a city full of people who didn't know she was from another world with far more advanced technology than they had. Kairi quickly slipped the camera into the black pouch that hung on the side of her pink mini-dress and quickly glanced around to see if anyone had noticed.

There wasn't a soul in sight. Kairi raised her eyebrows, feeling somewhat uneasy. Judging by the stalls filled with a wide variety of goods, she had definitely made her way to the marketplace, but instead of being packed with people like she had expected, Kairi found herself completely alone. The only movement came from the gently swaying tree branches being moved by the light, warm breeze that rolled through the city. Kairi swallowed hard and nervously stepped deeper into the heart of the marketplace.

All of a sudden, the wind became chilled. Kairi shivered as goosebumps raised themselves on her exposed flesh. Kairi found herself wishing she had thought to bring a jacket from before they had left the _Kingdom_, or at least had her black cloak Xanthos had given her like the one Naminé still had on. Kairi let out a small gasp as said cloak appeared on her in a small flash of dark blue light. Her face turned beet red as she felt her dress and shoes suddenly vanish from beneath the cloak as jet-black pants and matching heeled boots. She immediately felt relieved as the cloak blocked the suddenly chilly wind from the majority of her skin.

_Talk about a stroke of good luck._ Kairi thought to herself as the goosebumps faded. _Thank you Master Xanthos._

Kairi caught a glimpse of her reflection in what appeared to be a golden shield and she turned to get a better look at her new outfit. Kairi couldn't help but grin.

_I look awesome. _She thought smugly. She raised a black-gloved hand to straighten a few loose strands of hair back into place. Something shifted in the reflection of the stalls behind her. Kairi spun around, Destiny's Embrace appearing in her hand with a flash. Nothing. She was the only one there. Kairi hesitantly looked back at her reflection a second time. This time she definitely saw something move, something both there yet not there at the same time, something that looked like the air had been distorted. She spun back around, her Keyblade raised in a defensive stance. There was still nothing new to be seen in the empty marketplace.

"I know you're there!" Kairi called out, her voice shaking slightly. The breeze was getting cooler and she could feel her ears going numb. She wasn't sure how she knew, but somewhere nearby, there was something that radiated Darkness. Its foul presence filled the entire marketplace and made Kairi feel slightly nauseous. She saw something move out of the corner of her eye and she spun, aiming her Keyblade in the general direction of where she had seen it.

"Fire!" She shouted. A fireball streaked from the Keyblade's tip and dissipated harmlessly against the stone ground. Kairi swallowed hard as she realized that she had never really had to fight anything by herself before. She gave a start as a loud chirping-growl came from directly behind her. She let out a gasp of surprise and spun around. A pair of glowing yellow eyes hung midair less than a foot from her face. A faint shimmer surrounded the air around the eyes, distorting the scenery behind as Kairi stared, wide-eyed, at her mostly invisible foe. The creature let out a roar.

Something struck Kairi hard in the chest and sent her flying through one of the stalls. Kairi cried out in pain as gold and wood collapsed on her. She felt the heat of her own blood as it started to stream down her face from the gash on her forehead.

"Ouch," she groaned. She tenderly placed a gloved-hand against the wound on her forehead, wincing as pain spiked through her body again. The creature roared again. Kairi glared up at the glowing yellow eyes. She felt irritation boiling inside her as she forced herself from the rubble of the stand. She aimed Destiny's Embrace and fired off a volley of Blizzard spells at the creature. It let out another chirping-growl as it leapt aside. Kairi rushed at the creature and slammed her Keyblade between its eyes.

The creature let out a howl of rage. Kairi grinned and used the momentum of her strike to propel herself a few more feet into the air, allowing her another opportunity to strike. She struck again and continued striking, using the momentum and force of each attack to keep herself in the air as she unleashed a steady stream of blows to the creature's head. The creature cried out in pain and stumbled back, causing Kairi's combo-attack to come to an end. A grin spread across Kairi's face as she dropped to the ground, landing gracefully with her feet spread and posed to strike.

"Thunder!" Kairi cried out, raising her Keyblade above her head. Several bolts of lightning burst from the heavens and struck the creature. The creature could no longer keep itself invisible and quickly became completely visible. Facing was what appeared to be a large, bipedal lizard. It had a light green body that was covered all over in intricate, tribal-looking black markings. It had five curved spikes on its back and a single, four-foot long white horn protruding from its nose. Its four fingered hands were dipped with sharp looking black claws. The Heartless Emblem was emblazoned on its tan chest. The Stealth Sneak Heartless angled its head down at Kairi.

Kairi let out a battle cry as she charged at the Stealth Sneak. The Heartless' hands glowed a bright green color as the auburn-haired teen rapidly drew nearer. Kairi stabbed at the Heartless Emblem emblazoned on the Stealth Sneaks chest. The Destiny's Embrace fell short of its mark however as the Stealth Sneak slammed its glowing hands together and a burst of energy flew towards Kairi, knocking her off her feet and sending her sprawling across the ground. The Stealth Sneak leapt up into the air and landed so it was standing over Kairi. It let out a roar directly into her face, causing her ears to ring. It hands began to glow again.

Kairi somersaulted backwards, quickly putting distance between her and the Stealth Sneak. The Heartless brought its hands together again and another burst of energy flew towards Kairi, who leapt to the side, easily avoiding the attack.

"Burn!" Kairi shouted as she fired off a multitude of fireballs at the Stealth Sneak. The Heartless roared as the fireballs exploded against its flesh. The Heartless reared back and its eyes began to glow with a bright, bluish-white energy. Twin beams of light streaked from its eyes and flew for Kairi.

"Reflect!" Kairi spun her Keyblade around herself in a circle and a dome of hexagonal shaped light surrounded her. The two beams collided with the barrier Kairi had cast and dissipated into nothing. The barrier shattered around Kairi as she rushed towards the Stealth Sneak.

"Take this!" She cried out as she swung Destiny's Embrace behind her. "Zantetsuken!" Kairi shifted her stance, preparing to deliver the finishing blow. The Stealth Sneak let out a roar and lashed out at Kairi with its massive, clawed hands. Kairi rolled to the side as the stones cracked and broke beneath the Stealth Sneak's strike. The Heartless' eyes were glowing again.

"Reflect!" Kairi shouted as she spun her Keyblade around herself again. Nothing happened. Kairi's heart rate began to rise as her uneasiness began to rise. Why wasn't the spell working? Beams of energy arced from the Stealth Sneak's eyes and flew towards Kairi.

"Reflect!" She shouted desperately, but the spell still didn't work. The beams struck Kairi and knocked her off her feet. Kairi let out a cry of pain and hit the ground hard. The Stealth Sneak let out a chirping-growl as it began to advance on the injured girl. Kairi let out a groan and rolled herself up onto her knees.

"Burn!" She shouted as she pointed Destiny's Embrace at the Heartless. No fire burst from the tip of the Keyblade like she had been expecting. Kairi began to panic.

_Why won't my magic work?_ Kairi thought staring in shock at her Keyblade. She looked up as the Stealth Sneak lowered its head and prepared to charge.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath as she forced herself to stand back up. _Naminé!_ She called out mentally as the Stealth Sneak rushed at her with a roar.

_LD_

Naminé strode casually through the residential district of El Dorado. She couldn't help but admire the beauty of the city. Despite being the city of gold, there was very little gold that was used in the architecture of the buildings. Mostly, they were built from red, blue and yellow bricks. Tropical birds flew in flocks between the trees.

She found it all to be rather peaceful, but at the same time unnerving. The only people she had seen out on the streets so far during the entire day were the occasional warriors, each of whom seemed to be on patrol and wouldn't speak to her.

Naminé sat down on a stone-hewn bench to rest. Her feet were throbbing painfully. She grimaced painfully as she pulled of one of her black, heeled boots.

"How on earth could Larxene stand wearing these all the time?" she muttered under her breath. "My feet are killing me. And more importantly, why does this city have to have so many staircases?"

_Naminé! _Naminé gave a start, tossing her boot high into the air in surprise as Kairi's voice echoed through her mind.

_Jesus, Kairi, give me a heart attack why don't you?_ The boot fell back down to earth, smacking Naminé in the back of the head on its way down. _What's up?_

_I'm being attacked by a giant lizard Heartless and I've used up too much magic energy, that's what's up!_

_Okay, okay. Don't bite my head off, woman. Where are you?_

_I'm at the marketplace._ Naminé glanced around her. There was a bright flash of a bluish-green light not too far from where she was sitting.

_Okay, I think I see where you are. I've got an Ether I can give you. I'll be there in a couple of minutes._

_Please hurry. This thing keeps shooting lasers or something at me and every time they hit it feels like I'm being hit by a truck._

_Will do._ Naminé quickly slid her boot back on and, ignoring the pain in her feet, took off at a run for the marketplace.

_LD_

Sora descended from the final ziggurat. His breath came out in ragged pants and sweat covered his body.

_Damn dude, you can fight a thousand Heartless in one go without wearing down and yet you climb a few stairs and suddenly you look like you completed a triathlon in under five minutes._ Roxas laughed at him.

_Shut up._ Sora said as he plopped down on his rear to rest on the bottom step. _You try climbing all these stairs._

_In case you haven't noticed, I still don't have a body._ Roxas retorted. _I'm just chilling up here in your head, which I've renovated into my own personal bachelor pad._

_You renovated the inside of my mind?_

_It's a lot harder than it sounds. Trust me. Especially with all this extra space that I don't know what to do with. _Roxas had another laugh at Sora's expense.

_Go to hell._ Sora chuckled.

_I'm already there, dude. I still have to live in your head and yet Naminé gets a body of her own. I'm in my own personal hell._

_Sorry, man._ Sora said with a grimace. He turned his head side to side, cracking his neck in a satisfied manner and glanced around. Just a ways ahead of him, he managed to catch a glimpse of Miguel wandering off into the heart of the city.

_Where's Miguel going?_

_How'd he escape Tulio is my question._

_I say we follow him and find out._

_Lead the way, my good sir._ Sora broke out into a light jog, allowing him to quickly catch up the slowly walking Miguel. He noticed something moving in the shadows nearby as he rushed to catch up to the blonde haired man. He stopped for a moment and glanced back at where he had seen the movement.

_Did you see that?_

_See what?_

_Something moved in the shadows over there._

_I think you're seeing things. It was probably just a trick of the light._

_I guess so._ Sora didn't feel quite as convinced as he made it sound to Roxas. _Have you noticed that there are none of the citizens out at all? I haven't seen anyone other than Miguel since we left the temple._

_I kind of did._ Roxas said slowly. _But I didn't really think too much about it until just now._

"Excuse me," Miguel was calling out to the bear warrior that had led them into El Dorado. Sora sped up his pace to catch up to Miguel. "Excuse me?" The bear warrior turned, glaring at them until he realized who was addressing him. "Hey, where is everybody?"

"They've been cleared from the streets, my lord," the warrior replied, a look of confusion crossing his face, "so the city can be cleansed. As you ordered."

"Cleansed?" Miguel and Sora both asked at the same time. They exchanged a brief, confused glance. The warrior nodded.

"Yes," he said proudly. "So the Age of the Jaguar can begin. As you ordered, my lord."

_Age of the Jaguar?_ Sora pondered.

_Doesn't sound very pleasant, does it?_ Roxas commented.

_Not really._

"Get back in!" a man shouted from somewhere behind them. Sora and Miguel turned to look. Two warriors were jabbing at an unarmed civilian with the dull end of their spears.

"Where are you going?" One of them demanded as he knocked they knocked the man to the ground. "Move!"

"Hey, hey stop that!" Miguel called out. He and Sora ran towards the two soldiers. "Stop that!" Miguel shoved the two warriors aside as Sora summoned the Oblivion. Sora noticed that several other citizens were poking their heads out of their homes to see what was going on.

"What are you doing?" Sora demanded, using the Oblivion to deter the two warriors from advancing on Miguel. "What'd he do to you?" The bear warrior ran to catch up to them.

"But, my lord," he said, his tone solemn and very serious, "anyone who disobeys your orders must be punished. As you ordered." Confusion filled his tone as he spoke the last sentence. Clearly he didn't understand why Miguel was contradicting his own 'orders'.

"It seems I've been giving a lot of orders, haven't I?" Miguel said as his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Tzekel-Kan has made your commands clear, my lord," the bear warrior replied proudly.

_Ah, that explains a lot. _

_I guess the high priest has a hidden agenda._

"Really?" Miguel said, comprehension dawning on his face. He glanced at Sora before jabbing a finger at the bear warrior. "Here's an order: Take the day off!"The warriors seemed surprised by this but quickly recovered. They quickly bowed to Miguel and took off, nodding briefly at Sora as they passed.

Sora nodded back and dispelled the Oblivion. Miguel turned back to the civilian the warriors had been picking on.

"Are you all right?" He asked the man, who seemed frightened that one of the 'gods' was speaking directly to him. "Here." He extended his hand to the man to help him up. The man bowed his head and removed his golden earrings before offering them up to Miguel, who shook his head.

"Oh no," Miguel said pleasantly. "It's all right. Please. I-" The man paid him no heed and set the earrings down at Miguel's feet before scrambling to his own and taking off at a run. Miguel and Sora watched him go, both feeling slightly stunned. The man glanced back at them and stumbled into a small table that had a random assortment of string, wood and rawhide on it, causing it to collapse to the ground. The man quickly recovered and disappeared around a corner. Sora watched him go.

_I wonder if the rest of the citizens are just as afraid of Miguel and Tulio._ Sora pondered.

_LD_

The Stealth Sneak let out another chirping-growl as it forced Kairi to retreat yet again. It's clawed hands lashed out at her, but missed as she leapt up and over them. Kairi struck at the Heartless' horn and grinned in satisfaction as Destiny's Embrace cleaved the tip clean off. The Stealth Sneak roared in pain and frustration. It's curled up tail uncoiled itself and swept Kairi off her feet and into the side of a building.

Kairi let out a small gasp of pain as she felt the stone crack and break upon impact. She collapsed to a heap on the ground. The Stealth Sneak's eyes began to glow as it prepared to fire another pair of energy beams at Kairi.

"Not again," she groaned as she pushed herself back to her feet. The beams burst from the golden eyes of the Stealth Sneak and made wide arcs through the air as they headed for Kairi. Her breath was starting to come raggedly and she could already feel herself getting exhausted.

Where was Naminé with that Ether?

As if on cue, the blonde appeared from seemingly nowhere directly behind the Stealth Sneak. Naminé let out a battle cry as she leapt onto the Stealth Sneak's back, hacking at it repeatedly with the Rejection of Fate. The Heartless let out a roar and attempted to strike Naminé off with its arms but without results. Its arms simply couldn't bend that way. Naminé grinned at began striking the Stealth Sneak's damaged horn.

"Take this, you son of a bitch!" Naminé cried out with a small laugh as she raised the Rejection of Fate so that the tip was pointing up into the sky. "Thunder!" She leapt off the Heartless' back and landed next to Kairi as a pair of lightning bolts descended from the heavens and struck the Heartless square between the eyes. The Stealth Sneak cried out in pain and stumbled backwards.

"Here," Naminé said to Kairi as she handed the auburn-haired teen a small blue cube.  
"Sorry it took me so long." Kairi snatched the Ether from Naminé's hand and popped it into her mouth.

"No big deal," Kairi said as she bit down on the Ether. She was surprised by chewy it was. She had been expecting it to be chalky, like the vitamins her adopted parents had her take when she was in middle school. Instead, it was like eating a blueberry flavored gummy bear. She felt her energy quickly return to her body as she swallowed down the last of the Ether.

"Let's finish off this son of a bitch so we can get back to finding that Keyhole," Naminé said as she and Kairi faced the Stealth Sneak. Light enveloped both teens as the Heartless righted itself.

"Let's go!" the two girls shouted in unison as they rushed forward. They both swung back their Keyblades as they drew nearer to the Stealth Sneak and struck the ground at its feet. An explosion of light knocked the Heartless twenty feet into the air. The two girls leapt up after it and began unleashing a relentless assault of quick strikes to the Stealth Sneak's now exposed back.

The two teens raised their Keyblades above their heads as light began to shine brightly from the 'teeth' of both weapons. They swung their weapons down and struck the Stealth Sneak in the center of the Heartless Emblem on its chest.

"Take this!" Naminé cried out as light exploded from both Keyblades. The Stealth Sneak was knocked to the ground where it crumpled into a heap, struggling to recompose itself. The two girls remained floating in the air above the Heartless.

"It's not over yet!" Kairi shouted as she and Naminé pointed their Keyblades straight down at the vulnerable Heartless. A volley of Light orbs burst from the tips of their blades and crashed into the Stealth Sneak and the area surrounding it. Every orb exploded brightly as it made contact with anything solid. The Heartless let out another roar.

Kairi and Naminé slowly floated back to the ground, landing several feet in front of the severely wounded Heartless. Naminé tossed Rejection of Fate to her left hand as she and Kairi leapt next to each other so they were standing shoulder to shoulder. They raised their Keyblades so that the tips were less than an inch from the other. A single orb of light began to shine in-between the two Keyblades.

"See ya!" The two girls shouted gleefully as a thick beam of light shot from the orb and pierced straight through the Stealth Sneak's entire body. The Heartless let out one final roar and faded back into Darkness, leaving only a crystalline, glowing pink heart floating in the air for a moment before vanishing into nothing.

Both girls were left panting for a moment. Each had a grin plastered to her face before they turned to each other, dispelling their Keyblades in unison. They both broke out laughing and high-fived each other.

"That was awesome!" Naminé said. "I don't even know how we pulled it off." Kairi wiped some of the sweat she had built up off of her brow with the back of her gloved hand.

"I know!" She said her grin growing slightly larger. "I can't believe how in sync we were! It's like we automatically knew what to do." Naminé nodded.

"It's gotta be that twin telepathy thing we have going on," Naminé suggested. She tapped one finger on the side of her temple.

"You've got a point," Kairi said as she brushed herself off.

"Yup," Naminé said happily. "Besides, we already kind of look alike, and we've got the whole dressing alike thing down." She gestured at their identical black cloaks. Kairi suddenly realized how warm she actually was now that the Stealth Sneak was gone. It was almost too warm to be wearing the cloak. As if on cue, her cloak, gloves and boots vanished, replaced by her usual attire. Kairi breathed a sigh of relief. Naminé laughed again.

"You're a dork," she said. Kairi grinned.

"That's why you love me," she said, draping one arm around Naminé's shoulders as the pair of them began to walk away from the marketplace.

"I only love you because I'm obligated as your sister," Naminé teased. Kairi stuck her tongue out at her and the pair broke into hysterics once more.

"Wanna go see if Sora's had any luck finding the Keyhole?" Kairi suggested as she wiped a tear of mirth from her eye.

"Sure," Naminé said. She glanced up at Kairi's forehead. "We can also get him to take care of that gash on your scalp." Kairi nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I'd rather let him handle something this bad. I've only ever really had to heal minor cuts," she said, finally calming down from her laughter. "Let's go." The pair of them turned down an alley and headed off in the general direction of the ziggurats where Sora had said he was going to look.

Unseen by Kairi and Naminé, a tiny purple insect hovered above them, carefully watching their every move.

_LD_

"She can't do very much in the way of magic, can she?" Keila observed. She was sitting on one of the thrones used by the former Organization XIII in the Castle That Never was. In the center of the room was a large, unevenly faceted, pink crystal. Each facet of the crystal displayed the same image of Kairi and Naminé walking around in an ancient styled city. She was slightly disturbed by the powers she had seen the Apostles of the Star use but she wasn't dumb enough to say so. Besides, there were obviously some benefits.

"She is still learning, child," Maleficent said from her throne, which was covered in dark gray thorns and was raised higher than the other thrones in the room. "She used up her magical energy too quickly. But this blonde girl concerns me." The Queen of Darkness gently caressed the gem at the top of her staff. "I didn't know they had another Keyblade wielder on their side. This makes things slightly more difficult than I had originally anticipated."

"Those two make quite a formidable pair," Charden added, staring at the crystal. "They had no problem taking down that Powered Stealth Sneak you sent, Maleficent." Maleficent glared at him.

"The Stealth Sneak family of Heartless are only truly effective when they have numbers," Maleficent said quietly. "Perhaps I didn't present the Princess with enough of a challenge." She began to cackle manically as the gem on her staff glowed an evil looking green color.

_LD _

* * *

_Alright, just one or two more chapters in El Dorado before I focus on what Riku's been up to._

_As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Feedback is very important to me! And once again, Yay or Nay to a Halo: Combat Evolved based world? I'm pretty sure I know how to make it work now._

_Hopefully Thirteen will be up soon!_

_Shadow Horizons_


	13. Gods Don't Bleed

_Hi everybody!_

_So, I've officially added the poll for Yay or Nay to a Halo:Combat Evolved based world to my profile. So go and vote. I'm also adding a minor change to the previous chapters that you will notice I start in this chapter. I started getting confused with my own timeline after I started working on Riku's part so in order to make better sense of it for myself and all you readers who might be confused, I'm now including dates. Also, I'm trying to come up with summon ideas, please feel free to make suggestions and I just might use my favorites._

_Thanks go out to __**Xtrepe Nobody**__, __**janus juan**__, __**D-Ro2593**__, __**SisterOfScarletDevil**__, __**Linkandzel**__, __**Eri21**__, __**Ragnarok Warrior**__, __**knarf2010**__, and __**AnimeMaster24 **__for reviewing last time! Keep the reviews coming! I love feedback!_

_Disclaimer: A moot point by now. You know the drill. I only own my plot and original characters. Nothing else. _

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: Gods Don't Bleed

_Friday, June 18th 4794 P.C._

Tzekel-Kan and the bear warrior watched Miguel and Sora from the doorway of the High Priest's temple. Down in a courtyard below, Miguel and Sora played a game of ball with the native children. Tzekel-Kan glanced down at the open book in his hands. An image of a god clad in grey armor, carrying a sword as the world burned behind it and demons fed on the souls of the living stared back at him.

"Hmm. This is not what I expected," Tzekel-Kan said to the warrior. He looked back down at Miguel and Sora and closed the book, slipping it inside his tunic as he turned to face the warrior. "Perhaps Lord Tulio will enlighten me." He straightened his clothing and ran a hand through his hair to straighten it. "How do I look?" The bear warrior seemed a little taken aback at the question.

"Oh. Uh- well, you-" he began, stuttering as he attempted to compliment the High Priest. Tzekel-Kan glared at him.

"Oh, shut up."

_LD_

Tulio chuckled as Chel kissed up and down his exposed chest. Chel giggled as Tulio cried out in surprise as her lips touched a sensitive spot on his-

"My Lord?" Tzekel-Kan's voice echoed throughout the god's temple. Chel gasped in surprise, still straddling Tulio. Tulio sat up with her, his hair was a complete mess and he wore a slightly dazed and satisfied look on his face. "Hello?"

"The High Priest!" Chel whispered. She shoved Tulio back down to the ground behind one of the many high-backed stone benches so they wouldn't be seen, ignoring Tulio's muffled "Ow!" Chel climbed of Tulio. "What is he going to think if he finds one of the gods like this with me?" Tulio grinned stupidly.

"Um, lucky god?" he suggested. He turned to grin at Chel, who glared back at him.

"Hello?" Tzekel-Kan called out again. Chel through Tulio out from behind the bench, clothes ruffled and hair a mess, and out of the way of Tzekel-Kan's view while the High Priest had his back turned. Tzekel-Kan spun around as he heard Tulio cry out in shock, only to see an empty room before him. He turned around again to continue checking by the entry way.

"Oh, Tzekel-Kan," Tulio said from behind him. Tzekel-Kan turned around again to face Tulio, who's hair and clothes had somehow been put back in order in less than the second Tzekel-Kan hadn't seen him emerge from behind the bench. "What brings you here?"

"I-I-I-I-I humbly request an audience with you, my lord," he bowed low to Tulio.

"Oh yes," Tulio said as he adjusted his vest. "What can I do for you?"

"My lord, I have just seen Lord Miguel and Master Sora out among the people," Tzekel-Kan said, keeping his head bowed so that it was always lower than Tulio's.

"Really?" Tulio said, not at all surprised.

"If I may be so bold as to offer some advice," Tzekel-Kan suggested with a small smile. Behind him, Chel popped up and gestured for Tulio to say 'No'.

"All right," Tulio said, not noticing Chel, "shoot." Tzekel-Kan grinned and cleared his throat as Chel slapped a hand over her face exasperatedly.

"My lord, you are perfect," Tzekel-Kan said. Tulio smirked smugly.

"Oh, well, go on," he said with a chuckle, examining his fingernails.

"But in your perfection, you cannot know how imperfect humans are," Tzekel-Kan continued, slowly circling around Tulio. His hands began to glow green as he wove his hands intricately in front of him, leaving trails of glowing green energy hanging in the air.

"Like snakes, they are spineless and slippery." A pair of glowing green snakes took form from the green energy and hung on the air, hissing at Tulio. Tulio glanced at Chel, both wore the same expression of concern.

Tzekel-Kan strode over to a bowl of fruit and began waving his hand over them as his tone became excited and zealot-like. "They are as untrustworthy as rats," the fruits all transformed suddenly into rats which scurried off towards the door, "stealing and cheating with no remorse!"

He held onto one rat by its tail as it changed back into a fruit. He took a bite and spat it back out on the floor. He spread his arms wide and the walls became covered in more green energy that took the form of hundreds of spiders and massive spider webs. Chel and Tulio both cringed. "Spinning webs of lies, like spiders!" Tzekel-Kan exclaimed as one of the spiders landed in the palm of his hand. He clenched his fist, crushing the spider in an instant.

"Stop it!" Tulio cried out. "That's disgusting." Tzekel-Kan waved his hands and the illusions he had created vanished.

"They're beyond disgusting!" He proclaimed as he stepped towards Tulio and Chel. The pair began to back away from the High Priest.

"Yeah, yeah, way beyond," Tulio said, determined to make sure Tzekel-Kan didn't conjure up any other weird illusions.

"Then we're in agreement!" Tzekel-Kan exclaimed. "I'll begin the necessary preparations immediately. Now, do you wish to have your victims bound to an altar, or would you prefer them free range?" Tulio glanced at Chel in confusion. "And will you be devouring their essence whole, or piece by piece?" He grinned up at Tulio. Tulio opened his mouth trying to come up with a response but couldn't think of anything.

"Tzekel, you've lost me," he settled on saying.

"My lord, these people will not respect you if they do not fear you," Tzekel-Kan explained matter-of-factly.

"And of course, we'll make them fear us by-?"

"A sacrifice! As it is prophesized. The history of the Age of the Jaguar will be written in-"

"-Ink?"

"Blood!"

"Blood! Oh, right," Tulio smacked himself lightly, playing along with Tzekel-Kan's religious zealot attitude. He and Chel continued to make their way towards the stairs to the temple. "Of course. I should probably consult with Lord Miguel. This is fairly important stuff." He gestured behind his back for Chel to start heading down the stairs. "I, um, should discuss the entire, uh, blood issue, right away. Excuse us, won't you?" He grabbed Chel by the hand and led her down the stairs.

"Let's go," he muttered under his breath. Tzekel-Kan let out a sigh and wiped a tear of joy from his eye.

"Finally," he said happily. "We're connecting."

_LD_

Cortes looked up from the ground at the opening in the caves ceiling that appeared to be shaped like a bird in flight. He looked back at his men.

"This way," he said, leading them out of the caves and back into the jungle.

_LD_

"Found him," Kairi said as she and Naminé emerged into a courtyard where a few dozen citizens were watching as Sora and Miguel played a game of ball with Chief Tannabok and several children. "Sora!" Sora immediately stopped playing at the sound of his name. He looked around for the source for a few moments before spotting Kairi and Naminé. A grin spread across his face and he ran over to greet them.

"Hey, you two," he said as he swept Kairi into a tight hug and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. "Any luck finding the Keyhole?" Naminé shook her head.

"I got attacked by a Stealth Sneak," Kairi said. "Does that count for anything?" Sora immediately felt his heart begin to race in worry.

"What?" He said as his voice shook slightly. "Are you okay?" Kairi smiled comfortingly at him.

"Yup," she said. "No harm done. Don't worry yourself, babe. I can handle myself. I'm still here aren't I?"

_Except for the part where you needed me to save your sorry butt._ Naminé whispered in Kairi's mind.

_Oh, hush._ Kairi said. Her eyes flashed up to the slightly concealed gash on her forehead before darting back to meet Sora's. But the spiky-haired boy had already noticed where her eyes had glanced.

"'No harm done', huh?" Sora said, pointing at the barely bleeding gash. Kairi chuckled nervously.

"It could've been worse," she pointed out. Sora nodded.

"I'll give you that," he said with a smirk. He raised his hand so that his palm hovered less than an inch above Kairi's wound. "Curaga." Green tendrils of light drifted from his fingertips and surrounded the gash in a bright green glow. Kairi shivered uncomfortably as she felt the wound close.

After the light faded, Kairi tentatively placed a hand on her head where the wound had been. Her skin was perfectly smooth. She grinned and gave Sora a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you!" She said cheerfully. Sora smirked.

"My pleasure," he said with a mocking bow. "Just don't go leaping headfirst at walls for awhile. They're tricky creatures, those walls." Naminé bit down on her lower lip to stop from giggling as Kairi smacked Sora on the back of his head.

"Jerk," she said. Sora laughed and drew her into a hug.

"But that's why you love me," he said, flashing her his classic, goofy grin. Kairi couldn't help but smile at that.

"Yeah, you win," she said, faking reluctance. The two laughed. Naminé watched them with a bittersweet taste in her mouth. As happy as she was to have her own body and as happy as she was to see these two be happy together, she longed to be in Roxas' arms, even if it meant she couldn't have a body of her own. She turned back to watch the ball game in time to see the Chief bounce the ball off his hip and above Miguel's head. Naminé smirked as Miguel ran desperately after the ball to bounce it back, only to run straight into an irritated-looking Tulio. The ball fell back to earth and bounced off Tulio's head. Naminé slipped closer to the pair so she could hear them better.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tulio demanded in a whisper. Miguel gave a small chuckle.

"Lying low," he responded as if it should have been obvious. Tulio raised his hands like he was going to strangle Miguel and then forced himself to lower them.

"Look, change of plans," Tulio whispered as he grabbed Miguel by the shoulders. "We have to grab what we can carry and get out of here now!" Naminé raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" She and Miguel asked in unison. "Why?" Tzekel-Kan strode up behind Tulio.

"Because the High Priest is nuts!" Tulio whispered desperately as Tzekel-Kan glanced around the courtyard. Sora and Kairi walked up behind Naminé with confused looks on their faces. "He wants-"

"This is unacceptable!" Tzekel-Kan suddenly exclaimed.

"Yeah. Yeah!" Tulio exclaimed. "What he said.

"The gods should not be playing ball like this!" Tzekel-Kan picked up the ball and brandished it angrily.

"Well, exactly!" Tulio agreed, giving Miguel an _I told you so_ sort of look. Less than ten minutes later, they found themselves in the center of a huge arena with two parallel, high stone walls on either side rising up and two small golden circles hanging opposite of one another. The citizens of El Dorado lined the benches at the top of the walls.

"THIS is how the gods should play ball!" Tzekel-Kan declared. Tulio, Chel and the three Keyblade Wielders all glared at Miguel, who winced under their stares.

"Well, don't blame me!" He said.

"I blame you," Tulio said in a low, angry voice. "What is the object of this game, pray tell?"

"You've gotta knock the ball through the hoop," Sora said, looking up at the golden circles, both of which had openings barely big enough for the ball to fit through. Even more intimidating was the fact that the hoops were at least twenty feet in the air.

"What hoop?" Tulio asked, looking around for it. Kairi pointed up.

"That hoop," she said, pointing up at the golden hoops. Tulio and Miguel both looked up.

"That's impossible," Tulio groaned. "We're going to lose!"

"Gods don't lose," Chel said as she stroked Altivo's nose. The horse looked at the two 'gods' with a _sucks to be you_ look.

"Who will we be playing?" Miguel asked. Tzekel-Kan cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"My lords," he said proudly, "Chief Tannabok's warriors are the finest ball players in the city. Fifteen mere mortals against two gods." Tulio and Miguel both gulped audibly. "I realize it is a bit uneven, but I do hope they'll challenge you enough to make the game, interesting."

"Um, where are the warriors?" Kairi said. Tzekel-Kan looked at her in confusion before turning around. Sure enough, there were none of the Chief's warriors on the court. The gathered crowd began whispering to one another as they realized there were no players for the 'gods' to play against.

"Where are Chief Tannabok's warriors?" Tzekel-Kan shouted angrily. There was a moment of silence before he was answered by the terrified screams of fifteen men. The small crowd on the court turned to look as Chief Tannabok's warriors ran towards them, screaming like frightened animals. Sora, Kairi and Naminé exchanged a quick glance. The Oblivion, Destiny's Embrace and Rejection of Fate Keyblades all appeared in their wielders hands.

Tzekel-Kan didn't seem to notice. He turned back to Tulio and Miguel with a large grin on his face.

"And now that your opponents are here," he said as he placed the ball in the center of the court, "let's play ba-" The warriors ran right past them, still screaming.

"Where are you going?" Tzekel-Kan demanded, turning to shout at the warriors. "Get back here and play the game like you're supposed to!" One of the arena walls exploded suddenly into a thousand shards of white stone. The citizens of El Dorado cried out in fear as the dust settled, revealing the source of the warrior's terror.

A Heartless, strode slowly from the dust and debris. It towered high above Sora and the others, at least twelve feet tall or more. It's skin was a dark, purplish-bruise color. Instead of a head, a black mist hung around in its place with two pairs of glowing yellow eyes. On each hand it had seven long black claws in place of fingers and its left arm seemed to be shifting as if the limb was a boiling liquid. Emblazoned on each shoulder was the red and black Heartless emblem.

"Go!" Sora shouted to the others as the three Keyblade wielders charged at the Heartless. "We can handle this!"

"Best of luck!" Miguel said, turning to take cover without a second's hesitation.

"Adios!" Tulio cried out as he and Chel leapt onto Altivo's back and took off.

"Wait for me!" Tzekel-Kan cried out, running after the fleeing three.

"You girls ready?" Sora shouted as the trio surrounded the Heartless.

"You know it!" Naminé shouted eagerly. Kairi nodded, determined to not let herself get thrown around this time.

"Then let's do this!" Sora shouted. The three Wielders leapt in unison, slashing at the Heartless' limbs.

_LD_

Maleficent grinned nastily as she and her followers watched the three Keyblade Wielders attack her newest Heartless, courtesy of the Doctor and his experiments. She glanced over at the Apostle of the Star in question. The Doctor smirked and pushed his glasses further up on his nose, eagerly observing his Heartless creation in action.

Maleficent looked back at the pink crystal and watched as the three Keyblade Wielders first strike ended abruptly as the trio was flung back by the Heartless' speed and strength.

_Is this enough of a challenge for you, Princess?_

_LD_

Sora, Kairi and Naminé all cried out in pain as they were flung back from the Heartless and into the remaining walls of the arena. Kairi and Naminé crumpled to the ground, both groaning and struggling to get up. Sora however had planted his feet against stone wall, giving him leverage to propel himself at the Heartless.

The Heartless had turned to face the fallen Naminé. Sora grinned slightly at his fortune and drew the Oblivion back to deal a powerful slash to the Heartless' exposed blind zone. Sora was less than a foot away from striking the Heartless when its eyes suddenly appeared on the back of its smoky head, staring straight into Sora's face. The smoke of its head suddenly changed from black mist to bright red and orange flames.

Sora cried out as the Heartless' entire body became engulfed in flame. It was too late to stop his momentum. He passed straight through Heartless as if it had become a living flame. He crashed into the ground and rolled several feet before coming to a halt.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out. She aimed Destiny's Embrace at the Heartless. "Blizzard!" A volley of ice shards burst from her Keyblade's tip and struck the Heartless in the side. Where the ice struck, the fire was extinguished, becoming the normal skin of the Heartless again. The Heartless turned to face Kairi, tendrils of fire rising from its body and lashing out towards Kairi as it advanced on her.

"Blizzaga!" Sora shouted. Three large shards of ice slammed into the Heartless' back and melted instantly, extinguishing the remaining flame. The Heatless seemed momentarily stunned. Sora and Kairi leapt at the Heartless, both attacking the legs while Naminé dropped down on it from above, the edge of the Rejection of Fate glowing with a bright light.

In unison, Sora and Kairi struck the Heartless in the back of its legs, forcing it to its knees. Fire covered the Oblivion as Sora plunged it into the Heartless' back, and slashed lengthwise as Kairi sliced off its right arm. Naminé's Keyblade glowed brighter as she plunged it into the place where the Heartless' neck would've been.

The Heartless collapsed to the ground a gagging sound escaping its throat as its entire body seemed to bubble. The three Wielders leapt back from Heartless as its body exploded into globs of purple liquid. Kairi and Naminé both covered their faces while the entire front of Sora's body. The Heartless' emblem clattered to the ground, still solid.

"Okay," Kairi said, flinging the purple mess off of her hands, "That's just gross." Sora wiped the purple liquid out of his eyes.

"I couldn't agree more," he said as he wiped more off of his face. All around them the citizens of El Dorado began cheering for them.

"Your warriors truly are powerful, my lords," Tzekel-Kan said to Tulio and Miguel, both of whom seemed rather stunned.

"I'll say," Tulio said.

_LD_

"It would seem your home-grown Heartless wasn't much of a match against the Keyblade Wielders, Doctor," Maleficent said, turning from the crystal to face a man in a white lab coat.

"It was a rather pathetic display, actually," Keila said as she casually examined her fingernails. "I think a pair of Darksides would've fared better." The man in the white coat sneered at her.

"I don't remember seeing the end of the fight, do you?" The Doctor said. A smirk forming on his face as he looked up at Maleficent.

_LD_

"That seemed to go a lot smoother than I had expected," Naminé said as the three Wielders bowed to the crowd.

"Are you complaining?" Kairi asked. Naminé shook her head.

"Hell no! I'm just we didn't have to fight anything tougher. That would've ruined my day for sure," she said with a wide grin. The crowd all let out gasps of shock and began pointing behind the three wielders.

"Why do I get the feeling if we turn around there's going to be another Heartless?" Naminé asked sarcastically. The three teens turned around. The Heartless that they had just defeated and forced to explode into purple liquid was rapidly reforming. The Heartless emblem floated in midair as the rest of its body took shape around it again.

"Well, that's just fantastic," Kairi said, the sarcasm heavy in her voice. Wisps of black smoke formed where the Heartless' head should've been and its four glowing yellow eyes slowly took form.

"Perhaps I spoke too soon," Tzekel-Kan said, sneering down at the Wielders.

"This thing just doesn't know when to give up," Sora grunted as he raised the Oblivion back into a fighting stance. "I think it needs to be taught a lesson."

"Right," Kairi and Naminé said in unison. The three of them charged once again at the Heartless. Sora put on an extra burst of speed and reached the Heartless before the others did. As he swung back the Oblivion to deal a powerful strike to the Heartless' knees, the Heartless' left hand glowed briefly with a bright light. Sora stumbled back in surprise. The light faded, revealing that the hand had transformed into a large, triangular blade. Kairi and Naminé halted in their charge as they saw the blade.

"What the-?" Sora cried out, as the Heartless' four eyes directed their attention onto him. The Heartless drew back its sword arm and stabbed down at Sora's exposed chest.

"Reflect!" Kairi called out. A small orb of light burst from Destiny's Embrace and struck Sora in the back. A dome of light surrounded Sora less than a second before the Heartless' blade would've pierced Sora's chest. Instead, the blade glanced of the barrier, causing the Heartless to stumble forward.

"Take this!" Naminé shouted from above the Heartless. A trio of light rings had surrounded her as she dropped down on it. From its back, the Heartless rapidly grew another pair of arms which snatched Naminé from the sky and slammed her headfirst into the ground. The citizens of El Dorado cried out in shock.

"Naminé!" Kairi and Sora shouted in unison. The Heartless raised Naminé again, preparing to slam her back down into the ground. Sora hurled the Oblivion at the Heartless, striking it against the emblem emblazoned on its chest. The Heartless let out a cry of rage and stumbled backwards, releasing Naminé. Kairi dashed forward and caught the blonde in her arms before she could hit the ground. Her golden blonde hair was streaked crimson with blood.

"Naminé," Kairi said frantically as she pulled her sister aside. "Can you hear me?" Behind them, Sora dashed at the Heartless, determined to keep its attention on him and away from the two girls.

"Look, my new ship can talk!" Naminé said, weakly her eyes unfocused and a ditzy-looking smile forming on her face. "And it knows things! That's a good ship!" Kairi just stared at her.

"Uh… Maybe you should lie down here in the shade for awhile," she stared, as she helped the blonde lay down. Kairi held her hand out over Naminé's head. "Cure," green tendrils of light flowed from Kairi's fingertips down onto the blondes wound. "That should at least stop the bleeding." She glanced back to where Sora was fighting the Heartless single-handedly in time to watch the spiky-haired teen get thrown into a wall. She turned back to Naminé.

"Stay here, alright?" She said, gently placing a hand on Naminé's shoulder. "I'm going to go help Sora beat this thing." Kairi called Destiny's Embrace back to her hand and charged at the Heartless from behind.

"Goodbye Major Cinnamon Bun!" Naminé called after her before passing out.

"How's Naminé?" Sora asked as he leapt over the Heartless' sword arm, effectively causing the Heartless to embed the blade into the stone wall of the arena. The Heartless attempted to wrench it free but was unable to do so. Kairi ran up and severed the Heartless' legs at its knees only to see them reattach instantaneously.

"She's a little bit on the delirious side at the moment," Kairi said through clenched teeth as she leapt back from the Heartless. "But she'll live."

"Good to know," Sora replied as he slashed at the Heartless' exposed chest. The Heartless reacted faster than Sora had thought possible as its free arm snatched Sora up and threw him across the arena. Sora growled in frustration, flipping his body so that he landed on his feet. He slid across the ground for several feet, putting additional distance between him and the battle. When he came to a stop, he broke into a flat out sprint.

The black smoke that made up the Heartless' head turned white. Its body quickly became encased in a segmented armor of ice. The wall where the Heartless' sword was stuck slowly began to freeze. The Heartless drew back its free hand and smashed the section of the wall into pieces, freeing its sword arm. It turned on its heel quickly and struck the ground with its ice covered fist. A large patch of ice began to form on the ground, spreading quickly across the arena to thoroughly coat the grounds surface. Sora and Kairi both found themselves slipping and sliding across the ice.

"I knew there was a reason I never went skiing on the mainland with my parents," Kairi growled as she fell flat on her rear. "I hate ice." Fire covered Destiny's Embrace as Kairi plunged it into the ice. The heat of the flames quickly melted Kairi a large enough patch in the ice to stand of firm ground without her sliding all over. Sora was hovering a good half-foot above the ground as he pointed the Oblivion at the Heartless.

The Heartless' sword arm was bathed in light, the sword vanished, changing back into the Heartless' normal arm. It raised its hands and a large sphere of ice formed in midair directly in front of it. The ice sphere began to rotate at a high velocity as the Heartless turned to face Sora directly. The ice sphere began to roll towards Sora. A large ball of fire formed on the tip of Sora's Keyblade.

"Firaga!" Sora shouted as the ice sphere drew dangerously close. The fireball burst from the Oblivion and streaked towards the ice sphere. Fire and ice collided, the clashing forces of magic and nature exploding violently. The entire arena shook. Shards of ice flew in every direction. The spectators covered their heads and ducked under the frozen projectiles. Miguel pushed Tulio out of the way as one shard nearly pierced Tulio's skull. Miguel however, wasn't so lucky. The shard that would've struck Tulio instead grazed the blonde-haired man's right eyebrow.

The Heartless' armor of ice cracked and fell to the ground, the ice, coating the arena floor quickly melted from the tropic heat, leaving massive puddles across the ground. It glanced down at its former armor before looking up to face Sora and Kairi, only to be met by their Keyblades as the couple plunged them deep into the Heartless' emblem.

"Light!" The two teens shouted. A multitude of light beams burst from the Heartless' body.

There was a long moment where all time seemed to stop. The citizens of El Dorado looked on in nervous anticipation as the light beams faded. The emblem on the Heartless' chest cracked into several pieces and faded away into nothing. The Heartless collapsed to its knees and vanished into a thick cloud of black mist. A large, glittering pink heart rose into the air before fading from sight. The crowd erupted into cheers.

Sora and Kairi grinned as their Keyblades vanished. The pair of them waved to the crowd before rushing over to help Naminé. A pair of Chief Tannabok's warriors who had run from the Heartless earlier had appeared from nowhere and were gently placing Naminé onto a makeshift stretcher.

"Naminé?" Kairi asked tentatively as she and Sora approached the injured blonde. "Can you hear me?"

"Kairi," Naminé said weakly, her eyes still shut tight, "if I die, I want you to have my orange juice."

"I think we need to get her to a bed," Sora said. "I think she's still completely out of it." Kairi nodded in agreement.

"That was amazing you two!" Tulio exclaimed, clapping Sora on the back as he and Miguel ran up to them.

"Great job at selling the 'greatest warriors' bit," Miguel said, glancing down at Naminé's unconscious body. "Is she going to be alright?" Sora and Kairi nodded.

"Nothing we can't fix," Sora said, flashing the 'gods' his trademark goofy grin.

"My lords," Tzekel-Kan said loudly as he and Chief Tannabok approached, closely tailed by the Chief's warriors who had run from the Heartless. "Your warriors truly are magnificent. Far superior and braver than Chief Tannabok's warriors." Tzekel-Kan shot a smirk at the Chief. "And now, you will, of course, wish to have the Chief's cowardly warriors sacrificed to your glory." The crowd gasped as Tzekel-Kan's voice carried throughout the arena. Sora and Kairi exchanged a worried glance. The Chief's warriors fell to their knees, clasped their hands together and groveled before the 'gods'.

"Not again," Miguel said exasperatedly. He pointed a finger at Tzekel-Kan. "Look, Tzekel-Kan." It suddenly dawned on Tulio that Miguel was about to cause trouble.

"Uh, Miguel?" He whispered, attempting to get the blonde man to stop.

"Forget the sacrifices. We don't want any sacrifices."

"But all of the sacred writings say that you will devour the wicked and the unrighteous," Tzekel-Kan exclaimed. Miguel quickly glanced around.

"Well, I don't see anyone here who fits that description," he said, a smug smile forming on his face. Tzekel-Kan made a scoffing noise as he stared incredulously at Miguel.

"Well, as speaker for the gods," Tzekel-Kan continued proudly, "it would be my privilege to point them out." He gestured with a tilt of his head towards Chief Tannabok, who glared daggers back at the High Priest.

"The gods are speaking for themselves now!" Miguel proclaimed. The crowd began to murmur amongst themselves. "This city, and these people, have no need for you anymore!" Miguel shoved past Tzekel-Kan and began helping Chief Tannabok's warriors back to their feet. "There will be no sacrifices! Not now, not ever!" The crowd began to cheer loudly. Tzekel-Kan looked around at his fellow citizens, unsure of how to react.

"Get out!" Miguel growled at him. Tzekel-Kan glanced over at the Chief, who waved goodbye to him. He stared back into the glaring face of Miguel and his eyes were immediately drawn to the scrape above Miguel's right eyebrow where the ice shard had grazed him.

Tzekel-Kan's eyes widened in shock. A single drop of blood oozed from the scrape and ran down the side of Miguel's face. The look of shock quickly became a look of sudden understanding of an important secret.

"As the… _gods_… command," he said in a low tone, slowly backing away from Miguel as the crowd hoisted the 'gods' and their warriors onto their collective shoulders.

"Hey, not bad for my first commandment, huh?" Miguel said, gently nudging Tulio on the shoulder and slapping Sora's hand in a high five.

_LD_

"Do you know why the gods demand blood?" Tzekel-Kan asked the bear warrior as the pair of them entered the High Priests temple.

"I don't know," the warrior said in confusion. Tzekel-Kan pulled out a jagged, stone knife and sliced open the palm of his hand. He strode over to a carving of the gods and their three warriors and smeared the blood from his palm onto the face of one of the gods.

"Because gods don't bleed," Tzekel-Kan answered. He pulled his hand away from the stone and watched as the remaining blood on his palm retreated back into the wound, which disappeared in a flash of sickly green light. "Its' time to take the future into my own hands, and this city will be cleansed. Even if I have to do it myself." Tzekel-Kan snatched an old, worn out tome from the warriors hands.

"Um, how?" The warrior asked. Tzekel-Kan began flipping through the pages. One showed a demon wielding a jagged sword falling into a fiery pit lined with skulls. Another showed a man fishing while sitting on a crescent moon. Another depicted a man dressed in a black cloak creating silver fire in his bare hands while several other black cloaked figures stood behind him.

"There are dark magics here," Tzekel-Kan explained. "And power, and-" he stopped on a page depicting a large jaguar tearing apart a temple. "Oh, my, my, my, my, my." He snapped the tome shut and tossed it to the warrior. "It's not called the Age of the Jaguar for nothing." He chuckled sinisterly. He walked over to the doorway of the temple and gazed out to where several dozen men were rapidly building the boat for the 'gods'. "This will be a delightful way to bid the false gods… goodbye."

_LD_

"Looks like your Heartless experiment failed, Doctor," Keila said, turning away from the pink viewing crystal to smile smugly at the spectacled man. The Doctor chuckled and pushed his glasses back into place on his nose.

"This prototype version, yes," he said with a sinister grin. "But that was the trial run. The next version won't be as weak. It'll surpass all others by the time I'm through with it."

_LD_

_Sunday, June 20th 4794 P.C._

The next two days had passed by fairly quickly and uneventfully for the three teens. Kairi stayed by Naminé's bedside for most of the time while Sora headed out into the city to search for the Keyhole alone, but with no results.

Before they knew it, Chief Tannabok's carpenters had built a boat large enough to transport all of the gold from El Dorado and it was ready for its maiden voyage. While Kairi, Chel and Tulio tended to Naminé (or in Tulio's case, the gold), Sora went with Miguel to examine the ship with Chief Tannabok.

"Well, it's, um, uh, nice," Miguel said. Sora looked at him incredulously. Nice? This was nothing compared to the _Dauntless_ in Port Royal. That was a "nice" ship.

"Nice?" Chief Tannabok asked taking a drag on his cigar, waiting for further clarification.

"Yes, nice."

"But?"

"Um, but, uh, is it really fit for the gods?" Miguel asked.

_What is he doing?_ Roxas said in the back of Sora's mind.

_I have no idea._

"I have been around boats, believe me," Miguel said with a chuckle. "And that, um, the pointy, tall, um, the, the, the, the long up and down thing-" Sora fought back the urge to snicker as Miguel gestured at the mast.

"The mast?" Chief Tannabok suggested.

"The mast, yes, yes," Miguel said quickly, attempting to recover from his blunder. "The mast is good. Well look at it." He was stammering, trying to come up with reasons why the boat wasn't ready. "There's not nearly enough… uh, rope."

_Does he want us to stay here in El Dorado or something?_

"Rope?" Sora and the Chief asked in unison, both thoroughly confused. A grin spread across Miguel's face.

"Yes, rope," he said. "Exactly my point. Vertical ascension requires a lot more rope. And look at this." Miguel strode over to the hand carved wood railing and began tugging at it with all his might, unable to make it move. "This doesn't look at all secure. Chief, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but all in all, it is a complete do-over." Miguel leaned against the railing dejectedly, staring sadly out at the sunset. Chief Tannabok smiled knowingly and walked over to lean against the rail next to Miguel.

"You know, Lord Miguel," he said thoughtfully, "if you wish to stay, you only need to say so." Miguel looked genuinely tempted by the Chief's offer.

_So he does want to stay._ Sora noticed. Miguel turned to look at the Chief.

"You mean… forever?" He asked hesitantly. The Chief nodded.

"Of course." The Chief said. Miguel sighed.

"Oh, no, I can't," he said. "I have to go back with Tulio. We're… we're partners."

"Big plans in the other world, huh?" The Chief said with an accepting smile. Miguel gave him a half-hearted smile in return.

"Yup," he said, staring back out at the water. "Big plans." The Chief clapped Miguel on the shoulder.

"Well, then, I better go get some more rope, huh?" He said as he began to walk away.

"Oh, Chief, forget about the rope," Miguel said quickly. "My mistake." The Chief shrugged and tapped the tip of his cigar against one of his bracelets.

"Hey," he said, his tone one of understanding, "to err is human." He gave Sora a knowing nod and imitated zipping his lips shut.

_He knows._ Roxas said in realization.

_Knows what?_

_That Miguel and Tulio aren't gods and that we aren't their warriors._

_Why do you say that?_

_Just a feeling I guess._

_Ah._

Miguel stared at the Chief for a moment before he and Sora climbed down from the ship, Miguel leading Altivo back up to the temple while Sora went off to continue his search for the elusive Keyhole.

_LD_

Kairi and the bedridden Naminé watched with mild interest as Tulio and Chel debated on how the gold would be distributed.

"Half?" Tulio exclaimed in shock, forgetting that Kairi and Naminé were watching.

"Mm-hmm," Chel hummed as she examined her nails. Tulio chuckled loudly.

"I don't think so," he said. "I'll tell you what. Uh, I'll let you come back to Spain with us, like you wanted, and, um, yeah, I can see my way clear to throwing you ten percent?" Chel chuckled.

"You know, maybe I won't go to Spain with you and take a third," she suggested.

"They're totally hot for each other," Naminé said as she bit into a bright green fruit. Kairi shushed her.

"Oh hush," she said to her injured sister. "You and Roxas would be like that if you two were in their place." Naminé's face fell slightly as she remembered that Roxas still didn't have a body of his own. Kairi immediately felt a knot of guilt form in her gut.

"Naminé, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up," she said quietly. Naminé wiped a tear that had formed from the corner of her eye.

"Don't worry about it," she said, staring over at Tulio and Chel while attempting to stifle the pain she felt in her heart from being without Roxas.

"Like you don't want to go to Spain," Tulio was saying with a smug, knowing attitude.

"Oh, like you don't want me to want to go to Spain," Chel shot back.

"I want you to want-" Tulio began angrily before slowing down as he had an epiphany, "-What you want." A look of surprise formed on Chel's face.

"Go on," Chel suggested.

"All right," Tulio said, throwing his arms up in defeat. "Cards on the table. Uh, I want you to come to Spain with me and Miguel. Mostly me. Especially me." A delighted smile formed quickly on Chel's face. "Only me. Forget Miguel." Chel chuckled.

"Well, as long as that's what you want," she said, poking Tulio in the center of his chest. "Me too."

"Okay then," Tulio said as he and Chel pulled their bodies closer together. "Deal?"

"Deal," Chel whispered as she pulled Tulio into a deep, passionate kiss. Naminé forced herself to look away. She could feel her heart breaking. Kairi didn't notice and almost smiled when she noticed Miguel leaning against the doorway, glaring in at Tulio and Chel, both of whom were oblivious to his presence. Altivo strode up next to the blonde-haired man, his jaw dropping as he saw the couple.

"'Forget Miguel'?" Miguel whispered. "Well, forget Tulio." He pushed himself off the doorway and walked away, Altivo following suit. Kairi watched sadly as Miguel and Altivo vanished from sight.

_LD_

The bear warrior knelt before a deep vat built into the floor of the High Priest's temple, slowly stirring a glowing green concoction with a long stick. A variety of ingredients lay scattered around him. Tzekel-Kan slowly paced the room, humming to himself.

"Well, is it ready yet?" The former High Priest asked the warrior, his patience wearing thin. The warrior smiled up at him and dipped a bowl into the steaming liquid. He pulled it back out, now full and gently blew on it to cool it down before offering it to Tzekel-Kan, who sneered down at it. The warrior realized what he had forgotten, he grabbed a tiny, purple paper umbrella, opened it and handed it to Tzekel-Kan.

Tzekel-Kan took several sniffs, it didn't smell quite as powerful as he had expected. He tossed the bowl aside in disgust and picked up the tome, rifling through it to find the page he wanted.

"It seems to be missing something," he muttered to himself. He tapped the page with his finger as he realized the final ingredient was missing. "Ah, that's it." He strode behind the warrior and turned his back to him. "It needs more… body." Tzekel-Kan kicked backwards, knocking the warrior into the steaming concoction. There was a bright flash of light from the concoction that lifted Tzekel-Kan off of his feet and pinned him against the stone carving of the gods and their warriors. His eyes began to glow a bright green as glowing, pale green tribal patterns appeared on his flesh.

The same patterns spread from the concoction across the floor and up into the giant stone statue of a jaguar that rested against one wall of the temple. The same pattern that appeared on stone jaguars body, running up from its paws to its eyes, which began to glow exactly like Tzekel-Kan's.

Tzekel-Kan forced himself off of the stone carving, his every movement mirrored by the jaguar, which freed itself from the wall of the temple. Both fell forward onto all fours. The carving of the gods fell forward and broke into two, separating the stone images of the gods from one another.

"Do… as I command!" Tzekel-Kan said as he began to laugh maniacally. The jaguar imitating his every movement perfectly.

_LD_

Sora and Kairi sipped nervously from the cups they had been offered at the farewell party the citizens of El Dorado were holding for the 'gods'. After a villager laughed and assured them that it was nothing more than mango juice, the pair's nervousness faded quickly. A couple of children were reenacting Miguel's declaration that there would be no more sacrifices.

"That kid does you better than you do," they heard Tulio say to an angry-looking Miguel. The pair of them moved in closer to listen. "Some send off, huh? We're finally at the 'go back to Spain and live like kings' part."

"Well," Miguel said slowly as he stirred his drink, "isn't king kind of a step down from god?" Tulio nearly choked on his drink in shock.

"What?" He whispered. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Miguel, we can't stay here." He chuckled nervously. "We have a plan, remember?"

"How about… we forget the plan?" Miguel suggested. Tulio looked at his partner like he was wearing a pin emblazoned with the words 'Room for Rent: Inquire Within'. Tulio opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a roar that sounded like stone grinding together.

The top of the High Priest's temple exploded into thousands of shards of stone as a giant stone jaguar climbed out. The citizen's of El Dorado began screaming and running for cover. Tulio and Miguel both let out high-pitched screams of terror as Sora and Kairi summoned their Keyblades. As the jaguar descended the side of the temple, Tzekel-Kan emerged, laughing evilly.

"Now everyone will know the truth of your 'divinity'," he called out to Miguel and Tulio. Chief Tannabok's warriors ran forward, determined to prove themselves to the 'gods'. A volley of spears flew through the air and shattered against the jaguar's stone body. The jaguar picked up one warrior in its massive stone teeth and tossed him into the air. The warrior let out a cry of shock and terror as he flew up before being caught once again by the jaguar's powerful stone jaws. The jaguar's gaze fell upon Tulio and Miguel and it dropped the warrior to the ground.

"I'm okay!" The warrior exclaimed, sounding extremely relieved as he sat up from his fall. One of the jaguar's hind paws descended on the warrior, crushing him. Sora and Kairi both winced. "I'm still okay!" The warrior shouted weakly. Tulio and Miguel both turned from the jaguar and started running along with the other citizens of El Dorado. The jaguar charged after the two 'gods'.

"Come on!" Sora shouted to Kairi as the couple wove their way through the panicked crowd. They caught up to the jaguar and began striking its paws with their Keyblades repeatedly, but nothing seemed to phase the jaguar. Tzekel-Kan let out another maniacal laugh.

"See how powerless your warriors are against the mighty jaguar?" He taunted. Sora growled under his breath. The edge of the Oblivion became coated in fire as he swung it down. Tzekel-Kan let out a cry of pain. While the blow hadn't damaged his jaguar, the connection he shared with it had caused Sora's attack to burn the back of his hand. Tzekel-Kan swept his hand to the side to ease the pain with the cool night air and the jaguar imitated his movement, knocking Sora off of his feet and through a stone wall.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out, worriedly. Her worry immediately dissolved into anger. She leapt up higher than she thought possible and landed on the jaguar's back. Grinning ferociously, she ran up to stand on its snout. The jaguar halted its advance, staring at the auburn-haired teen standing on its face.

"Hi there," Kairi said, flashing a sweet smile at the jaguar before she drew back Destiny's Embrace and plunged it into the jaguar's eye. The jaguar and Tzekel-Kan both let out cries of pain. Kairi leapt gracefully off of the jaguar's face and held out her hand towards its head as she slowly fell back to the ground. "Light!" A beam of light shot from her palm and struck one of the jaguar's ears, blasting it into oblivion. Kairi's brief moment of triumph was cut short as the one of the jaguar's paws knocked out of the air and into Sora's unconscious body.

Darkness quickly closed in around the edge of her vision. The last thing she saw before passing out was the jaguar chasing Tulio and Miguel into the jungle and Tzekel-Kan smirking down at the two teens as he followed his stone puppet in pursuit of the 'gods'.

_LD_

Tulio and Miguel came to a sudden halt as they found themselves perched on the edge of the outcropping above the massive whirlpool where Tzekel-Kan had held the reverent ceremony for the 'gods'. The jaguar stopped shortly behind them, blocking their only means of escape.

"I know what you are," Tzekel-Kan said, emerging from behind the jaguar, "and I know what you are not. And you are not gods!" Tulio and Miguel stared at him in a shocked silence, wondering how Tzekel-Kan had figured it out. Tulio quickly recovered.

"Y-you're not a god?" He asked Miguel, feigning ignorance. He grabbed the blonde-haired man by the collar of his shirt. "You lied to me?" Gesturing with his eyes, Tulio encouraged Miguel to play along with their usual witty banter they resorted to whenever they'd get caught in a scam. Miguel just glared back at him. Tulio cleared his throat and shoved Miguel away from him. "How dare you?"

"Hey, it was his stupid plan!" Miguel said to Tzekel-Kan, who looked confused.

"Oh, ho, ho. My plan was that we should lie low!" Tulio shouted. "Your plan was to run off and be all 'Oh, look at me! Look at me! I'm a god!'."

"That's not true!"

"No? Who're you kidding? You're buying your own con!"

"Well at least I'm not dating mine!"

"I- ooh, low blow," Tulio said. "Listen, Mr. High-and-Mighty, we'd both be sailing out of here with a mountain of gold if you had just listened to me!"

"Well, now you've got all the precious gold and Chel," Miguel pointed out as he shoved Tulio. "So what do you need me for?"

"Well, maybe I don't need you anymore!" Tulio shoved back. Tzekel-Kan smirked.

"Well then, why don't you just go back to Spain and I'll stay here and we'll both get what we want?" He grabbed Tulio's shoulders and shook him roughly. Tulio shoved him off.

"That's fine with me, _pal_!"

"Fine with me too!" Miguel slapped Tulio. Tzekel-Kan began to chuckle.

"Fine!" Tulio returned Miguel's slap with greater force.

"Okay!" Miguel growled as he slapped Tulio again.

"All right!" They both shouted together, turning to punch Tzekel-Kan in the face. The former High Priest was lifted off of his feet by the force of the blow.

"Tie him up!" Tulio said quickly as he and Miguel snatched up a thick vine that hung over the outcropping's edge. Tzekel-Kan quickly recovered, his eyes began to glow a brighter green and he let out a roar. Behind them, the jaguar sprang to life again and pounced towards them.

"Jump!" Tulio shouted. He and Miguel leapt over the sides of the outcropping, spared from plummeting to their deaths by the vine they were going to use to tie up Tzekel-Kan. The former High Priest let out a cry of shock as the jaguar landed directly above him. The outcropping cracked and broke from the jaguar's weight, sending both it and Tzekel-Kan tumbling into the whirlpool below.

_LD_

Tzekel-Kan was quickly dragged underwater by the powerful currents. He struggled desperately, trying his best to reach the surface. Suddenly, he was caught by an even stronger current and whisked away through a dark tunnel at a dangerously high velocity.

He emerged from the water into a slow flowing river several miles away from the city, gasping for breath. He crawled onto the shore and was greeted by the barrel of Cortes' rifle aiming straight into his face. Tzekel-Kan gasped, the man standing before him, clad in the dull gray armor was exactly like the prophecies foretold. This man was a real god.

"My lord," Tzekel-Kan groveled before Cortes. The Spaniard knocked the tip of his rifle against Tzekel-Kan's golden earrings.

"Where did you get this?" He demanded of the native. Tzekel-Kan grinned.

_LD_

_Monday, June 21 4794 P.C._

Sora and Kairi both sat bolt upright in bed as Naminé splashed a jar of water over the pair of them.

"Rise and shine," she said cheerily. "Come on you two, the boat's already loaded with the gold and Tulio and Chel are waiting for us." Kairi groaned, gently massaging the back of her head where she could feel a faint lump.

"What happened?" She asked the blonde.

"You don't remember?" Naminé sighed and tossed Kairi a towel to dry herself off with. "You two were fighting that giant stone cat thing and it knocked you both through a building which knocked both you out. I'm the one who had to drag your sorry butts out of the rubble and up all of those godforsaken stairs outside just to get you up here." She stuck her tongue out at Sora. "And you're not exactly light either." Sora rolled his eyes and forced himself out of the bed.

"You said we're just meeting Tulio and Chel?" Sora pointed out as he slipped his oversized shoes on. "What about Miguel?" Naminé's smile fell.

"He wants to stay," she said.

"Why?" Sora asked.

"Because he saw Tulio and Chel kiss and Tulio told Chel he wanted her to come back to Spain with him and to forget Miguel," Kairi explained as she toweled off her hair. Sora made a small 'Oh' sound. And quickly made sure that none of the few possessions they had were missing.

"What happened to Tzekel-Kan?" Sora asked. Naminé smiled again.

"He and his jaguar fell into that giant whirlpool," she explained. "I don't think we'll be hearing from him again.

"How long were we out?" Kairi said as she examined her hair in a golden mirror.

"Almost all of last night and most of today," Naminé replied examining the tiny golden earrings she had picked out for herself. "So we'd better hurry."

_LD_

It seemed as if the entirety of the city had turned out to watch Tulio and the three warriors depart from El Dorado. The Chief gave them all bone crushing hugs and Altivo made certain that they all left with wet cheeks. Miguel shook their hands stiffly. As the five of them climbed into the boat.

"Well, good luck," Miguel said to Tulio. Tulio nodded sadly towards his former partner.

"Yeah, you too," he said. Miguel turned to walk away as the five travelers began the necessary preparations to set sail. A loud crack echoed from somewhere in the distance. It went unnoticed by all except Altivo, who looked up at the great forest. Several thick plumes of jet black smoke were rising into the air. He began to whinny alarmingly. Everyone looked around at him to see what the fuss was about.

"Whoa, boy," Miguel said, attempting to calm the horse. "What is it?" Altivo let out another whinny and jerked his head in the direction of the smoke. Miguel and the others followed the horses gaze. Miguel gasped. "Cortes."

"My lord," Chief Tannabok said in confusion. "What is it?" One of the Chief's warriors came running up, shouting for him.

"Chief Tanni! Chief Tanni!" The warrior collapsed at the Chief's feet. "Approaching the city is an army of strangers!" The Chief placed a comforting hand on the warrior's shoulder.

"We are safe here," the Chief said reassuringly. "They will never find the gate to the city." The soldier looked up at the Chief, his face displaying only fear.

"But sire," he said weakly, "they were being led by Tzekel-Kan!" The Chief's eyes widened in surprise and anger.

"He survived?" He growled. "Warriors! Prepare yourselves for battle!" The warriors all began shouting war cries and beat their spears against their shields.

"Chief! We cannot fight them!" Miguel said worriedly. The Chief spun to face him.

"Then how do we stop them?" He demanded.

"We can't," Miguel said hopelessly. He glanced down at Tulio in desperation. The gears in Tulio's head were already beginning to turn.

"One moment please!" He called out. He ran over to a small table in the center of the boat where Sora was sipping water out of a golden cup. Tulio piled golden coins into two stacks and placed a thin piece of gold in front of them.

"Okay, here's the gate, here's the boat," he muttered to himself as Kairi and Chel looked over his shoulders.

"Uh huh, and?" Chel asked. Tulio growled as he tried to come up with an idea quicker.

"Here's the gate."

"Okay…"

"Here's the boat."

"Got that. And?"

"Here's the goat and here's the bait-"

"Tulio!" Chel and Kairi cried out in unison, startling Tulio. Tulio accidentally elbowed Sora as he leapt up in surprise. Sora's half full cup of water fell to the table, spilling out the water, which carried the golden 'boat' into the 'gate' which smashed the two columns of gold coins.

"That's it!" Tulio exclaimed. "We'll crash the boat into the pillars!"

"That's it?" Chel asked. "But, I mean… what about the gold?" Tulio had obviously forgotten that part.

"Well…" he began sadly before sobbing slightly. "Chief!" He called out, his voice cracking slightly before he cleared it. "Chief!" The Chief and Miguel looked over at him. Tulio raised Sora's now empty water cup to them.

"I have a plan."

_LD_

Tzekel-Kan grinned as he pointed Cortes and his men in the direction of El Dorado. Behind them, the jungle burned.

"It had better be there," Cortes said to the native. "For your sake."

_LD_

Back in the city of gold, the strongest men Chief Tannabok could find were attaching ropes to one of the fountains by the city's entrance.

"Hold the lines steady!" The Chief called out. "They're almost in place.

Sora and Tulio steered the boat down the river with a pair of long oars, they were almost parallel with the fountain.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Sora whispered to Tulio.

"Me too," Tulio replied. He looked up at Miguel and nodded a farewell to his former partner. "Okay, Chief!" He called out. "On my signal!" He waited until the boat was perfectly aligned with the fountain. "Ready? Hit the pillars!" Chief Tannabok turned towards his men.

"Now!" He cried out. Twenty of the men rammed a log into the pillars that supported the fountain. The first pillar shattered. Quickly followed by the second, and the third. The ropes supporting the fountain all tightened and the men struggled to control it. Ropes began to snap, one after another.

"Kairi! Naminé!" Tulio shouted. "Get the sail! They're breaking too quickly!" Kairi and Naminé both leapt into action they began tugging on the ropes designed to unfurl the sail.

"It's stuck!" Kairi cried out worriedly. The two girls began climbing the mast to untangle the sail. The fountain was descending too quickly, the boat would surely be crushed. Chief Tannabok quickly snatched up a dozen ropes in his hands and with his strength, managed to significantly slow the descent of the fountain.

"They're not going to make it," Miguel realized. He took one look at city of gold and then back down at his friends on the boat. "Altivo!" The horse came racing up to him. Miguel swung his legs onto Altivo's back and the pair took off at a gallop down the shoreline. Altivo leapt from the shore when they were close enough and landed on the deck of the boat. Miguel jumped off of his back in mid-air and for one glorious second, flew like the god he was pretending to be. He slammed into the sail, freeing it and allowing the boat to quickly gain speed.

"Get off the boat, Miguel," Tulio said, "or you'll never see the city again!" Miguel removed his golden earrings and tossed them into the pile of gold on the ship.

"I know," he said. "You didn't think I was gonna let you have all the fun, did you?" The pair smiled at each other as Miguel got to his feet. "Now come on, we've got a wave to catch." Kairi leaned over the side of the boat and took one last picture of El Dorado with the camera, stowing it away quickly before anyone could see. The Chief and his men released the fountain, allowing it to fall heavily into the river.

A massive tidal wave burst forth, throwing the boat into the tunnel that was the entrance to the city of gold. They did their best to navigate the caves without sinking the ship. The mast snapped off as the surging wave nearly crushed them into the cave's ceiling.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out as they neared the pillars that supported the cave. "Look!" She pointed at the center of one of the pillars where a glowing blue outline of a Keyhole was clearly visible. The Oblivion appeared in Sora's hand. He aimed it at the Keyhole and grinned as a beam of blue light shot from the Oblivion's tip and into the Keyhole. A loud clicking noise echoed through the caves as the Keyhole vanished from sight.

"Found the Keyhole!" Sora shouted over the roar of the water. Kairi and Naminé both laughed. They were almost to the pillars.

"We're gonna have to hit it broadside!" Tulio shouted.

"That's your plan?" Miguel asked in shock. "But the gold!"

"I know!" Tulio sobbed. "Just turn the boat! On impact, everybody jump!" They all began working to turn the boat and less than five seconds later, they crashed into the pillars. The impact sent all six of the travelers and Altivo flying out of the boat and back out into the open air of the jungle. Behind them, the caves began to collapse.

"We made it!" Tulio exclaimed with a laugh. "It worked!" Chel quickly covered his mouth and dragged him behind a large pile of rocks, gesturing for everyone else to follow suit. They slid into hiding behind the rocks along with Chel and Tulio as Cortes and his army emerged from the forest, with Tzekel-Kan proudly leading the way.

Tzekel-Kan's eyes widened in horror as he saw that the entrance to El Dorado was now caved in. He looked nervously back at Cortes. Cortes glanced around the clearing and, seeing nothing but rocks, turned to glare at Tzekel-Kan.

"You lying heathen!" He snapped at the native. "There is nothing here at all. Men! Seize him!" A pair of soldiers grabbed Tzekel-Kan by the arms and dragged him away, screaming, as they left. The six travelers started laughing as soon as Cortes and his men were gone from sight.

"Now, _that_ was an adventure!" Miguel said, a huge grin forming on his face.

"Yes, yes, it was," Tulio said in agreement before breaking down into sobs. "It was so much gold!" Chel placed a hand on his shoulder as he regained his composure. "I'm fine."

"Good," she said, giving him a kiss. Miguel extended his hand towards Tulio.

"Partner?" he asked. Tulio nodded and took Miguel's hand.

"Partner," he replied. Sora smiled at Kairi and Naminé.

"Well, I guess we'll be going then," Sora said aloud. Tulio, Miguel and Chel all looked up at him.

"You're not gonna stick around with us?" Miguel asked. Sora chuckled.

"Sorry guys, but we have other places to go," Kairi said as she hugged the three travelers. "But we'll never be too far." Naminé nodded and placed a hand to her heart.

"You can never be too far from your friends," she said. "They're always there inside your heart." Sora and Kairi nodded in agreement.

"I guess this is goodbye then," Tulio said as he and Miguel shook Sora's hand. Sora shook his head.

"Friend's never say goodbye," he said. The six of them laughed for a few final moments before the three Wielders headed into the jungle and out of sight.

"Shall we?" Sora asked his female companions as he pulled the remote to beam them back to the _Kingdom_ from his pocket. Kairi and Naminé nodded. Sora pressed down on the button and the three of them were bathed in a bright white light as they were warped back to the _Kingdom_.

_LD_

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_That's it for this week. Please go vote in the poll and as always,I greatly appreciate reviews. Hope everyone's having a good week so far!_

_See you next time!_

_Shadow Horizons_


	14. Nomanisan Island

_Finally! It only took almost a week to be able to post this chapter._

_First of all, I would like to thank **janus-juan**, **SootyThunder**, **knarf2010**, **Linkandzel**, **Shire Folk**, **adrogoz**, **Avaren**, **SisterOfScarletDevil**, **XKhaosXKyuubiX**, and **Eri21 **for reviewing! Secondly, if you haven't already, please go and vote in the poll on my profile page: Yay or Nay to a Halo: Combat Evolved based world? _

_Disclaimer: I'm sure I've said this before, but I still don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix or Disney. I do still own my own characters and plot._

_Enjoy!_

**_EDIT: _**_I accidentally uploaded my pre-proofread version on Sunday and the damn site wouldn't let me fix the issue until now. So here's the final version. Enjoy! _

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Chapter Fourteen: Nomanisan Island

_Monday, June 21__st__ 4794 P.C._

The icy wind and snow whipped around Riku as he plummeted down the side of the cliff face stinging his exposed skin. Specks of his own blood flew behind him. He pressed his left hand firmly against the gash in his side, mentally regretting never taking the time to learn how to use Cure.

Several hundred feet above him stood the Dark Keyblade Wielder that looked like Sora's female clone. Riku winced as he took a deep breath in an attempt to slow his heart rate. Each breath caused him immense pain and the icy air wasn't helping much.

_Is this how I die?_ Riku asked himself. _Without being able to see my friends again? Alone?_

A thousand feet below him was a field of frozen Keyblades, jutting up from their resting places, rushing up to greet him and take his life. Riku squeezed his eyes shut and desperately thought of a way out of his hopeless situation.

_Tuesday, June 1__st__ 4794 P.C._

_Destiny Islands Airspace_

Riku yawned widely as he stepped out into the central hallway aboard his Gummi ship, _Dawn's First Light_. He whistled tunelessly as he made his way up to the bridge where a single pilot's chair awaited him. He stared out of the domed glass of the cockpit at the ocean blue orb in space that was his home-world. He let out a sigh as he sat down in the pilot's chair and began powering up the ship.

"Greetings, Master Riku," a female voice said cheerily behind him.

Riku nearly leapt out of his seat in shock. He spun his chair around and stood up as the Way to Dawn appeared in his hand. A holographic image of a woman in her early twenties stood in the center of the cockpit. Her entire body was glowing with a bright orange light while a random series of numbers and symbols covered her skin and clothing.

"Who are you?" Riku demanded. "How do you know me?" The hologram smiled.

"I am the Artificial Intelligence Construct Unit Zero Four Zero One Four Two One Five," the hologram replied. "I am based off of the mind of _**ENTRY MISSING**_." The AI's brow furrowed in confusion. "That's odd. I am unable to access that information. It appears that someone doesn't want me to know the entirety of my origin." The Way to Dawn vanished from Riku's hand.

"You're an AI?" He asked. The AI nodded.

"Didn't I already say that?" She said, raising one of her eyebrows as if to say 'Duh'.

"And you were designed for this ship?" Riku asked.

"Are we playing Twenty Questions now?"

"I've never met an AI before, I'm curious," Riku said with a shrug.

"I can tell."

"You're kind of sarcastic for a computer."

"A computer?" The AI responded in a hurt tone. "I have feelings you know." A feeling of guilt settled in Riku's stomach.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know AI had feelings."

"I'm based off of a human mind, remember?" The AI said, tapping the side of her temple. "I have the same emotional capacity as that person was and I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd treat me the same way you'd treat another human." Riku nodded in agreement.

"I'll be sure to," he said as he sat back down into his seat. "Hey, how come you didn't introduce yourself to me when I flew the ship to the Destiny Islands?"

"I was too busy triple checking all systems to make sure that the ship could fly at maximum efficiency," The AI said as if the answer should've been obvious. "What can I say? I had better things to do."

"Thanks," Riku said sarcastically, glancing down at the controls as the ship finished powering up. "How about you tell me a little bit about yourself?"

"I was created in Twilight Town and possess the entirety of their recorded knowledge," the AI replied. "I am capable of piloting this ship as well as engaging any airborne enemies in combat. I can understand and translate the thirty three languages recorded in the Twilight Town database and I can hack into any system in a millisecond. There is no security on any system that can keep me out."

"That's impressive," Riku said as he selected a world from a short list a nearby screen. "You were designed for all of that?" The AI nodded.

"I'm assuming so," she said with a shrug. "Before now, I was kept in a secure holding facility for valuable military property. This is the first time I've been out of storage since I was made." She let out a sigh and gazed around the bridge happily. "There's just so much more room in this ship's system than there ever was in that stuffy old storage unit I was kept in."

"You never told me how you knew who I was," Riku said, carefully watching the AI. She turned to look at him.

"I know everything about you, Master," she said. She held out her hand and an orb of blue light emerged from her palm. The orb exploded into thousands of pictures and documents, all of which were about Riku. Riku stared around in amazement. A holographic copy of his birth certificate floated by his head as he stood up to look around.

"How did you get all of this?" He asked, feeling slightly awed at the sheer amount of information about himself hanging in the air.

"Beats me," she replied. "As far as I know, I was already programmed with all of this information. My guess is that whoever's mind I was created from knew all of this about you or added this information to me. I'm not sure why."

"Maybe they knew somehow that one day you'd be the AI on my ship," Riku suggested. The AI nodded.

"An excellent analysis," she said. "Although the mechanics of knowing what is to come don't quite add up to me. But it seems to be the most logical conclusion." Riku hardly paid her any attention as he walked around what appeared to be the majority of his life, floating gently in the air around him. "The only information I seem to be lacking about you is your abilities in combat."

"How much time to the nearest world?" Riku asked. The AI blinked once.

"Approximately five hours, thirty two minutes and eighteen seconds at our maximum velocity," she immediately. "We have enough fuel stored onboard to last us a full three weeks of non-stop flight and all other systems are good to go. No issues detected as of yet." A quizzical look crossed her face. "Why do you ask?" Riku shrugged.

"Just making sure I'd have time to go practice in the training simulator I noticed downstairs," he replied. The AI nodded.

"Understood, sir," she said. "Plotting course. Take off in three." Riku buckled himself in, not wanting to be thrown across the bridge when the ship started moving. "Two. One. Blast off!" The engines roared to life as the _Dawn's First Light_ burst away from orbiting Destiny Islands and rocketed off into space.

Only once their speed had plateaued did Riku feel safe enough with unbuckling himself and getting up from his seat. He started to downstairs when he felt the AI's eyes following him. He turned around to face her.

"I'm going to head down to the simulator now," he said. "Care to join me? I know you said that you had no information on my fighting skills." The AI grinned eagerly.

"Sounds perfect," she said. "I'll meet you down there." The AI vanished, leaving only a faint orange light in its wake for a brief moment. Riku nodded and descended the staircase. He glanced around with mild interest at the ruby-red walls as he strode down the hall to the door labeled _Training Simulator_. He stepped inside and slowly closed the door behind him.

The AI was already waiting for him, projecting herself into the middle of the large, plain white room that made up the entirety of the simulator. She stood with her hands on her hips, rhythmically tapping her foot, a look of mock irritation on her face.

"Good lord, you humans are slow," she said sarcastically. Riku rolled his eyes.

"Hey, um," Riku began, pausing as he realized that he had no idea what to call the AI. Construct Unit Zero Four Zero One Four Two One Five seemed a little bit too long to say in conversation. The AI seemed to realize his confusion.

"Just call me Dawn," she said, smirking at him.

"Dawn then," Riku said with a nod. "Are you just going to record and observe what I do?" Dawn shook her head.

"Actually, I'm going to get some hands on experience," she replied. The walls of the simulator began to glow brightly with multicolored lights, temporarily blinding Riku. When he could see again, he found himself standing in the center of what appeared to be a Gummi ship factory. All around him, Gummi blocks were moved along conveyor belts to work stations where computer controlled robotics assembled the pieces into single-man fighters. About twenty feet in front of him stood Dawn, who appeared solid rather than semi-transparent. Her skin and clothing still glowed with an orange light. In her hands she held a jet-black rifle.

"Why do you have a gun?" Riku asked nervously as he summoned the Way to Dawn. Dawn grinned as she raised the rifle, staring down its fixed sights at Riku.

"I said I was going to get hands on experience, didn't I?" She said with a grin as she squeezed the trigger. The muzzle of her rifle flashed brightly as a barrage of bullets tore through the air and into Riku. The clattering of spent casings and echoing cracks of gunfire filled the factory. Riku cried out in pain for a brief moment before he realized he wasn't hurt. Riku looked down at himself, his entire body was riddled with bullet holes and his blood poured out onto the ground. He slowly started to fall backwards.

He blinked once and suddenly was standing several dozen yards away from where he had been a fraction of a second before. He looked over to where Dawn stood and watched as his body collapsed to the ground. Riku looked down at himself. He looked fine, yet there was another Riku lying in a pool of his own blood on the ground.

"What just happened?" Riku cried out. Dawn quickly switched out the empty magazine in her rifle for a full one that appeared in midair.

"I killed you," she said simply. Riku looked back down at himself. He was definitely solid.

"But I'm not a ghost or anything, am I?" He asked her, a confused look crossing his face. Dawn laughed loudly and shouldered her rifle.

"This is a training _simulator_," she said. "It's artificial reality. None of it is real. You can't actually be killed. If you die in the simulator, you respawn a few seconds later in a different spot. Kind of like you would in a videogame. For example…" She raised the rifle and fired off two short bursts. Seven bullets tore into Riku's chest.

Riku watched from another part of the factory as his previous body fell. He looked back over to the spot where Dawn had first 'killed' him. His first body had vanished leaving only a bloodstain to mark where it had fallen. As he stared the bloodstain slowly began to fade.

Dawn reloaded her rifle and began looking around to see where Riku had respawned. Riku quickly took cover under a metal lined work bench that was covered in several small Gummi blocks.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Dawn called from nearby. Riku listened as her footsteps drew nearer. He could feel his heart rate slowly starting to rise. Even though getting shot and killed in the simulator didn't hurt, he was already tired of dying.

_I need to get the element of surprise on her. But how?_ Riku said to himself. He stared at the Way to Dawn as he clenched it in his left hand. _If I try to charge her, she'll hear me coming and just shoot me down again. How do you fight a gun with a sword?_ He glanced around at the parts of the factory he could see and immediately noticed something he had missed when he had first looked around.

Most of the factory was in disrepair. The ceiling was collapsed in several places, most of the conveyor belts were broken and Gummi blocks were strewn all over. The walls and floor were pockmarked with bullet holes and burns from grenades. A few bodies of soldiers lay where they had been gunned down. Riku glanced to his right and saw the body of a female soldier with her back to the same bench Riku was hiding behind.

Her eyes had the whitish appearance of death. Her blonde hair and face were streaked with blood. Her vest had been shredded by numerous bullets. Riku covered his mouth with a hand as he fought the urge to retch. He glanced down at her hands and spotted her assault rifle. It looked identical to the one Dawn was wielding, a dull gray in color with a rectangular stock and unneccesary bulky front. Several full clips of ammuntion lay next to the rifel. An idea on how to get the jump on Dawn entered his mind.

He held his breath as he listened to Dawn's footsteps pass by him. He snatched up the fallen soldiers rifle, ejected the clip and slammed a new one into place. He slowly emerged from his cover, carefully looking around for Dawn. She had her back to him and was heading towards what appeared to be several stacks of wooden crates that were labeled _**DANGER! HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE!**_ Riku raised his weapon and whistled a few notes. Dawn spun on her heel to face him, her eyes widening in surprise to see Riku aiming a rifle of his own at her. She raised her rifle into a firing postion. Riku's index finger squeezed tightly on the trigger.

The Riku's shots missed Dawn by inches. The AI laughed and carefully aimed her rifle at Riku's head. Riku grinned.

His shots collided with the wooden crates and set off a massive explosion. Dawn turned to look behind her and was bombarded with wooden shrapnel. Riku threw himself behind the wrecked and smoking hull of a Gummi ship. Dawn cried out in shock as the explosion and flaming debris hurled her body across the factory.

"Impressive," Dawn said as she respawned on a series of broken catwalks that barely hung from the ceiling due to the damage. "I shouldn't have gone over there, otherwise I might have actually gotten you. Did you shoot the boxes on purpose?" Riku blushed in embarrassment.

"I was actually aiming for your head," he said. Dawn laughed.

"Your aim must be terrible then," she said. Her rifle appeared in her hands again and she took aim at Riku. The silver-haired teen jumped as high as he could as Dawn's shots sped towards him from across the factory. He landed on top of the Gummi ship and was forced to jump off immediately as another bullet narrowly missed grazing his head. He took a moment to catch his breath while behind the safety of wrecked ship. He could hear Dawn's footsteps clanging on the catwalks as she attempted to get a better shot.

"So, do you always hide when your opponent has the tactical advantage?" Dawn taunted as she fired a couple of shots in Riku's direction. She knew they wouldn't hit him, but she hoped they'd be enough to force Riku to give up his cover.

"Of course not!" Riku shouted back. "I just lure them into a false sense of security." He stepped out of the cover and fired several shots at the weakened beams supporting the section of the catwalks that Dawn was standing on. The damage combined with the excess weight of someone moving around caused several of the catwalks to come crashing to the ground. Dawn let out a scream that was quickly silenced as she hit the ground with a sickening crunch.

"That was cheap!" Dawn shouted as she respawned. Riku stuck his tongue out at her.

"And now we're even!" He retorted. Dawn shot him twice in the chest.

"And now I'm winning!" Dawn said, sticking out her tongue as Riku respawned over by her. Riku let out a small chuckle and charged the AI with his rifle blazing.

_LD_

After a couple of hours of senselessly killing each other, Dawn shut down the simulator claiming she had all of the information she needed on Riku's skills with firearms and needed time to process it all. Riku wasn't about to complain, even though it was all virtual reality, his body felt the fatigue as if he had actually had been running around shooting guns for two hours. He grabbed a bottle of Coke from the fridge in the kitchen on his way back up to the bridge and collapsed into the pilot's chair. Dawn hadn't given him a chance to close in on her and use his Keyblade, she always forced him to keep his distance with her exceptional marksmanship.

On the plus side, he had managed to learn how to dodge incoming bullets for the most part after being brutally slaughtered by Dawn eighteen times in three minutes. Riku made a mental note to practice on his shooting in the simulator when Dawn was occupied doing something else. He had no doubts that he could take her in a sword fight, but he still could barely hold his own against her in a firefight. He planned to change that.

"That obviously wasn't the first time you've handled a firearm," Dawn commented, appearing on blank screen next to the flight controls.

"It might as well have been for all the help it did me," Riku commented as he took a swig from the bottle in his hand. "My dad used to serve in the Destiny Islands Navy and he'd take me hunting on some of the smaller islands back home whenever he got the chance around when I was about ten. He taught me all about different types of guns and which ones to use depending on what we were hunting. I didn't have very good aim back then either. I was always hitting trees and rocks." He chuckled. "I noticed that the guns you and I fought with were different than the ones we have back on the Islands."

"Of course," Dawn said. "The simulator can produce weapon models from the world it was programmed in. So we were using the standard issue firearms that are typically used in the military units of Twilight Town." Riku grunted in acknowledgement and quickly downed the remainder of his Coke and got back to his feet with a groan.

"Since we've only got an hour or so until we reach that world, I'm going to go take a shower," Riku announced as arched his back. He took an odd satisfaction as he felt several of his vertebrae pop in sequence from the middle of his back up to his shoulder blades. Dawn nodded.

"Very well then," she said. "I'll make sure nothing happens to the _Dawn's First Light_ while you're busy." Riku nodded his thanks and made his way to his bedroom and adjoining bathroom. It took Riku all of twenty minutes to shower and re-dress himself. After checking his appearance in the mirror to make sure his hair was just the way he liked it, he made his way back up to the bridge to catch a quick nap.

"I really should've seen this coming," Riku groaned as he emerged onto the bridge. The _Dawn's First Light _was quickly approaching a large bluish-green world. "So much for my nap." Dawn let out a chuckle.

"You might want to go prepare yourself to be warped, Master Riku," she said. Riku sighed.

"I thought you said we were at least an hour away when I went to go take a shower," Riku said. Dawn raised an eyebrow at him.

"You said it, not me," she retorted. "Obviously there's a slight system malfunction. I shall do my best to rectify the problem before your return." Riku gave her a nod and turned back down the stairs as he attempted to stifle a yawn. He could hear Dawn humming to herself as he entered the room filled with Warp Chambers. A small projection of the AI appeared on one of the monitors set into the wall of the room.

"Ready to go?" She asked Riku. The silver-haired teen nodded as he grabbed the remote to warp him back to the ship from the small table next to the door. "Excellent. We are entering orbit of the world now." The _Dawn's First Light_ shook violently for a brief moment as it was captured by the gravitational pull of the world.

Riku climbed into one of the pods and sealed it shut. He nodded at the screen where Dawn was. The AI waved goodbye to him and activated the Warp System. A bright white light filled the chamber Riku was in. A flash of light burst from the underside of the _Dawn's First Light_ and rocketed down towards the world's surface.

_LD_

"One of the Keyblade Masters is headed towards your world, Buddy."

Pete paused outside of the door to the Place Where Nothing Gathers as Maleficent's voice reached his ears. He tiptoed to the closed door and pressed his ear up against it.

"My name isn't Buddy!" A male voice shouted. Pete winced at the sound. His voice was heavily distorted by static. A flash of green light illuminated the cracks around the door. The male voice cried out in shock.

"Watch your tone with me," Maleficent said in a low, menacing tone. A chorus of chuckles from several other people echoed throughout the Place Where Nothing Gathers. "Do not forget that if it wasn't for me, you would still be a second-rate villain. Riku needs to be eliminated. If he isn't, he will prove to be a major hindrance in our plans."

"Isn't he that pipsqueak who was on our side back when we first tried to take over Kingdom Hearts?" One of the other voices piped in.

"Yes, he was," Maleficent replied. "He is extremely loyal to his friends and if he discovers what we have planned for the Princess and her Keyblade wielding boyfriend, he will go out of his way to interfere with our efforts. We cannot have that. Riku is separated from his friends, for now. He is all alone and that makes him a wild card. It's harder to keep track of his whereabouts and what he knows. However, his separation works in our favor. You know what you must do."

"Understood, Maleficent," the voice disguised by heavy static said. Pete stepped away from the door and summoned a portal of Darkness. What better way to get back on Maleficent's good side than to take care of Riku himself. Pete sniggered as he stepped into the portal.

_And I have just the Heartless to do the job._

_LD_

Riku glanced at his surroundings as the last of the light from the warping vanished from around him. He was standing on the ledge of a rocky outcropping that overlooked the lush, green jungle of a tropical island. A tall, dormant volcano rose in island's center. A full moon hung just above the treetops on the far side of the islands. All was quiet except for the gentle lapping of the ocean waves against the shoreline somewhere off in the distance. Riku inhaled the scents of the jungle with a deep breath and let out a sigh.

"Well, this is peaceful," he said contentedly as he sat down on the outcropping to gaze up at the stars. Several ink-black shadows emerged from the jungle, darting across the ground on their two-dimensional plane towards the relaxing Keyblade Master. They emerged feet from him, eyes glowing an eerie yellow in the dark of night. Riku leapt to his feet as the Way to the Dawn appeared in his hand. Seven Shadows were quickly sliced apart, each one fading in a cloud of black mist.

"Looks like I might've spoken too soon," Riku muttered as more Heartless began to emerge from the jungle's edge. He quickly found himself surrounded by several dozen Shadows, at least ten Neoshadows, several Creeper Plants, and too many Rapid Thrusters to count. Riku thrust his palm out towards the Creeper Plants and sent a volley of Light and Dark orbs. More than half of the Creeper Plants exploded into dark mist as Riku's attack shredded them apart. Crystalline pink hearts floated up into the sky for a brief moment before vanishing. Riku slashed the Way to Dawn around him in a wide arc, cutting down the ring of Shadows nearest to him.

He leapt up and over their vanishing bodies and turned his attention to the massive group of orange and black Rapid Thrusters that darted back and forth overhead. He slashed a couple out of the air as he landed next to a pair of Neoshadows. He ducked as the two Heartless lashed out at him with their claws. The Neoshadows stumbled as they attempted to avoid striking one another. Riku took his chance and swiftly cut them both down.

He let out a cry of pain as the remaining Creeper Plants pelted him in the back with their seed-like projectiles. He spun around with a growl and sent a ball of black and white flame flying into the nearest Creeper Plant. The Heartless exploded into flame and black mist. Several of the Rapid Thrusters dived at Riku's exposed back from above, their miniature propellers whirling at a high velocity to increase their speed. Riku spun on his heel and summoned up a dark barrier. The small group of Heartless collided with the barrier and exploded into black mist.

Riku grinned with grim satisfaction as the remaining Shadows and Neoshadows attacked. The Way to Dawn became a blur in Riku's hand as he stabbed and slashed his way through the Heartless until only a single Shadow remained along with a pair of Creeper Plants and around twenty Rapid Thrusters. The Shadow sank back into the ground and vanished into the night. The Rapid Thrusters and Creeper Plants all summoned up portals of Darkness and vanished. Riku held his fighting stance for a brief moment before straightening up. The Way to Dawn vanished in a flash of light.

"Well that was anti-climactic," Riku observed. "I guess only this world only has the weaker varieties of Heartless." He glanced out at the jungle below, a sudden urge to jump filling his mind. He mentally judged the distance down to the treetops and stepped back to gain a running start. Then he did something he had never imagined himself doing in a million years, he willingly leapt off of the cliff.

He wasn't sure what had compelled him to do so, but as he fell headfirst, he had a sense of unparalleled freedom. Riku let out a whooping laugh as he plummeted towards the forest. He closed his eyes, enjoying the weightless feeling of the fall and the rush of air.

_How am I supposed to land? _Riku wondered as he opened his eyes. The treetops seemed to be rushing up to greet him in all of their wooden, body mangling glory. Riku's excitement vanished in an instant. _Crap. I did not think this one through. _

He immediately began scanning the treetops, desperately searching for something to break his fall. Nothing. Riku let out a groan.

"This is going to end well," he muttered. He summoned up a barrier of Light and Darkness around himself, briefly lighting up the jungle canopy like a small star before crashing into the trees. Riku was thrown around inside his barrier as tree limbs snapped around him and battered him back and forth. The barrier was broken while he was still more than fifty feet from the ground. He crashed through at least seven thick branches and slammed into the trunk of a fallen tree before rolling off onto the ground where he lay on his scratched up and bleeding back, groaning. He forced himself to limp under the cover the fallen tree.

"Definitely not one of my brightest ideas," Riku groaned. Darkness quickly overtook him as he passed out.

_LD_

_Wednesday, June 2__nd__ 4794 P.C._

Riku let out a low groan as enough sunlight finally pierced through the thick jungle canopy to shine directly into his eyes. He rolled over onto his back so that he was no longer laying on his side and immediately cried out in pain. He sat bolt upright and attempted to crane his neck far enough so that he could get a better look at his injuries. After several seconds of fruitless effort, he gave up and sighed. He pulled a small blue vial emblazoned with a crescent moon and a pair of stars from his pocket. He popped the vials cap off with a flick of his thumb and downed the contents.

He shuddered from the medicinal aftertaste the hi-potion left in his mouth. He could feel the scratches on his back slowly knitting themselves back together. He winced at the feeling.

_Like having thousands of spiders crawling over you._ He gagged at the thought. He twisted his upper body side to side, testing to make sure there was no pain or tightness in his muscles. Satisfied that the hi-potion had done its job, Riku slowly stood up and stretched with a wide yawn. He glanced around at his surroundings. He had fallen into a small clearing lined with a large cluster of fallen trees.

Riku stared at the trees. The majority of them seemed to have been torn up by their roots. The remainder seemed to have been burned at their base until they collapsed. Riku glanced around at the other trees with narrowed eyes. Something about this jungle seemed odd. There were no animals prowling through the underbrush and the only bird he had seen so far had kept its eerie looking red eye on him wherever he went in the clearing.

He cried out in surprise as he tripped on a shallow, x-shaped indent in the soft earthy floor of the jungle. Riku swallowed a lump of nervousness, quickly regaining his usual calm composure. He climbed back to his feet and stole one last quick glance around the jungle clearing before jogging off into where the trees grew closely together. The red-eyed bird watched him carefully as he vanished into the foliage.

_LD_

Riku spent the next several hours jogging throughout the jungle, swimming across shallow rivers, and carefully sliding his way across narrow ledges. He was surprised by the lack of Heartless on this world. Except for when he had first arrived, all he had managed to encounter was the occasional cluster of Shadows and Creeper Plants, all of which were easily dispatched by a few quick strikes from the Way to Dawn.

He finally took a break around noon. He leaned his back against a tree trunk as he took a bite from the power bar he had snatched from the kitchen on the _Dawn's First Light_. He let out a sigh of content. He always felt more comfortable in nature than he did in civilization. He took another bite of the power bar. As he stared around at the calm serenity of the jungle. A serenity that was broken by the sight of a tall concrete pillar in the distance, barely visible through the thick trees.

Riku stood up and finished off the remains of his power bar. He weaved his way slowly through the trees, noticing additional pillars as he did so. Supported by the pillars was a pair of highly polished rails, placed so closely together it was almost impossible to tell that there was more than one. Riku stared up at the railing, wondering to himself why there was a rail in the middle of a jungle.

There was a soft humming sound coming from deep within the jungle. The Way to Dawn appeared in Riku's hand in a flash as the silver-haired teen prepared himself for a Heartless attack. Instead of Heartless, a pearl white, orb shaped rail car large enough to support three people comfortable rumbled along the rail overhead and disappeared into the jungle. Riku quickly double checked his surroundings to make sure there were no Heartless sneaking up on him before he ran as fast as he could in pursuit of the rail car.

He had a gut-feeling that wherever that car was headed, he needed to follow. He spent the next half hour chasing after the car, which was easier than he expected. The car traveled around sharp corners slowly and due to the geographical layout of the jungle, frequently had to take those corners.

By the time the rail car finally emerged from the jungle, Riku was out of breath and worn out. He placed a hand against the trunk of the nearest tree to support himself as he tried to slow his heart rate and catch his breath. The forest ended with a sudden cliff drop down to the sparkling blue water of a lagoon. The cascading roar of a nearby waterfall filled Riku's ears. He watched as the rail car was carried out over the lagoon and along a shallow curve to head straight for the waterfall.

Over the roar of the waterfall, he could hear the loud, metallic grinding of heavy machinery kicking into gear. The waterfall was split in two by a hidden mechanism, revealing a large chamber hidden beneath the water with several rail systems spiraling up and down the entirety of the waterfall. A couple of other rail cars moved up and down the spirals inside. Riku jogged along the cliff's edge, watching as the rail car he had been following entered the concealed chamber as the waterfall began to close up.

_I wonder what's going on in there._ Riku wondered as he reached the bottom of another cliff. He groaned as he saw that the waterfall rose up at least another couple hundred feet from where he was. He glanced around, trying to find an easier way to get up to the top of the waterfall without having to climb the cliff face. He spotted a barely concealed tunnel, hidden by the branches of a tree that had collapsed. He noticed a pair of x-shaped indents near the trees roots, identical to the one he had tripped on earlier that day.

He shrugged it off as coincidence and made his way into the tunnel. The walls, floor and ceiling of the tunnel had all been sculpted to be perfectly smooth. There wasn't a single crack or rough spot anywhere. Riku quickly navigated his way through the tunnel's zigzagging pattern as it rose through the stone and earth at a mildly steep angle.

He emerged into another part of the jungle and let out a groan. He couldn't see or hear the waterfall anywhere nearby. If he had to guess, he'd say the tunnel had taken him at least a mile away from the water. And to top it all off, a welcoming committee of Neoshadows and Rapid Thrusters were positioned around the tunnel's exit. Without wasting a second, Riku summoned the Way to Dawn and made short work of the Heartless. As the last Neoshadow faded away into Darkness, Riku smirked.

"All in a day's work," he said cheerily as the Way to Dawn vanished from his hand. His smirk vanished as he took in his surroundings. Less than twenty feet from him stood a large robot. It's body was comprised of a large, dull-gray sphere with a narrow red visual input sensor jutting out from the top. Four long and flexible legs jutted out from the robot's center, ending in a set of blade like claws that took the shape of an 'x'. Riku suddenly understood where the strange indents in the jungle soil he had been seeing were coming from.

The robot's visual sensor remained fixed on Riku for a brief moment before turning to look behind it. The robot's limbs and sensor retracted into its spherical body as it began to roll through the trees, knocking them out of its way with almost no resistance. Riku recovered from his brief moment of shock from facing down a robot that was easily ten times his size and immediately took after the mechanical ball.

He chased after the robot for a good half mile before it finally came to a stop in front of another cliff face. Riku let out a hushed groan and mentally kicked himself for following the robot in the first place. What was he hoping for? That it would actually lead him to contact with someone who wasn't a Heartless?

The robot's arms and visual sensor emerged from its spherical body, lifting it off of the ground. The sensor focused itself on the cliff face. Riku watched carefully from behind the leaves of a fallen tree, curiosity overtaking his self-loathing at his apparent lack of common sense that had set in the moment he set foot on this world.

There was a faint creaking sound, not unlike stone slowly causing wood to bend and break followed by a loud groaning as a large, rectangular doorway opened in the cliff face, revealing a long conference room decorated with cherry wood paneling. One of the robot's arms quickly reached inside the room and grabbed something before turning around and throwing whatever it had grabbed into a large boulder.

Riku's eyes widened in surprise as he realized the robot had just thrown a man. He was dressed in what appeared to be a set of full body, ruby-red tights. He wore a pair of black boots and matching gloves. A logo in the center of his chest displayed a lower cased 'I'. A small black mask covered his eyes. In Riku's opinion, the man was dressed like a stereotypical superhero, only without the classic cape. The man groaned as his the back of his head made contact with the boulder.

"It's bigger!" A male voice said through a megaphone somewhere out of sight. Riku glanced around for the source. The robot lashed out and grabbed the man in red by his ankle and threw him against the ground. Riku saw the man bounce several times upon impact and winced in sympathy.

"It's badder!" The voice continued as the robot grabbed the man once again and slammed him into another boulder. The man looked dazed and confused as the robot grabbed him by his upper body and lifted him into the air, constricting the man's arm movement and making escape impossible. Supporting itself on one of its 'arms', the robot raised its other two free arms as its blade-like claws began to spin at a high velocity.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the voice continued as the spinning blades slowly approached the trapped man's neck, "it's too much for Mr. Incredible!" Riku summoned the Way to Dawn and prepared to step out from behind his cover. The blades slowed to a complete stop as they neared the man's neck. "Wa-ho, whoa! It's finally ready!" The source of the mysterious voice announced as he descended from the sky to land on top of the robot. He was dressed in a set of black tights with a large white 'S' emblazoned across his chest, white boots with rockets built in and matching white gloves. A blue and black cape billowed behind him in the slight breeze. Just like the trapped man in red, this man wore a black mask to cover his eyes.

Riku stared at the new arrival, not because he seemed to be the man in charge, or the fact that he was wearing rocket boots (which he and Sora had both fantasized about owning since they were about six years old and pretending to be superheroes), but because the man's hair was a vibrant orange and stood up vertically from his head, adding about an extra two and a half feet to the man's height. The orange haired man grinned down at the man in red.

"You know, I went through quite a few supers to get it ready to fight you," the orange haired man said as he pressed a button set into one of his gloves. The robots 'arms' lowered themselves. "But man, it wasn't good enough!" The orange haired man seemed impressed. Riku carefully watched from his cover, trying to find an opening to come to the man in red's rescue.

"After you trashed the last one, I had to make some major modifications," the orange-haired man continued on. The man in red was staring at him in confusion. "Sure it was difficult, but you are worth it." The orange-haired man seemed to be admiring the man in red Riku let out a growl of frustration. He was sick of waiting around. The orange-haired man let out a chuckle.

_Just give me an opening. _Riku said to himself as he tightened his grip on the Way to Dawn.

"I mean, after all, I am your biggest fan," the orange-haired man said in a low tone. A shiver ran down Riku's spine as he heard the underlying menace in the man's voice. The man in red's eyes widened in recognition.

"Buddy?" The man in red asked, his brow furrowed in recognition.

"My name is not Buddy!" The orange-haired man shouted. He pressed a button on his glove and the robot threw the man in red to the ground. "And it's not IncrediBoy either!" The man formerly known as Buddy said as he leapt off of the robot, gently descending to the ground with help from his rocket boots. "That ship has sailed! All I wanted was help you. I only wanted to help!" The man in red slowly pushed himself to his feet, using a nearby boulder to support himself. "And what did you say to me? 'Fly home, Buddy. I work alone.' It tore me apart. But I learned an important lesson. You can't count on anyone. Especially your heroes." He spat.

"I was wrong to treat you that way," the man in red said. "I'm sorry." The orange-haired man rolled his eyes.

"See?" He said. "Now you respect me, because I'm a threat. And that's the way it works." He shrugged it off like it was no big deal. "Turns out there's a lot of people, whole countries who want respect. And they will pay through the nose to get it." The man in red began inching his way to the side, giving the impression that he was trying to circle around the orange-haired man, who circled so he wouldn't be caught off guard. "How do you think I got rich? I invented weapons. I even have powerful allies on other worlds now because they need my weapons." That caught Riku's attention. This guy had allies on other worlds? Who? The memory of an evil witches cackling laugh filled his brain for a moment. He had a pretty good idea.

A slight shifting in the nearby bushes caught Riku's attention. He saw Pete emerge from the foliage. The large-bodied, self-proclaimed general in Maleficent's army was smirking at the man in red.

"Now I have a weapon that only I can defeat," the orange-haired man continued. "And when I unleash it, I'll get-" Riku never found out what the orange-haired man was going to get. The man in red grabbed a heavy looking piece of tree bark and hurled it at the orange haired man's head. The man ducked out of the way and pointed his right index finger at the man in red. A bright blue beam of energy burst from his finger tip and struck the man in red, surrounding his body with a barely visible field of blue energy and effectively freezing the man in place.

"You sly dog!" The orange-haired man said with a chuckle. "You got me monologuing. I can't believe it." The man spun around in a circle, effortlessly spinning the other man with him before deactivating the beam and throwing him into a boulder. The man in red collapsed to the ground with a groan. "It's cool, huh? Zero-point energy. I save the best inventions for myself. Am I good enough now?" He caught the man in red with another burst of zero-point energy, tossing him high into the air before hurling him back onto the ground. He zapped him again.

"Who's super now?" He slammed the man in red face first into the ground. "I'm Syndrome!" He shouted as he zapped him again before unconsciously swinging his arm up in a dramatic gesture. "Your nemesis and-" He paused as the man in red went flying off into the distance over the treetops.

"Oh, brilliant!" He grumbled. Pete chuckled and Syndrome finally noticed him. "What do you want? Did Maleficent send you to spy on me?" Pete's chuckle gave way to an echoing laugh.

"Spy on you?" He asked incredulously. "Ha! I'm only here so I can get myself back into Maleficent's good books." Syndrome raised an eyebrow at him. "You see, I know Maleficent wants you to kill that Riku fellow," Riku's eyebrows raised in surprise as he began to emerge from cover, "But I'm gonna do it first and take all the credit!" Pete let out another laugh. Riku was grateful the oversized lackey had his back turned to him. He positioned himself directly behind Pete and cleared his throat a bit louder than necessary.

Pete let out a cry like he had been set on fire and leapt a good ten feet into the air. He crashed back down on his rear, staring up at Riku in shock. Riku smirked down at him and mockingly waved at the two villains. Syndrome eyed him up and down.

"And you are?" He asked, tapping his boot impatiently.

"I'm the Keyblade Master Maleficent apparently told you to kill," Riku said, casually swinging the Way to Dawn from side to side. Syndrome's eyes widened in surprise for a brief moment before he grinned evilly at Riku.

"Is that so?" He said as his rocket boots lifted him into the air again. He pressed a few buttons on his glove and the robot came back to life behind him. "Omnidroid, Kill the Keyblade Master!" The Omnidroid's sensor spun around and focused in on Riku. Syndrome flew away over the treetops with an evil laugh escaping his lips.

"Now wait just a minute!" Pete said as he got back to his feet. "I'm going to be the one who kills him, you hear? I-" The Omnidroid grabbed Pete around his midsection and threw him off somewhere into the jungle. Riku winced as he heard a tree snap in the distance, followed by a flock of birds squawking and flying up from the trees. He stared up at the Omnidroid and raised the Way to Dawn so it was poised to strike.

For a long moment, neither of the two moved an inch. Riku took deep, controlled breaths as he sized up the Omnidroid. The Omnidroid moved first, closing one if its 'hands' so that the four points basically formed a spear and stabbed at Riku. The silver-haired teen rolled out of the way and charged the Omnidroid. Another one of the droid's arms came swooping down in an attempt to crush Riku.

Reacting on instinct, Riku slashed at the arm and to his surprise, sliced straight through the metal. The Omnidroid lifted its arm and stared at the sparking wiring that was now exposed. Riku grinned.

"Not so tough now, are you?" He taunted. The Omnidroid responded by grabbing its severed arm and throwing it at Riku, who let out a cry of surprise and barely managed to throw himself out of the way. The arm sliced through the trunk of a tree, causing the tree to fall at just the right angle to crush the Omnidroid. Riku smirked victoriously as he saw the tree beginning to fall. Unfortunately, so did the Omnidroid. It retracted its limbs and sensor into its body and rolled a few feet to the side to avoid the tree as it crashed to the ground. Riku's face fell in disappointment.

"So much for the easy way," he grumbled as the Omnidroid began rolling towards him. Riku did the only thing logical for anyone in his situation, he ran. The Omnidroid wasn't slowed by trees or boulders in its pursuit, which proved to be a major disadvantage to Riku. He had almost been flattened to the thickness of a pancake on more times in a minute than he had ever hoped to be.

He only stopped running after about five minutes when he suddenly found himself inches away from falling down a cliff. He stepped back from the ledge and turned to face the oncoming ball of metal. The Omnidroid picked up speed as it realized that Riku was now standing still, the easiest type of target. Riku raised the Way to Dawn, praying that the Omnidroid was going to fall for his trick.

His prayer was answered as the Omnidroid barreled towards him, still remaining in its ball form Riku grinned as he sidestepped the charge and stabbed at its side as it rolled past in an attempt to gouge a decent sized hole in it. What he hadn't expected was for the Way to Dawn to get caught on something inside of the Omnidroid, causing him to be dragged over the cliff's edge along with the Omnidroid.

As the pair fell down the cliff, Riku struggled to free his Keyblade from the Omnidroid's side. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it to budge. The Omnidroid's 'arms' burst out of its body and attempted to skewer Riku. The silver-haired teen did his best to dodge the multitude of strikes by swinging himself from side to side. The Omnidroid's claws easily pierced its armored plating and seemed to be doing a number on the wiring inside. Riku grinned as he saw thousands of sparks dancing inside of the holes the Omnidroid had left in itself.

He finally managed to wrench the Way to Dawn free from the Omnidroid's body. Riku glanced over the Omnidroid's side. The ground below them was coming up uncomfortably fast. He swallowed hard and dodged another strike from one of the 'arms', which crushed the visual sensor as it finally emerged from the body. They were less than fifty feet from crashing into the ground. He cast a barrier of light around himself and prayed that it would hold better than the one he had created the night before.

The Omnidroid slammed into the ground with tremendous force, shaking loose several large boulders from the cliff, which came tumbling down onto it. Riku, protected by his quickly weakening barrier, rolled right off of the Omnidroid and back onto his feet, laughing victoriously.

"Take that you useless piece of junk!" He exclaimed. To Riku's dismay, the Omnidroid stood up from the fall, shaking slightly from the severity of the damage it had taken. Riku growled in frustration and charged the Omnidroid. He was determined to not allow it to have another opening. He sliced off another of the Omnidroid's arms and hacked off a set of its claws. The sole functioning arm grabbed Riku by his leg and threw him high into the air. Riku spun in midair and drew back his blade as his entire body became cloaked in a midnight-blue light.

"It's over!" He cried out as he slashed down. A wave of dark blue light flew from the Way to Dawn's edge and sliced through the Omnidroid, splitting it cleanly in half. The two halves collapsed to the ground and exploded violently. Riku grinned victoriously as he landed gently on the ground, the midnight-blue light surrounding him fading away.

"Now that that's over," Riku said to himself, wiping the small amount of sweat he had built up from his brow. He turned to leave only to find his way blocked by Pete, who stood with his arms crossed and a smug smile on his face. Riku sighed. "You again?" Pete nodded.

"That's right, pipsqueak," he chuckled. "Seeing as how Syndrome's little robot thing couldn't kill you, I guess that means I get my chance to." Riku rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, bring it in on," he said in a monotone, bored voice. From what Sora had told him, Pete was a pushover. "This'll probably be over in ten seconds anyway." Pete grinned.

"You wish it'd be over that quickly," he said. He whistled loudly. "Oh, Heartless!" He called out. The ground beneath Riku's feet shook violently as a large, swirling vortex of black and purple light appeared. A pair of massive, clawed hands emerged and gripped the ground tightly as Pete's Heartless emerged.

The Heartless had four massive arms, each one thicker than the tree trunks in the jungle. In two of its hands it held a pair of dual bladed battle axes that were decorated with the Heartless Emblem. Its legs were large and blocky with thousands of tiny, blood-red spikes covering them. Its head was mostly covered by a blood-red helmet, with only an opening large enough for its single orb-like yellow eye to see out of. A large Heartless Emblem was emblazoned across its armored chest.

"Let me guess," Riku shouted sarcastically out to Pete, who was laughing loudly, "this thing is called a Cyclops Heartless." Pete stopped laughing.

"How'd you know?" He asked Riku. "This here is the first Cyclops Heartless." Riku glanced up at the Heartless' one giant eye.

"Lucky guess," he replied sarcastically. Riku's sarcasm was lost on Pete who simply shrugged it off. The Heartless let out a guttural roar and charged. Riku leapt up into the air and struck the Heartless on the back of its neck. The Heartless roared again as it stumbled forward and crashed into the cliff face. Riku chuckled softly.

The Cyclops let out another roar as it stood up and turned to face Riku. It began swinging its axes around itself wildly. Riku leapt back, placing as much distance between himself and the Heartless as he could.

"Let's finish this!" Riku shouted. The Way to Dawn became cloaked in a swirling mixture of Light and Darkness. Riku took two steps towards the Cyclops and vanished into thin air. The Cyclops began looking around for Riku in confusion.

"Where'd he go?" Pete shouted. In response, Riku appeared for a brief moment in midair behind the Cyclops, the Light and Darkness on his Keyblade now extended beyond its point, adding an extra three feet to the blade. He struck the Heartless square in the back with a single, powerful blow before vanishing again. The Heartless roared and spun around, expecting Riku to be behind it.

"Is that all you've got?" Riku reappeared in-between the Heartless' feet, pausing long enough to strike the Cyclops' ankles before vanishing yet again. The Heartless collapsed to its knees. Riku reappeared on the cliff face high above it.

"See ya," he said as he pointed the Way to Dawn down at the Cyclops' head. A massive orb of swirling Light and Darkness took form on the tip. The Cyclops looked up and paused for a moment to stare before it swung both of its axes into the cliff wall. Riku let out a startled cry and fell off of the edge of the cliff, the orb of Light and Darkness flying off harmlessly into the sky.

The Heartless reached up with one of its free hands and grabbed Riku out of the air before slamming him as hard as it could into the ground. Riku could've sworn he heard something in his body crack upon impact. He let out a low grown of pain. The Heartless released him and raised its axes high above its head. Pete was laughing maniacally in the background, shouting something about him being better than any Keyblade Wielder. Riku rolled onto his back and carefully aimed the Way to Dawn.

"Break of Dawn!" Riku shouted. A large beam of Light, with a small amount of Darkness visible in the center, burst from the Way to Dawn and impaled the Cyclops straight through its eye. The Heartless let out one final roar and exploded into a red and black mist. A large, pink crystalline heart rose into the sky before vanishing.

Pete's eyes widened comically as he stared on in disbelief. Riku slowly stood up and turned to face him. Riku took one step towards him and Pete panicked. A corridor of Darkness appeared behind him.

"Oh, don't mind me," he said nervously. "I believe I forgot to turn the stove off when I left earlier. I'd better go take care of that. We'll just put my killing you off until another day, shall we?" He gave Riku a nervous grin and vanished into the corridor. Riku rolled his eyes as Pete left. He waited until the corridor vanished before practically throwing himself on the ground to catch his breath.

"I hate this island," he muttered to himself. "It's like I never get a moment to catch my breath anymore. At least I finally have some peace and quiet to rest for a few minutes." There was a sharp cracking sound from the ground nearby his feet. Riku's gaze shifted in the general direction of the noise. A second loud cracking sound came up from the ground. "What the-" Riku began, leaning closer so he could hear better.

The ground erupted into a cloud of dust and stone. The man in red burst from the newly formed hole in the ground and landed on his feet above Riku. Riku sneezed as he inhaled some of the dust. The man in red looked down at him for a brief moment before lifting him up by his shirt and slamming him against the cliff wall. Riku let out a grunt of pain.

"Are you one of Syndrome's men?" The man in red asked as he raised his fist. Riku shook his head slowly.

"Nope, Syndrome's working with my enemies. There's no way I'd be on his side," Riku replied. The man in red studied his face for a few moments before releasing him.

"Sorry about that," the man said. "Just had to be safe. I tricked Syndrome into thinking I was dead." Riku raised an eyebrow.

"How?" He asked.

"I hid under the bones of another Super he got killed," the man replied simply. A shiver travelled up Riku's thoughts at the idea of hiding under someone else's bones to trick someone into thinking you were dead.

"What's a Super?" Riku asked as the man in red sat down next to him.

"Somebody with superpowers," the man replied. He held out his hand to Riku. "I'm Mr. Incredible." Riku shook his hand and almost had his bones crushed by the Mr. Incredible's grip.

"Let me guess," Riku said, tenderly massaging his hand. "Super strength?" Mr. Incredible nodded.

"You got it, Kid," he said with a deep sigh.

"Call me Riku," Riku said. Mr. Incredible nodded.

"Alright then."

"So now that Syndrome thinks you're dead, what're you going to do?"

"I'm going to break into his base and find out what he's planning." Riku stared at the Super in disbelief, but from the expression on the man's face, he could tell that it was important.

"Would you like some help?" Riku suggested. Mr. Incredible smiled in thanks down at him.

"Only if you're up for it," he said. Riku raised an eyebrow as if to say 'Seriously?' Mr. Incredible nodded in understanding and began drawing on the soil beneath their feet with a twig. "Okay then, here's the plan."

Riku grinned. Things were finally getting interesting.

_LD_

Pete stepped out of the corridor of Darkness he had created into the Castle That Never Was, mumbling to himself. He paused as he entered one of the many long white hallways in the castle. A girl dressed in a black, hooded cape was leaning against one of the many doors lining the hall. She looked exactly like the Keyblade brat Sora, except her caramel colored hair was tied back into a ponytail instead of spiked and defying gravity.

"Who're you?" Pete demanded. The girl shot him a glare.

"I'm here to see Maleficent," she said casually. Pete's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"So what do you want me to do about it?" He asked. The girl smirked. The next thing Pete knew, he was flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

"You should probably take me to her," the girl said. A flame made of pure Darkness appeared in her palm as she walked towards Pete. "I have an offer she can't possibly refuse. And I'm sure you don't want me to beat you senseless for not taking me there." Pete swallowed a lump in his throat.

"F-follow me," he said as he pushed himself up from the ground. The girl grinned. "What did you say your name was?"

"Keila."

_LD_

_

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_

_I hope you all enjoyed that. As usual, please review as I love to read your opinions. Also, go vote in the poll. I know for a fact that there's more than eleven people out there reading this._

_Have a good week everyone!_

_Shadow Horizons_


	15. Project Kronos

_Hi Everybody,_

_I don't have much to say since it's two in the morning where I live and I'm exhausted._

_I would like to thank everyone who reviewed last time!_

_Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Disney, Pixar, or a Ferrari._

_Enjoy!  
_

* * *

Chapter Fifteen: Project Kronos

_Wednesday, June__ 2__nd__ 4794 P.C._

Riku hummed softly to himself as he rolled a barrel labeled _**FUEL**_ to the pile he had already made in the aircraft hangar. So far, Mr. Incredible's plan was going well. Riku had managed to break into Syndrome's base of operations without incident by wearing the uniform worn by one of the villain's lackeys. Riku glanced down at the uniform and grimaced. In his opinion, it was a fashion crime to wear a set of full-body gray spandex under a light gray vest. The black boots and gloves didn't look any better.

He let out a grunt of exertion as he hoisted the barrel of fuel up and onto the pile of twenty or so identical barrels. He removed the black visor and earpiece that covered the front half of his face and tossed it onto the pile. He ripped off the remainder of the stolen uniform and added it as well, mentally reminding himself to never wear something that hideous ever again.

_LD_

_Several hours earlier:_

"_I'm going to break into Syndrome's base and find out just what he's planning to do with the Omnidroid," Mr. Incredible said as he sketched an attack plan in the dirt. Riku stood behind him staring over the older man's shoulder. "I'll need you to create a distraction for me."_

"_Sounds good," Riku muttered. "Where do you think the best place to do that would be?"_

"_Anywhere with a lot of open space and easy access to the jungle," Mr. Incredible said. "That way, if things go wrong, you can make a quick escape." Riku nodded in agreement._

"_Makes sense," he said as the Super got back to his feet. "Out of curiosity, why do you need my help?" Mr. Incredible froze up. "No offense, but judging from what Syndrome said you work alone. So, why do you need me?" Mr. Incredible turned to face him._

"_To tell you the truth, kid, I would rather do this alone," he said, his mouth drawing into a thin line. "But Syndrome thinks I'm dead. So I need to make sure that the guards are all distracted by something or in this case, someone." Riku stared at him for a moment before nodding in understanding._

"_Okay then," he said._

"_No offense, it's just how I've always done things. You know?" The Super said. Riku couldn't help but remember how he used to rely on only himself. Even when he, Sora and Kairi were working on the raft. Even when he tried to save Kairi after the Islands were lost to Darkness. _

"_I know," Riku replied as he turned to leave. "I know all too well." _

"_Good luck, kid," Mr. Incredible said. Riku glanced back at him._

"_You too, Mr. Incredible."_

_LD_

Finding the aircraft hangar had been easy. All Riku had had to do was follow a trio of one-man crafts, each outfitted with a pair of large rotor blades and a mounted machine-gun turret, back to the aircraft hangar, which provided plenty of open space as well as a fifty foot drop into the jungle below.

There were only a couple of guards in the hangar at the moment, both of whom had finally taken notice of Riku's presence. They shouted at him to put his hands in the air as they advanced on him, guns raised. Riku smirked. If Mr. Incredible wanted a distraction, he was going to get a damn good one. He complied with the guards' orders and raised his hands above his head as he backed away from the pile of fuel barrels.

"What do you think you're doing here, kid?" One of them demanded as he spun Riku around to face them. Riku grinned mischievously at him.

"This," he replied cheerfully. A brilliantly white light flared up from his finger tips. The guards stumbled back with cries of shock as they were blinded even through their visors. Riku spun back to face the barrels of fuel while the guards attempted to recover and line him up in the sights of their rifles. A small orb of Darkness formed in his palm. He wound his arm dramatically, and hurled the darkness towards the barrels of fuel.

"Okay, that's it!" One of the guards shouted as his vision cleared enough for him to see Riku's silhouette through the spots in his vision. Riku's grin became more pronounced as he waved at the guard and leapt behind one of the one-man crafts.

"Fire in the hole!" He shouted.

_LD_

Mr. Incredible peered over the cliff's edge, watching as one of the orb shaped railcars approached along the cliff's edge below him. Silently, he pulled himself over the edge and leapt down towards the rail, grabbing onto a thick tree branch that jutted out from the cliff face to slow his descent before landing perfectly on top of the railcar. The two guards inside looked up at the massive dent in the railcar's roof in surprise before glancing at each other.

Mr. Incredible reached inside the rail-car's open side, grabbed one of the guards and hurled him out into the jungle below. The other guard scrambled to remove his gun from his holster, but to no avail. Mr. Incredible swung himself into the rail-car and with a powerful kick, knocked the other guard into the ocean. It was difficult squeezing his massive bulk into the small transport but he managed. He slammed the palm of his hand up against the dent he had made in the roof, effortlessly forcing the metal back into place.

The rail-car continued its near-silent movement across the island for several minutes before a large structure built into the side of the volcano came into view. Mr. Incredible stared out of the viewport at the golden glow from the many windows on the building before glancing further down the track he was on. Up ahead of him were a large gate and a pair of guards, both of whom seemed to be alert and ready to act at a moment's notice.

Mr. Incredible's mind raced as he tried to quickly come up with a way to get past the guards. Clearly Riku hadn't caused his distraction yet, or if he did, it wasn't big enough to draw all of the guards away from their posts. Then an idea came to him. He slid out of the rail-car and planted his feet on the ground on either side of the track. He took a deep breath and tore the transport off of the track, leaving only a small amount of metal and wiring still attached to the track.

The two guards watched as the tiny bit of metal slid to a halt a few feet in front of them before sharing a confused glance. They had been expecting the patrol unit to be returning from their circuit. A loud grunt echoed from somewhere in the darkness, beyond their view. Both guards raised their weapons and lowered them almost immediately. The patrol units' rail-car had arrived, and it was flying right at them from thirty feet in the air. The guards barely were able to make a sound before the rail-car knocked them both to the side and crushed the gate. Mr. Incredible ran as quickly as he could past the ruined gate and into the darkness of the jungle beyond.

After a few more minutes of running silently through the foliage that grew along the tracks, he found himself at the base of the structure he had seen from the tracks. The building itself was oval shaped. Several large doors were spaced out along the base with a pair of guards stationed at each. The second level appeared to be a walkway lined with a multitude of half-circle open air windows. A single guard paced back and forth in a routine fashion. Mr. Incredible frowned. So far, it didn't look like Riku still hadn't caused a distraction.

_Guess that means I'm doing this the old fashioned way._ He said to himself. He glanced around his feet, looking for something to throw and spotted a coconut-sized rock. He snatched it up and bounced it in his hand a couple of times to test its weight. Satisfied, he ducked out from his cover long enough to hurl the stone through the air and into the skull of the guard up on the second level. The guard collapsed and fell through one of the windows to the ground below with a loud crash. All of the guards within earshot rushed over to their fallen comrade.

Mr. Incredible smirked and ran from his hiding spot to the nearest door. He rapped his knuckles gently against the metallic surface in an attempt to figure out how thick the door was and how much force he might have to apply to open it. There was a moment of calm silence as he drew back his fist and prepared to force his way through. Three consecutive explosions tore through the quiet from somewhere in the distance. Copious amounts of jet black smoke rose into the sky from somewhere beyond the hills directly behind the building Mr. Incredible was breaking into, accompanied by a faint, reddish-orange glow.

"_Explosions detected in Hangar Three. All available personnel please respond immediately,"_ a calm, female voice said over a hidden PA system. Mr. Incredible smirked. Talk about a distraction. His eyes widened in surprise as the door he was leaning against rose upwards on hidden hinges. A pair of oval shaped hovercraft emerged from inside the building, each carrying fifteen or so armed men.

Mr. Incredible slid through the gap between the door and the ceiling, dropping down behind the two crafts and into a large, circular room lined with a multitude of tunnels just large enough for one of the rail-cars to fit through. He paused long enough to pick a tunnel at random and took off running down the long, unlit passage.

_Good luck kid. Sorry for using you like this._

_LD_

The Way to Dawn shone sinisterly as Riku struck down the first wave of guards to arrive. Riku let out a sigh. This was going to be easier than he expected. He grimaced around at the smashed and burning remains of the aircraft that had once filled the hangar.

"Maybe I overdid it with the explosions," he commented. Nonetheless, he had a strange feeling of pride swelling in his chest. Mr. Incredible had wanted a distraction, and judging by that PA announcement, he had received a damn good one. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of running feet and guards shouting to one another. Riku smirked and spun the Way to Dawn in a wide arc before falling into his signature fighting stance.

A dozen guards burst into the hangar, shouting angrily. Their eyes fixated themselves on the silver-haired teen standing amidst the flaming wreckage that filled the hangar. In unison they raised their guns and unleashed a barrage of bullets. A transparent barrier formed between Riku and the guards, harmlessly intercepting the projectiles. The guards all stared, open mouthed, in shock as the bullets clattered to the ground feet from their target.

"My turn," Riku said smugly. He seemed to vanish into midair, only to reappear behind the guards. The flat side of his Keyblade floored three of them with a single strike before any of them could react. Another guard spun, his fist lashing out towards the side of Riku's head.

The teen easily side-stepped the sloppy attack and swept the man's legs out from underneath him with a stroke of his blade. Two other guards were sent flying by orbs of orange light while the others were quickly felled by a few simple swings of the Way to Dawn.

"I'm guessing you guys weren't hired because you can hold your own in a fight," Riku commented as the last guard fell. He glanced around the hangar, looking for more guards to fight. "Is that it? No more guards?" As if on cue, all of the doors leading into the hangar burst open and nearly a hundred guards flooded the hangar. They quickly surrounded Riku, carefully aiming their weapons at his chest.

"Stop right there!" One of the guards shouted. "Or we'll shoot ourselves!" Riku raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not really comfortable with how you said that," one of the other guards said. The first guard to speak looked up at him.

"You're the one who said we needed more humor in the workplace, chuckles."

"I agree, we do," the second guard said. "But if you think that was funny, you need to rediscover humor." Riku rolled his eyes impatiently and quickly began beating his way through the crowd of guards.

"Stop him!" One of the other guards shouted. Half a dozen guards raised their weapons. "But don't shoot! You might hit someone else!" Several of the guards hesitated before tossing their weapons aside and rushing at Riku with their fists raised. Riku sighed.

_Morons._ Riku closed his eyes and concentrated. He immediately felt his other senses heighten. He could hear each breath taken by the guards. He could feel the ground shake slightly with each footfall. A grin spread across his face. He could fight better this way.

He leapt up into the air as three guards collided beneath him. The edge of his Keyblade began to glow with a bright white light as Riku plummeted back to the ground. Riku twisted in midair, angling his body so that the tip of the Way to Dawn was pointing straight down towards the ground.

As the Way to Dawn struck the ground, a ring shaped burst of light radiated from Riku's body, bowling over around half of the guards who had moved closer in an attempt to overwhelm him. Riku smirked as he drew back his blade and threw it through the air towards a guard who was attempting to flee. The Way to Dawn struck the man square in the center of his back with a sickening crunch. The man collapsed onto his front with a cry of pain as the Keyblade continued to spin through the air, striking down several more guards before snapping back into Riku's hand.

It took him almost no time to completely decimate the rest of the guards that had gathered to stop him. He finally collapsed onto his, panting for breath. This day, and world for that matter, had taken a lot out of him. It felt like he had been fighting nonstop for several hours. He just wanted a few minutes to rest.

"There he is! Get him!" Another guard shouted in from somewhere nearby. Riku frowned. It didn't look like he'd be getting that rest anytime soon. He sat up and saw dozens of additional guards making their way into the hangar.

"Wow," he groaned. "They breed you morons like rabbits, don't they?" He really didn't feel up to fighting all of these guards and to make matters worse, his stomach was growling. That would seriously affect his ability to concentrate on fighting.

_Great, I'm turning into Sora._ He grumbled to himself as he got back to his feet. _Only he would think about food when surrounded by enemies._ He glanced around at the guards once again, weighing his odds.

"Ah, to hell with it," he said. He really didn't want to have to keep fighting. Besides, surely Mr. Incredible had made it in by now. "Exit stage left!" He rolled backwards, away from the approaching guards and towards the hangars edge. The guards halted in their advance and watched in stunned amazement as their target willingly ran to the end of the hangar and jumped down into the jungle below.

Riku's body went through the brief moment of gut-wrenching terror that usually came hand in hand with plummeting towards the hard earth with no parachute or means to slowing the fall. He watched as the tree tops drew nearer, carefully timing himself. Small lights began to glow at his finger tips.

He stretched out his arms and grabbed onto the first branch he passed. The lights on his finger tips quickly expanded, becoming tiny ropes of light that wound their way around the branch in a split second before becoming solid. Riku grimaced as he fall came to an instantaneous stop. The tree's trunk bent slightly from the force of stopping the teen and bounced back into place. Riku grinned, silently thanking whatever deity may be listening that his plan had worked before releasing is hold on the tree and dropping the remaining thirty or so feet to the jungle floor below. He glanced up at the smoke and flames still emerging from the aircraft hangar with a smirk.

_Good luck Mr. Incredible. I hope that distraction was good enough for you._

_LD_

Mr. Incredible peered carefully opened a pair of heavy stone doors and peered inside. He had a brief flash back to when he had had dinner in this same room after he had beaten the previous model of the Omnidroid. One wall was nothing but glass while the other was a large viewport staring straight into a 'waterfall' of magma. Two massive Easter Island heads decorated the room on either side of the viewport.

Positive that the coast was clear, he slid inside the room and carefully closed the door behind him. He stared at the flowing magma, recalling that there was a walkway concealed in the center of the viewport. He glanced around at his surroundings, trying to spot a switch or lever that would activate the mechanism that parted the molten rock and revealed the walkway. To his displeasure, there was no switch or lever anywhere nearby. He glanced over at one of the large, stone heads.

_Okay then, time for Plan B._ Mr. Incredible ran over to the stone head and with a muffled grunt, lifted it up and over his head, effectively providing himself with cover. He carried it over to the viewport and lined himself up with where he had seen the walkway before. He took several quick breaths to steady himself and charged at the flowing magma.

There was a loud click followed by a low his as the hidden mechanisms parted the magma, revealing the walkway. Through the dark glow of the passage, Mr. Incredible could see the faint outline of a person walking towards him. Panicking, he stumbled back and away from the walkway, quickly moving back to where the stone head used to rest and placing it back down.

A woman with platinum-blonde hair emerged from the walkway, perusing a stack of papers with a bored expression. Mr. Incredible slipped behind the stone head, effectively hiding the bulk of his upper body. The woman glanced around at the room before turning to leave. Mr. Incredible took his chance and darted into the narrow passage. He made it about halfway across the grooved metal walkway before the walls of magma on either side of him began to close in.

He leapt from the walkway into a darkened room a split second before the magma would've closed on him. A large metal door slammed shut behind him, sealing off the magma. He breathed a sigh of relief and glanced around, attempting to discern any shapes in the endless darkness. A series of lights flickered into existence, illuminating a pathway that led to a single desk and chair.

Cautiously, Mr. Incredible strode up to the desk and sat down. A keyboard and several unlabeled buttons and knobs covered the surface of the desk. He glanced down at the keyboard and pressed the space bar.

Several feet in front of him, a massive computer screen came to life, displaying a pale blue background with a white stripe running through the middle that displayed the text '_PASSWORD_'.

Mr. Incredible's brow furrowed. What could the password possible be? In his mind's eye, he remembered coming across the bones of the former Super, Gazerbeam, and the word he had burnt into the cave walls with his laser vision sometime before his death. Mr. Incredible cracked his knuckles and quickly typed in '_KRONOS_'.

The screen display shifted and a menu appeared displaying four options, 'ISLAND _OPERATIONS_' '_FINANCES_' '_OMNIDROID METATRAINING_' and '_SUPERS_'. A grin broke across Mr. Incredible's face. He scrolled down the menu and selected the '_Supers_' option.

The screen was split into two parts, one half labeled '_OPPONENT_', the other half labeled '_PROTOTYPE_'. Under the '_OPPONENT_' side, a picture of a Super named Universal Man was displayed along with a description of his powers. Under the '_PROTOTYPE_' side was a picture of the Omnidroid Version One. A red bar appeared across the picture of Universal Man, displaying the text '_TERMINATED_'. Mr. Incredible's eyes widened in shock.

Three more pictures of Supers were displayed, one after another, all terminated by the Omnidroid Version One. When the photo of a Super named Macroburst appeared, the red bar and text appeared over the Omnidroid Version One's picture. The Version One was replaced by a picture of Version Two, which had apparently killed Macroburst and gone on to kill several more.

Mr. Incredible got to his feet, stunned. Every time a Super defeated an Omnidroid, the next version came back and killed even more supers. He recognized nearly all of these names. He had helped many of them out back in their prime. He was too stunned to speak.

A thought occurred to him. One that terrified him more than the idea that Syndrome was responsible for the deaths of so many supers. What if Syndrome knew about his wife? Mr. Incredible practically threw himself at the keyboard as he typed in the name 'Elastigirl'. A picture of his wife in her supersuit appeared along with a detailed description of her powers and a warning that she was a high threat. Her location flashed up as '_UNKNOWN_'.

He collapsed back down into the chair with a sigh of relief. They didn't know where his wife was, so at least she was safe. Then another thought occurred to him. What about Lucius, his best friend and former Super? He leaned back over the keyboard and typed in the name 'Frozone'. His eyes widened in fear as Frozone's location appeared as '_KNOWN_'.

Out of curiosity, he typed in his own name and saw a picture of himself from the old days and the highest threat rating out of all the Supers Syndrome had killed. A red bar flashed across his picture. '_TERMINATED_'. Next to his picture was an image of the Omnidroid Version Nine.

Mr. Incredible's picture was replaced by one of the boy he had used to cause a distraction, Riku. The picture was one of the boy using a bizarrely shaped weapon as he slashed his way through the Ninth Version of the Omnidroid. Riku's threat level was equal to Mr. Incredible's. The red terminated bar appeared across the Omnidroid Version Nine's picture.

The screen changed again, displaying only the blue prints for the Omnidroid Version Ten, which was labeled as the final design, and the phrase '_PROJECT KRONOS_'. Continuing to act on its own, the screen went on to display the different phases of Project Kronos.

Phase One depicted a diagram of the Omnidroid being loaded into a rocket. Phase Two displayed an animation of the rocket leaving Nomanisan Island and flying towards a city. Phase Three displayed computer animated footage of the Omnidroid destroying the city. The footage was replaced with a countdown timer. There were only eight hours, ten minutes and counting until launch. Mr. Incredible got to his feet. Even though he still felt stunned by everything he had just seen, he knew he had to stop Syndrome at all cost. He turned to run back down the walkway.

The 'I' logo on his chest began beeping and flashing. He paused and glanced down at it in confusion. The room was suddenly filled with a bright white light. Several rows of concealed cannons, opened up on the walls. Mr. Incredible stared around in shock.

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Intruder alert," a monotone female voice began repeating. One of the cannons shot at Mr. Incredible. A grey, metallic orb struck him in his shoulder and stuck in place. Confused, Mr. Incredible grabbed it with his hand and wrenched it off of his shoulder, only to find that it now was stuck to his hand. He could feel the weight of the orb growing heavier as the orb seemed to expand and grow.

_What is this stuff?_

The other cannons began firing as well, all of them shooting the same, strange substance. He ran as fast as he could towards the exit. The orbs fired by the cannons pelted him repeatedly, sticking to him and weighing him down as their weight began to increase. He was feet from the door when the weight became too much for him. The orbs that had struck him continued to expand and meld together. He struggled to break free but to no avail. He couldn't move. The last thing he saw as the strange substance covered his body from head to toe was the legs of the platinum-blonde haired woman as she strode into view.

_LD_

_Thursday, June 3__rd__ 4794 P.C._

_Radiant Garden_

_Monarchist Party Offices_

Adrian Canstella slammed his head against his desk. For the past few months, ever since Radiant Garden had reestablished a government, he had been trying to get the Monarchist Party into power. To his immense displeasure, the Monarchists were often ignored whenever the senate gathered. Most of his time was spent researching birth records and family trees, trying to find someone in the city who was somehow related to the Crown. Even more irritating was that all records regarding the royal family came to a sudden stop several generations before their last king, Ansem the Wise had been born, resulting in several blank sections and numerous possibilities for potential heirs.

He leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. If they could just find someone with the Crown's blood running through their veins, they would stand a chance in the elections coming up in November. The Monarchist party could have the power; all they needed was a lead and an heir young and naïve to the laws of Radiant Garden. He let out a groan. This was all so frustrating.

A faint knock came from his door. He sat up straighter and looked around. A young woman, dressed in the black and green uniform worn by the Radiant Garden Postal Service stood in the doorway. Her hat was pulled low, hiding her face from him.

"What is it?" Adrian asked. In response, the woman held up a small package.

"Delivery," she said simply. Adrian gestured for her to set it on his desk. She complied, setting the package down gently and produced a clipboard seemingly from nowhere. "Sign here, please." She circled a line at the bottom of the page on the clipboard. Adrian took the board and pen from her and quickly scrawled his signature. The woman took back the clipboard and backed out of the room with a tip of her hat.

Adrian snatched up his pocketknife from one of his many desk drawers and opened the package. A letter covered the other content inside the box. He pulled it out and quickly perused the message written to him. His jaw dropped and a grin broke out across his face. Maybe Destiny herself was finally looking out for him.

Outside, Keila shed the illusion she had wrapped around herself. A satisfied smirk playing across her face. Her Master's plans and Maleficent's plan were both starting to take root.

_LD_

_Nomanisan Island_

Riku slammed the flat of his palm against a nearby tree trunk, gasping for breath. He spared the sky a quick glance, briefly enjoying the sunset. He let out a low groan. Ever since the night before, he had been running all over the island, spending the entire day avoiding guards that almost always seemed to know where he was and fighting off what seemed to be an endless amount of Heartless.

As if sensing his thoughts, a swarm of Neoshadows emerged from the ground and surrounded him. Darting back and forth as they prepared to attack. Riku wasn't keen on the idea of letting them have the first strike. The Way to Dawn appeared in his hand with a flash of light. Moving as quickly as his body was able, Riku sliced his way through the Heartless, leaving himself surrounded with a faint black mist in their wake.

He continued on, aimlessly running through the trees in an attempt to throw off any guards he knew would be in pursuit. He glanced up at the sun's position in the sky again. It had been almost twenty-four hours since he had helped Mr. Incredible break into Syndrome's island base and he had yet to hear from the Super at all. That left him feeling slightly worried. If he had to guess, he would say that the Super was captured. There had to be some way for him to get an answer. He paused for a moment, glancing around at his surroundings before spotting a set of tracks for the railcars.

Riku couldn't help but grin. What better way to get answers than to sneak back into your enemy's stronghold?

_LD_

The platinum-blonde haired woman quickly pressed several buttons set into her desk as Syndrome strode into the holding room. The large, elliptically shaped containment unit split in two, both halves moving apart from one another to reveal the oval shaped center where Mr. Incredible was supported by zero-point energy, rendering his super-strength useless. His hands and feet connected to metal conductors, amplifying the binding effects.

"You sir, truly are 'Mr. Incredible'," Syndrome said as he neared the Super. From the tone of his voice, Syndrome sounded more impressed that the Mr. Incredible was still alive than anything else. "You know, I was right to idolize you. I always knew you were tough, but tricking the probe by hiding under the bones of another Super? Oh man! I'm still geeking out about it!" Mr. Incredible glared down at Syndrome from his 'cell'. Syndrome let out a sigh and his fanboy-ish demeanor fell away in an instant.

"And then you just had to go and ruin the ride," he said, his disappointment prominent in his tone. "I mean, Mr. Incredible calling for help? 'Help me, help me!'" He mocked in a high pitched voice. A look of confusion crossed Mr. Incredible's face. He didn't remember calling anyone for help.

"Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame! All right, who did you contact?" Syndrome demanded angrily. Mr. Incredible's confused look became more pronounced.

"Contact? What are you talking about?" He definitely didn't remember contacting anyone. Syndrome's expression made it clear that he didn't believe the Super. Syndrome snapped his finger and a guard turned a knob on a nearby control panel. Electricity coursed through the holding cell and into Mr. Incredible's body. The Super let out a drawn out groan of pain.

"I am referring to last night at twenty-three oh seven hours while you were snooping around," Syndrome said calmly. "You sent out a homing signal." His tone was accusatory; He clearly didn't plan on believing the super one bit.

"I didn't know about the homing device," Mr. Incredible panted as the electricity faded. Syndrome snapped his fingers again and the guard turned the knob up higher. An even more intense burst of electricity coursed through the Super's body. Mr. Incredible let out a cry of pain.

_LD_

Riku grunted as he forced himself to slide through the ventilation shafts of Syndrome's base. Getting back inside had been easy, especially after he had discovered a maintenance tunnel that served as a decent back door in his opinion.

_Why do they make these things so tight?_ Riku asked himself as he squeezed around a corner. _Why can't they be big and spacious like the ones you see in movies?_ He squeezed around another corner and found himself staring at a slotted grate. He stifled a groan in case there were guards nearby. Another dead end. He was starting to regret crawling through the vents. He started to retrace his path backwards.

"Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame!" Riku froze as he heard Syndrome's angry voice. "All right, who did you contact?" Riku crawled as quickly as he could up to the grate and peered through. Several yards below him, he could see Syndrome yelling at a captured Mr. Incredible.

"Contact?" Mr. Incredible seemed confused. "What are you talking about?" Syndrome snapped his fingers and a nearby guard did something to a control panel hidden from Riku's view. A split second later, electricity coursed through the machine holding Mr. Incredible in place. Mr. Incredible let out a groan of pain.

"I am referring to last night at twenty-three oh seven hours while you were snooping around," Syndrome said, his voice taking on a calm and collected tone for a moment. "You sent out a homing signal."

"I didn't know about the homing device," Mr. Incredible panted. Syndrome snapped his fingers again and Mr. Incredible let out a howl of pain as a higher concentration of electricity, enough to make sparks dance across his skin, coursed through him. Riku began scanning the vent he was in, trying to find a way to bust out of it and come to the Super's rescue. To his dismay, the grate was welded to the vent and there were thick walls surrounding him on all other sides, forcing him to be a passive observer.

"And now a government plane is requesting permission to land here," Syndrome said angrily. "Who did you contact?"

"I didn't send for a plane," Mr. Incredible said weakly. Syndrome rolled his eyes.

"Play the transmission," He said to a woman with platinum-blonde hair. The woman complied, pressing a button on her keyboard. A recording of a woman's voice crackled to life over a hidden loudspeaker.

"India Golf niner-niner, checking in. VFR on top. Over." Mr. Incredible's eyes widened with a mixture of shock and fear.

"Helen," he whispered. Syndrome grinned.

"So you do know these people," he said. He chuckled. "Well then, I'll send them a little greeting." He flicked a small glass box off of a bright red button and pressed down on it gently. Riku and Mr. Incredible both gasped, simultaneously realizing what the button did. Syndrome's chuckle became more pronounced. Silent apprehension filled the room for a couple of minutes before the woman's voice from the recording spoke up on the radio, sounding panicked.

"India Golf niner-niner transmitting in the blind guard. Disengage. Repeat, disengage." There was the sound of her panicked breathing, barely audible over the sounds of the plane's engines roaring at what sounded to Riku like they were pushing their maximum ability. "Disengage. Repeat, disengage. Friendlies-" The rest of her words were drowned out by Mr. Incredible's desperate shouting.

"No! Call off the missiles. I'll do anything!" He pleaded. Syndrome turned to grin evilly at him.

"Too late," he said as his smile vanished. "Fifteen years too late."

"Friendlies at two-zero miles south-southwest of your position," the woman's voice was saying. Angels ten. Track east. Disengage!" Her tone was becoming increasingly desperate. "Disengage! Repeat, disengage! Mayday! Mayday! India Golf niner-niner is buddy-spiked. Abort. Abort! There are children aboard! Say again, there are children aboard!" The platinum-blonde woman's eyes widened in shock as she turned to stare, dumbfounded, at Mr. Incredible. Riku's mouth dropped in horror. Mr. Incredible's face blanched.

"NO!" He cried out, desperately struggling against his restraints.

"Abort, abort, abort!" The woman's voice was becoming hysterical. Mr. Incredible stared down at Syndrome in shock. "Abort, abort, abort!" There was a split second where an explosion could be heard, then static.

"We have a confirmed hit," the blonde woman said. Her voice shook as though it pained her to admit it. "Target was destroyed." Mr. Incredible's face fell, sadly. Riku stared on from his viewpoint, too shocked to move. Syndrome turned to face Mr. Incredible.

"Ah, you'll get over it," he said uncaring. "I seem to recall you prefer to 'work alone'." He began to laugh evilly. Mr. Incredible raised his head, his eyes filled with anger. His muscles rippled and bulged as Syndrome turned away from him. The blonde haired woman seemed to notice this as well. Mr. Incredible, living up to his name, lunged forward, determined to crush Syndrome in his powerful arms. The woman leapt in between the two men, shoving Syndrome to the ground and out of harm's way, only to be grabbed instead.

"Release me!" Mr. Incredible demanded. "Now!" Syndrome got to his feet and stared down his former idol coldly.

"Or what?" He challenged the Super.

"I'll crush her," Mr. Incredible growled. The woman stared up at Mr. Incredible with terrified eyes. Syndrome seemed taken slightly aback.

"That seems a little dark for you," he said as he shrugged. "Well, go ahead." A look of disbelief crossed the woman's face.

"It'll be easy," Mr. Incredible warned, his grip on the woman tightening slightly. "Like breaking a toothpick." Syndrome let out a short laugh.

"Show me," he said with a smirk. Mr. Incredible's glare intensified and for a brief moment, he started to tighten his grip. Then his face fell, defeated. He released his grip on the woman, who fell to the ground, gasping for the breath that had been squeezed out of her. Mr. Incredible hung his head shamefully. Riku let out a sigh. He hadn't even realized he had been holding his breath.

I knew you couldn't do it," Syndrome said, disappointed. "Even when you have nothing to lose. You're weak." He turned on his heel and began to make his way out of the room. "And I've outgrown you." The woman followed him hesitantly, pausing only long enough to glance back at Mr. Incredible as the Super's shoulders heaved with his sobs. Riku watched for a few moments longer before backing out of the dead end. Now that he had an idea on where Mr. Incredible was held, he could break him out.

He turned around at the nearest intersection of vents, intending to head deeper into the structure and find an exit from the vents. His path, however, was blocked by a single, dark blue Heartless. He could only see two things about the Heartless, it had three heads, and it was too big to fit in the ventilation system. A loud groaning of metal bending in ways it shouldn't echoed throughout the vents for a brief moment as Riku stared at the Heartless and six yellow eyes stared back. Then the vents collapsed.

Both Riku and the Heartless were sent sprawling out into a long, dull-gray colored hallway. A pair of guards who had been on patrol gave a start and took several steps back, lowering their weapons to aim at the Heartless. Riku quickly realized that they figured the Heartless was more of a threat. Riku looked back at the Heartless as it recovered and stood up.

It was bi-pedal, but had four arms and a pair of long tails, both ending in metallic looking spikes that were flicking themselves back and forth in wide, sweeping movements anticipating a fight. Two of the Heartless' heads turned to face the two guards while the third stared at Riku. Riku shivered. Each head was attached to a long neck that flexed back and forth, writhing like a nest of serpents. The Heartless Emblem was visible on the Heartless' back, just below where the three necks met the upper shoulders

The two guards let out cries of terror and began firing their weapons at the Heartless. The Heartless charged at the two men, briefly becoming a blur. The men's shots went wide as the Heartless struck. There was no physical impact. One moment the men were there. The next they had vanished into darkness, leaving only a pair of Soldier Heartless behind. The Soldiers summoned up a Dark Corridor and vanished. The three heads of the dark blue Heartless turned to face Riku, only to be met by the Way to Dawn's edge. Two of the heads twisted out of the way, the far left head however, wasn't as lucky. The Keyblade cut through the Heartless flesh as the head flew through the air. There was no blood, just a trail of misty Darkness as the head faded back into the Darkness that had given it form.

All four of the Heartless' arms lashed out and took hold of Riku. With a roar, the Heartless lifted him over its head and threw him down the length of the hall. Riku spun head over heels for a few minutes and managed to carefully place his feet beneath him in time for him to land up right. His muscles tensed and he sprang towards the Heartless. A large orb of swirling Light and Darkness, burst from the Way to Dawn's tip and hurtled into the Heartless, sending it flying through several walls. Riku continued to chase after it, leaping over the holes his attack had forced the Heartless to make in the walls.

The Heartless' tails lashed out from somewhere in the dust filling the last room and swept Riku's legs out from underneath him. Riku gave a grunt as he hit the ground and quickly rolled back up onto his feet. The two remaining heads lashed out at him, snapping their razor sharp teeth. Riku dodged the heads with absurd ease, twisting his way past the writhing necks to strike the Heartless in the center of its chest. The Heartless stumbled back from the force of the blow and crashed through a window, plummeting thirty feet to the ground below.

Riku ran up to the window and peered down at the Heartless as it got back to its feet. The Heartless stared up at him and let out a roar before creating a Dark Corridor and vanishing. Riku breathed a sigh of disappointment. He had been hoping to finish the fight. The Way to Dawn vanished into thin air as he turned to leave the room.

"This way!" A guard shouted from somewhere nearby. "The kid that set off those explosions in Hangar Three was spotted down here!" Riku let out a groan.

"Don't these guys ever give up?" He muttered to himself. He glanced around for a quick escape and realized his only option was the window. "And why is it I have to jump down from high places all the time in this world?" A trio of guards burst into the room behind him.

"Freeze!" One of them shouted. "Hands where I can see 'em!" Riku smirked at them and waved once to his would be captors before leaping backwards out of the window. Rather than plummeting to the ground again, Riku angled himself so that he was able to grab hold of one of the lowest tree branches on the nearest tree to the building, slowing his descent enough to allow himself to drop the last fifteen feet with no harm. He waved back up at the window where the guards were stunned by his acrobatics.

"See you guys later!" He shouted in a mocking tone before taking off at a run into the heart of the jungle. Humming tunelessly, Riku quickly traversed his way through the jungle with no particular path in mind. All he wanted to do was find a place to rest up where the guards wouldn't find him.

He lost track of how long he ran for, all that he knew was that it was very late at night by the time he found himself standing on one of the island's many beaches. It almost reminded him of home, except back home he didn't have an Island full of guards trying to catch him or kill him.

He allowed himself to collapse against one of the small boulders that dotted the beach. Staring out on the moonlit water, Riku couldn't help but remember the time he and Sora spent in the Realm of Darkness. It had only been a few weeks but already that seemed like ages ago. Riku closed his eyes and allowed himself to close his eyes in an attempt to sleep.

The sound of loud coughing and gasping for breath however ruined any chance he had at that. Opening his eyes, he glanced around at the beach and noticed three people emerging from the water. He wasn't sure if his tired eyes were playing tricks on him, but from this distance, Riku could've sworn that all three were wearing outfits identical to the one Mr. Incredible wore. Riku's eyes widened and his exhaustion seemed to melt away.

_They must be from that plane Syndrome destroyed._ He realized._ They're survivors!_ He got to his feet and started jogging towards the trio, waving to them.

"Hey!" He called out, completely forgetting that he was on an island with people who wanted him dead in his excitement. "Are you guys okay?" The eldest of the three, a woman in her mid to late thirties by the look of her, quickly got to her feet and glared at Riku. "Are you guys the survivors of the plane crash?" The woman's fist shot out towards him. Like elastic, her arm stretched itself, quickly closing the distance between her and Riku. The Keyblade Wielder was too stunned to move as the woman's fist collided with the side of his head and knocked him into a state of unconsciousness.

_LD_

_Friday, June 4__th__ 4794 P.C._

_Nomanisan Island_

_One Hour until Dawn_

Riku's eyes slowly opened. Instead of staring up at the night sky like he had been expecting to, he was staring at the stalactites of a cave ceiling, illuminate from the faint orange glow of a small fire somewhere nearby. He tried to sit up and found that his hands and feet had been bound with makeshift ropes crafted from the local fauna. He turned his head from side to side, looking for the source of the nearby fire. The three people he had seen emerge from the ocean were seated around the crackling flames.

His assumptions about their attire were correct. All three wore the exact same red and black outfit with the 'I' logo in the center of the chest that Mr. Incredible had been wearing. The woman who had knocked him out was staring at the other two with a serious expression.

"I think your father is in trouble," she said. Riku's eyes widened. This woman had been the pilot of the plane. Suddenly, everything made sense to Riku. Mr. Incredible's reactions when he heard the plane was destroyed, the matching outfits. It was a whole family of Supers.

"If you haven't noticed, Mom," said one of the others, "We're not doing so hot either." Riku glanced at her. She was in her early teens, definitely four years younger than him, if not more. The older woman stood up.

"I'm going to look for him," she announced as she turned to leave the cave. "And that means you are in charge until I get back, Violet."

"What?" The third person said incredulously. Riku's eyes traveled over to him. A blonde boy, probably no older than ten by Riku's guess.

"You heard her," the girl, Violet said smugly. Riku tilted his head to stare up at the woman.

"You're Helen, aren't you?" Riku said quietly. The three Supers all leapt back away from him in surprise. The woman glared down at him.

"How do you know?" She demanded, her hands balling into fists.

"Your husband," Riku replied. "Mr. Incredible." The family of Supers all exchanged glances. "He heard your plane get destroyed over the radio. He thinks you're all dead." The family exchanged sad looks with each other. Helen's face fell slightly before hardening back into a glare.

"How do I know you aren't one of the people causing trouble for my husband?" She demanded. Riku smirked.

"Because those guys want me dead," he said simply. "I kind of destroyed a robot prototype thing of theirs and blew up one of their aircraft hangars." He grinned sheepishly.

"Do you know where my husband is?" Helen asked, her tone a little more gentle than before. Riku nodded.

"They caught him. I don't know how they did, but now he's being held inside their base," he explained. "If you cut these ropes I can show you a quick way to get there." Helen considered this for a moment.

"Tell you what," she said. "I'll let you go after you show me the way." Riku nodded in understanding.

"Can you at least undo my legs so I can walk?" He asked. Helen grabbed a sharp looking rock from nearby and quickly sawed her way through the bindings. Riku stretched his legs and hopped up to his feet and made his way towards the cave entrance. Helen started to follow, and then paused. She reached into a small bag she had brought with her and produced three sets of black eye masks. She slid one on over her eyes and gave the other two to her kids.

"Put these on," she said. "Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it. And if anything goes wrong, use your powers."

"But you said never to use-" Violet began.

"I know what I said!" Helen snapped. She sighed and knelt down next to her children. Riku watched with mild interest from the cave exit. "Remember the bad guys on those shows you used to watch on Saturday mornings?" Both kids smiled reminiscently.

"Well, these guys are not like those guys," Helen continued. The kids' smiles vanished. "They won't exercise restraint because you're children. They will kill you if they get the chance." Both kids seemed surprised to hear that. Violet looked less than confident. "Do not give them that chance."

"Mom?" Violet began.

"Vi, I'm counting on you."

"There's something I-"

"I'm counting on you. Be strong," Helen interrupted again with a tone of finality. She turned to her son. "Dash, if anything goes wrong, I want you to run as fast as you can."

"As fast as I can?" Dash said excitedly.

"As fast as you can," Helen said with a smile. "Stay hidden. Keep each other safe. I'll be back by morning." She got back to her feet and walked over to Riku. "Okay, show me how I can get to my husband." Riku nodded and led the way out of the cave, feeling slightly uncomfortable at having his hands tied behind his back.

"Mom!" Violet called, following Riku and Helen out of the cave. The pair stopped and turned around to look at her. "Mom, what happened on the plane… I'm sorry. I wanted to help. I mean, when you asked me to… I'm sorry." Helen shushed her.

"It isn't your fault," she whispered to her daughter. "It wasn't fair for me to suddenly ask so much of you. But things are different now. And doubt is a luxury we can't afford anymore, sweetie." She cupped Violet's downtrodden face in one hand. "You have more power than you realize. Don't think. And don't worry. If the time comes, you'll know what to do. It's in your blood."

On that notes, she turned back to Riku and nodded. The pair of them headed off into the jungle. Violet stared after them for a moment before slipping on her mask.

_LD_

Syndrome smiled softly to himself as he stared down from his vantage point in the control room that overlooked the gleaming, white rocket that would carry out phase two of project Kronos. His chest swelled with pride and gleeful anticipation. In less than five hours, he would finally be a hero in the public's eye. Everything he ever wanted was within his grasp.

"He's not weak, you know."

Syndrome tuned at the sound of Mirage's voice. His platinum-blonde assistant sat in front of one of the many work stations, her gaze fixated on the paperwork in her hands.

"What?" It had been a couple of hours since she had said anything and now she had confused him. Her pen paused in midsentence on the paper.

"Valuing life is not weakness," she said. Syndrome's shoulders sagged. Now he understood.

"Oh, hey, hey," he said in a reassuring tone, slowly walking towards the back of her chair. "Look, if you're talking about what happened in the containment unit, I had everything under control." He chuckled nervously.

"And disregarding it is not strength," Mirage continued coldly. Finally turning in her seat to look at him. Syndrome placed a hand on her shoulder. She huffed and turned to glare straight in front of her at a steel plated wall.

"Look, I called his bluff, sweetheart, that's all," Syndrome said, still attempting to reassure her. He placed his hand on her chin and gently turned her head towards his, bringing their lips close together. "I knew he wouldn't have it in him to actually-" Mirage pushed him away and rose to her feet.

"Next time you gamble, bet your own life!" She said, angrily shoving her paperwork into his hands before storming out of the room, leaving the confused looking villain staring after her.

_LD_

Riku and Helen crept through the jungle as quietly as they could, occasionally ducking under the lower shrubbery to conceal themselves from a group of patrolling aircraft. Riku sighed. He had hoped he had taken out the only air-capable vehicles during his distraction.

"What are we looking for again?" Helen whispered as she and Riku weaved in between the trees. Riku glanced around at their surroundings, a grin breaking across his face.

"That," he replied quietly. He pointed a finger up in the air in front of them. Helen's eyes glanced in the direction Riku indicated and spotted a set of railcar tracks supported high above the trees.

"Oh," she said, as though it should've been obvious. "And these will lead me to my husband?" Riku nodded.

"They should take you to the base," he said, still staring up at the rail. "He's being held in some weird containment thing. It makes his strength useless. Once you get inside the base, all you really have to do is find the security center. Or a map. They might have one of those maps with the little red _YOU ARE HERE _arrows on it. That'd be unusually convenient." Helen ignored Riku's rambling and glanced around at their surroundings.

"What are those things?" She said, a hint of confusion in her voice. Riku looked at her like she was insane.

"Those are the pillars that support the rail," he said sarcastically. "Without them, the rail wouldn't be able to stay up in the air. Helen gave him a look that shut him up in an instant.

"I meant those," she said, gesturing with her thumb at the dozen or so pairs of glowing yellow eyes emerging from the darkness. Riku's sarcastic demeanor vanished, quickly replaced by his more serious side. The Way to Dawn appeared in a flash of light in his hand. Helen gave a start at the sudden burst of light. "And what's that thing in your hand?" She asked.

"It's called a Keyblade," Riku said, raising said weapon so it was level with his head as he fell into his signature fighting stance. "It's the only weapon that can truly defeat the Heartless."

"And what are the Heartless?" Helen asked, glaring at the yellow eyes gleaming menacingly in the darkness.

"Those things," Riku said. The Darkness surrounding the eyes became solid as a dozen Neoshadows emerged. "Leave this to me." In a matter of seconds, Riku had completely annihilated the group of Heartless. Helen had her eyebrows raised. Riku grinned as he shouldered the Way to Dawn.

"Nice work, kid," Helen said. Riku shrugged.

"It's what I do," he said smugly. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of an approaching railcar. "Your ride's here." Helen glanced up at the lights from the approaching railcar in the distance. She glanced back down at Riku and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks for helping me," she said. "And for helping my husband. He usually doesn't ask for anyone's help." Riku smirked. He had gotten that feeling about when he had been around Mr. Incredible. "Since he trusted you enough to ask for your help, I'm going to do the same." Riku raised an eyebrow at her. "Keep an eye on my kids for me, will you? From a distance. I don't know if they'd trust you or not. But still, it'd make me feel better and after seeing you take down those Heartless things, I think can trust you with that." Riku nodded at her.

"You got it," Riku said. Helen gave him a rushed thanks as the railcar drew near. Her arms stretched high above her head as she grasped onto the railcar and vanished into the distance. Riku quickly made his way back through the jungle and perched himself on a rocky ledge above the cave entrance where the Incredible children were hiding. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like he owed it to Helen to make sure her kids were safe. He reasoned that it was the guilt of Mr. Incredible getting captured and not being able to rescue him.

He held the Way to Dawn out in front of him, admiring the gleaming of the metal in the moonlight for a moment before leaning against a rock and readying himself to make true on his promise. He sat in silence for nearly an hour, boredom slowly sinking in.

His boredom was short lived however. A deep rumbling roar was forming from inside the cave beneath him. Riku got to his feet. He could here Dash's voice, calling out for his sister from somewhere inside.

"What did you do?" Violet's voice shouted. Riku peered over the edge as the two children came racing out of the cave and darted off to the side. A thick column of flame erupted out of the cave a split second after they made it to safety. Riku turned to look at the volcano at the island's center as a second roar reached his ears. A rocket burst into the sky from within the bowels of the dormant volcano. Riku glanced back down at the charred earth around the cave's entrance. The kids had been hiding out in a tunnel for redirecting the smoke and fire from the rocket away from the main facility.

From his hiding place, he watched as the two kids, both shaken from their near-death experience stared up at the departing rocket. After a few moments, Violet grabbed her brother's arm and led him to the cover provided by the jungle trees. It was obvious to Riku that neither of them was particularly keen on hiding out in the tunnel again. Silent as a cat stalking its prey, Riku slipped into the jungle after them.

_LD_

Helen slowly lowered her upper body into the security center. There were only two guards on duty. One was dozing and the other was watching a basketball game on his computer. She glanced around at the displays for a few seconds before her eyes found one showing power levels throughout the complex. One room in the cell block area had a massive spike of energy being consumed as compared to the others.

"Bob," she whispered, realizing that's where Riku had seen her husband in captivity. He quickly raised herself back into the ventilation system as the guard watching basketball turned to the other.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything."

_LD_

High in orbit, the engines from the rocket separated, causing the nose and middle sections to fall back into the atmosphere. As dawn broke across the face of Metropolis, the rest of the rocket fell apart behind the cover provided by the few clouds in the sky, revealing a concealed, jet-black plane carrying the Omnidroid Version Ten towards the unsuspecting city.

_LD_

Dash gave a wide yawn and opened his eyes. He glanced down at the sleeping from of his sister, whom he had been using as a pillow. With a cry of disgust, he leapt back and away from her. Yawning once more, the boy took a moment to stare around at the forest, taking in its exotic beauty.

"Identification, please." Dash gave a start at the sound of a robotic voice behind him. He glanced around and spotted a bright blue parrot watching him. A grin broke across his face and he ran over to his sister to shake her awake.

"Hey!" He said, roughly shaking the sleeping teen. "Hey, Violet! Come here, look! It talks!" Violet let out a groan and groggily sat up. In a tree high above, Riku peered down at the pair from over the edge of the thick branch he was using as a resting place.

"Voice key incorrect," the parrot said. Riku's brow furrowed in suspicion.

'_Voice key'?_

"'Voice key'?" Violet asked as she got to her feet, staring nervously at the bird.

"Voice key incorrect," the parrot repeated.

"Wait a second," Violet said. Her eyes narrowing as realization dawned on her. Riku leapt down from his perch as the parrot's eyes began glowing red and it started blaring an obnoxiously loud alarm. The two Super kids covered their ears.

"What do we do?" Dash asked. Riku landed next to them, causing them both to leap back in shock.

"Run!" Riku shouted at them. The Way to Dawn appearing in his hand. "We're about to have company!" In their haste to leave, both kids didn't bother to ask Riku about the magically appearing blade in his hand.

_LD_

From a hidden hangar somewhere nearby, several circular shaped hovercrafts, each encircled by a razor sharp blade that spun around at a high velocity flew out into the jungle in search of the Super children and the Keyblade Master.

_LD_

The door to the containment unit restraining Mr. Incredible opened. The Super barely moved, his head hanging low. Mirage stared in at him sadly for a moment before striding over to the guard station and pressing the release button. As the zero-point energy fields suspending deactivated, Mr. Incredible collapsed to his hands and knees. Mirage rushed to his side to help him up.

"There isn't much time," she said quickly, kneeling next to the Super. Mr. Incredible's hand lashed out and grabbed her by the throat.

"No," he said darkly, "there isn't. In fact, there's no time at all." Mirage struggled desperately against the Super's grip.

"Please…" she said breathlessly as she attempted to pry his fingers from her throat.

"Why are you here?" Mr. Incredible growled. "How can you possible bring me lower? What more can you take away from me?"

"Family… Survived the crash," Mirage gagged desperately. "They're here on the island!"

"They're alive?" Mr. Incredible said, his face lifting joyfully. He released the woman, and she collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath. Mr. Incredible lifted her back up and pulled her into a grateful hug. Mirage almost hugged him back until she heard footsteps at the door. She looked around to see who the newcomer was and her eyes widened in a mixture of shock and fear. Mr. Incredible looked around to see his wife, dressed in the same style of super suit he was wearing, glaring at him and Mirage. He quickly released said woman from his embrace.

"Helen?" He said in an attempt to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"Hello," Mirage said, taking a few steps towards Helen and extending her hand. "You must be Mrs. Incredib-" she was cut off as Helen's fist struck her across the jaw. Mr. Incredible's hand grabbed his wife's stretched wrist.

"She was helping me to escape," he explained in mild disbelief.

"No," Helen said angrily as she tried to pull her hand back to her. "That's what I was doing." Using her arm as a rope, Mr. Incredible pulled his wife over to him. "Let go of me! Let go, you lousy, lying, unfaithful creep!" Her words were cut off as Mr. Incredible crushed his lips to hers. For a brief moment, she practically melted into the kiss before regaining her composure and pulling away.

"How could I betray the perfect woman?" Mr. Incredible said softly, staring at his wife lovingly.

"Oh, you're referring to me now?" Helen said, still slightly breathless from the kiss.

"Where are the kids?" Mr. Incredible asked, noticing that his son and daughter were nowhere to be seen.

"I left them with that silver-haired kid who helped you break in here," Helen said. "I'm sure they're fine."

"They might have triggered the alert," Mirage said, gently massaging her jaw. "Security's been sent into the jungle. You better get going."

"Now our kids are in danger?" Helen asked angrily to no one in particular as she and her husband took off running from the room.

"If you suspected danger, why'd you bring them?" Mr. Incredible asked.

"I didn't bring them, they stowed away," Helen said. "And I don't think you're striking the proper tone here!"

_LD_

Violet and Dash screeched to a halt in a jungle clearing as three of the hovercraft cut them off, their pilots leaping down to the ground and aiming their rifles behind them. In the distance, they could hear the sounds of gunfire and metal striking metal as Riku attempted to fend off the guards.

"Think they're Supers?" One guard asked the other two.

"Dash, remember what Mom said," Violet whispered through her teeth to her brother as they stared wide eyed at the guards and their guns.

"What?" Dash whispered back.

"Stop talking!" One of the other two guards said. Violet vanished into thin air. "What the-?"

"Dash, run!" Violet said from somewhere nearby, her entire body rendered invisible by her power.

"Oh yeah!" Dash became a blur as he took off running as fast as he could into the jungle.

"They're Supers!" The third guard shouted. He turned to the other two. "Get the boy!" The other two guards climbed back into their hovercrafts and took off after Dash, their blades easily slicing through trees and foliage. The remaining guard turned back around and raised his gun, looking for Violet.

"Show yourself!"

_LD_

Riku brushed the dust off of his clothes as he walked away from the burning wreckage of the trio of hovercrafts that had tried to subdue him, whistling softly to himself. Way off in the distance, he could hear the sounds of gunfire growing steadily fainter. A faint thump echoed through the trees as an explosion went off. Riku grinned. He could only assume that the kids were putting up a fight. A pair of additional hovercraft emerged from the trees and into view on either side of Riku.

"You guys just don't give up, do you?" Riku said exasperatedly as the pair of hovercraft began to circle him.

"Put down your weapon and place your hands where we can see them!" One of the guards shouted at him. Riku sighed.

"So does that mean you guys are going force me to do this the hard way?" He asked smugly. "Alright then." A bright light formed along the Way to Dawn's edge. The two guards gave cries of shock. Riku vanished in a blur and almost instantly reappeared on the back of one of the hovercraft. The guard spun around as he felt the balance in his craft shift. Riku smirked and plunged the magic enhanced blade into the fuel chamber before leaping back as the craft exploded violently. The spinning blade snapped in half from the force of the explosion and went sailing into the other hovercraft. The guard barely had time to scream before he lost control of the craft and crashed into at thick tree, causing the hovercraft to explode. Riku winced slightly. He hadn't been expecting that. He kind of felt bad for the guards, until he remembered that they were trying to kill him. He turned on his heel and sprinted off in the direction he had seen Violet and Dash run off in.

_LD_

Dash laughed excitedly. His legs were a blur as he ran as quickly as was possible for him. The water beneath his feet barely shifted with his weight. To him it was like running on concrete. A fine trail of mist flew behind him. He weaved his way in and out of the natural stone pillars that rose from the depths of the lagoon. Bullets missed him by inches as his pursuers attempted to take him down.

One of the guards turned his hovercraft a little too sharply as Dash turned at a ninety-degree angle all of a sudden. The craft went spinning into the side of a rock arch, exploding as it crumpled into the rock. The other two guards ignored their fallen comrade and continued shooting at the boy. Dash spotted a small cave in a nearby cliff wall that had an opening barely large enough to fit one of the hovercrafts through it. Changing his course, he turned and vanished into the cave. One of his two remaining pursuers shot in after him while the other hesitated, looking around before deciding not to follow the Super child.

Dash quickly wound his way through the labyrinth of waterlogged tunnels, trying to find and exit and throw off his remaining pursuer at the same time. Despite the multitude of jagged rocks that jutted out from all sides of the cave at all angles, the guard had managed to keep pace with him. After a minute of running through the caves, he finally spotted an opening. Excitedly, he increased his speed until a hovercraft dropped down from above and began closing in on him. Dash quickly spun around, running back into the caves the way he had come only to find the other guard also closing in on him. His two means of escape were now blocked.

Dash looked back and forth in a panic trying to find an escape, unaware that he had stopped running. There was a brief moment when he was suspended on the water's surface before he sank. Above him, the two hovercrafts collided in a ball of fire and debris. Beneath the water, Dash pumped his fist above his head victoriously.

_LD_

"I know you're there little Miss Disappear." The guard slowly turned around, his gun raised, ready to fire at anything that moved. Behind him, Violet picked up a thick, club shaped branch that lay on the jungle floor and hefted it. Swinging the branch as hard as she could, she struck the guard in the square of his back. The guard let out a cry of surprise and fell flat on his face. Violet became visible again, smiling smugly down at the guard, who lashed out at her legs and knocked her to the ground.

The pair of them scrambled to their feet. The guard scooped his gun back up and began firing after Violet, who turned invisible as she dived into the nearby creek. The guard ran to the water's edge and sprayed bullets in a wide area around where he had seen the splash of water Violet had created. The guard quickly traded the clip in his gun for a fresh one before kneeling down in the dirt and scooping up a handful of it.

"You can't hide from me," he growled as he tossed the dirt into the water and stood back up. The small cloud of dirt slowly spread out from where it had entered the water, parting as it touched the invisible girl. "There you are." He said, carefully aiming his gun.

"Hey!" A blur of red and black knocked him aside, throwing his aim off. The guard spun around, looking for the blur only to be knocked to the ground as Dash leapt onto his chest and began hitting the guard as hard as he could. "Don't touch my sister!" Violet took advantage of Dash's sudden distraction and climbed out of the river, quickly making her way to hide in the lower branches of a nearby tree.

The guard threw Dash off of him, stunning the boy as his head slammed against the ground. The guard stood up and lowered his gun to aim for Dash's head. Violet leapt from her cover, projecting a light-purple force field around her and Dash. The guard's bullets glanced off of the field and shredded the foliage off to the sides of the two Super children.

"How are you doing that?" Dash asked his sister in amazement.

"I don't know!" Violet replied, equally amazed as her younger brother was.

"Whatever you're doing, don't stop!" Dash told her. He began to run, causing the force field surrounding him and his sister to move with him like a hamster would move their ball. The guard chased after them for a few feet, firing his gun until the clip was empty.

"Damn," he growled. He pulled out his radio to call for back up. "This is Security Detail unit-" He was cut off as Riku burst from the nearby trees and knocked him unconscious with the flat side of his Keyblade.

"Out of my way," the silver-haired teen growled as he chased after the vanishing forms of the two Super children.

Dash kept his speed up as he and Violet blazed their way through the jungle. Another pair of hovercraft raced towards them. Dash smirked and increased their speed slightly. The hovercraft bounced off of the force field and exploded against the nearby trees while the siblings raced on, unperturbed.

_LD_

Mr. and Mrs. Incredible paused as the sounds of a nearby explosion reached their ears. They glanced worriedly at each other. A mirrored look of confusion crossed both of their faces as the sounds of crunching leaves and branches came from somewhere nearby. Dash and Violet burst from the shrubbery, running their parents over with the force field and dragging them along.

"Mom! Dad! Hey!" Violet exclaimed excitedly. She deactivated the force field and the Super family fell all over each other as the momentum carried them several yards across the ground.

"Kids! You're all right!" Mr. and Mrs. Incredible said, relief prominent in their voices.

"I thought I'd never see you again," Mr. Incredible said as he pulled his family into a massive hug. Mrs. Incredible glanced around.

"Where's Riku?" She asked. Before the children could answer, a trio of hovercrafts shot of from the trees and began circling the family. With two swift punches, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible took down all three. A fourth one emerged, gunning for the two adults who rolled to the side, barely missing the spinning blade. Mr. Incredible snatched up a still intact hovercraft and spun it around like a discus, hurling it into the newest arrival and causing it to explode.

"Oh, I love you," Mr. and Mrs. Incredible said at the same time, gazing lovingly into each other's eyes. Five more hovercraft burst from the trees. The family of Supers readied themselves to fight them off but froze as all five suddenly exploded. They all shared confused glances until Riku emerged from the smoke and flames, casually whistling and twirling the Way to Dawn like it were nothing.

"Hope I didn't miss out on the party," he said with a grin. "Glad to see your wife busted you out Incredible." Mr. Incredible nodded at the Keyblade Master.

"Glad to see you're still alive," he said in reply. "Sorry for using you as a decoy." Riku shrugged it off.

"No big deal," he said, turning on his heel as another group of hovercraft sliced their way through the trees towards them. "But let's save the trivial matters for after the butt-kicking, shall we?" Bullets flew through the air, only to be deflected by Violet's force fields as Mr. and Mrs. Incredible took down the guards. The Way to Dawn shone sinisterly in the light cast by the flames as Riku struck down two more hovercraft.

He had turned his attention to a third when his entire body was suddenly encased in an electric-blue light. He couldn't move a muscle or even speak; only his eyes were capable of wandering. In the corners of his vision, he saw that the Incredibles had all been trapped in the same energy. Riku's stomach sank.

_Zero-point energy. Fantastic._

"Whoa! Whoa! Hey!" Syndrome shouted as he floated down from somewhere above them. He did not seem happy about all of the chaos, which Riku found out of place for a super-villain. "Time out! What have we here?" He lifted the family, and Riku, up into the air, excitedly examining their outfits. "Matching uniforms? Oh, no."

His face fell into an expression of disbelief as his eyes fell upon Mrs. Incredible. "Elastigirl?" He chuckled in surprise at the very thought. "You married Elastigirl? Whoa!" He did a double take as he reexamined the kids. "And got busy! It's a whole family of Supers! Looks like I've hit the jackpot! Oh, this is just too good!" Around them, guards were aiming their guns at the Supers and Keyblade Master.

"And you," Syndrome growled at Riku. "You're just a pain in my side, you know that? Not only do you destroy the Omnidroid that beat Mr. Incredible, you blew up an entire aircraft hangar! Do you know how much all of the damage you alone caused is going to end up costing me? A lot! That's how much! And you just won't die either!" Riku rolled his eyes. "You make it very hard to fulfill Maleficent's request. Oh well, you'll just have the same fate as the Supers here I guess, seeing as how you were so willing to help them out."

Riku groaned. He only had one comforting thought go through his head. _At least getting caught and imprisoned here can't be worse than that time I got lost in the Labyrinth for two weeks._

_LD_

From her perch in the highest branches of the trees, Keila watched as Syndrome transported the four people with matching tights and the Keyblade Master towards the island's central complex. She grinned as she contemplated her orders. Kill Master Riku.

_Oh, so much fun._ She said to herself smugly.

_LD_

* * *

_Well, that's it for this time folks. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated and welcomed._

_I'm going to bed now. Goodnight everyone!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis ._

_Shadow Horizons  
_


	16. Omnidroid Version Ten

_Happy Wednesday everyone!_

_I hope everyone's having a good week so far! If you aren't, look at it this way: You've only got two days until Friday! Unless you have a big test worth 77% of your final grade in a class because your teacher is a horrible person that also looks like they crawled out of the deepest circle of hell specifically to give you that one test. I actually had a teacher like that back in middle school. And that's the oddly worded story about why I hate math._

_Thanks go out to everyone who has been reviewing so far! I'm glad you all like the story so far and I hope I don't disappoint with this latest addition!_

_Disclaimer__: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or the character from Black Cat that makes an appearance. I do however own my plot, my original characters, and a brand spanking new tv to replace the one I lost last week when my friend dropped his end to reply to a text. _

_Enjoy!_

_**Edit: **__Timeline corrected._

* * *

Chapter Sixteen: Omnidroid Version Ten

_Friday, June 4th 4794 P.C._

"The ship's unique design suggests-" With a click, the channel on the TV in the cell block changed. On the screen was displayed an aerial view of what appeared to be the City Hall of some city. A large, triangularly shaped, jet-black plane with a large orb set into its center had crash landed right on the front steps of the building. Military personnel were forming a perimeter around it.

"There were no fatalities," A news reporter's voice said before Syndrome hit the mute button and turned to face the captured family of Supers and the Keyblade Master.

"Huh? Huh?" Syndrome said, eagerly gesturing at the screen. "Oh, come on! You gotta admit, this is cool!" His prisoners glared at him. "The robot will emerge dramatically, do some damage. Throngs of screaming people! And just when all hope is lost, Syndrome will save the day!" He jabbed a finger at Mr. Incredible. "I'll be a bigger hero than you ever were!"

"You mean that you killed off real heroes so you could pretend to be one?" Mr. Incredible demanded, clearly outraged. Syndrome chuckled.

"Oh, I'm real alright," he said smugly. "Real enough to defeat you! And I did it without your precious gifts, your oh-so special powers. I'll give them heroics. I'll give them the most spectacular heroics anyone's ever seen!" He turned his back on the captives to face the door, his tone mellowing out. "And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be Super. And when everyone's Super…" He chuckled evilly, "No one will be." His chuckle broke into a round of maniacal laughter as the door to the cell block slammed shut.

Riku's eyes flickered up to the screen in time to watch the ship carrying the Omnidroid split in half. The soldiers on the screen all raised their weapons. The Omnidroid's five legs emerged from inside its body, crushing cars beneath it as it planted its feet. The soldiers all began shooting, only for their bullets to deflect harmlessly off of the Omnidroid's armor plating. A tank rolled into view on screen and fired a mortar round at the Omnidroid. The round exploded near one of the joints connecting a leg to the main body, but the Omnidroid wasn't fazed by it.

The Omnidroid's red visual sensor emerged from the top of its body. An energy canon unfolded from the side of its sensor and fired a round of bright blue energy into one of the tanks, which exploded into a ball of flame. That seemed to be the last straw for some of the soldiers. Their morale broke and they scattered as the Omnidroid fired more energy rounds into nearby vehicles. The Incredible family and Riku watched in defeat. Mr. Incredible hung his head low.

"I'm sorry," he said, the others glancing over at him as he spoke. "This is my fault. I've been a lousy father and a lousy human being. Blind to what I have. So obsessed with being undervalued that I undervalued all of you." Out of the corner of his eye, Riku saw Violet create a force field around herself, cutting off the energy connection holding her in place as she rolled towards one of the guard stations that controlled the zero-point cell.

"Um, Dad?" Dash began, as he realized his sister was free. Mrs. Incredible shushed him.

"Don't interrupt," she whispered, clearly intent on what her husband had to say.

"So caught up in the past that I-" Mr. Incredible seemed to be struggling to find the right words to convey his emotions, something Riku assumed might happen often with him. "You are my greatest adventure. And I almost missed it. I swear, I'm gonna get us out of this safely if I-"

"Well, I think Dad has made some excellent progress today," Violet said, drawing everyone's attention over to her. "But, I think it's time we unwind now." She brought the orb that covered her right hand down on the release button. All power to the zero-point cell was cut off and the others fell to the ground. With a hiss, all of their bonds split in half, freeing them. Mr. Incredible gave his daughter a hug and the five of them ran out of the cell block.

"We need to get to the mainland," Mr. Incredible said as they ran through the halls. Riku was mildly surprised by the lack of guards.

"I saw an aircraft hangar on my way in," Mrs. Incredible said. Riku felt his stomach twist in a nervous knot. "Straight ahead, I think."

"It wasn't the one I blew up was it?" He asked hesitantly. Mrs. Incredible shook her head.

"No, this one is still intact." Riku breathed a sigh of relief.

_LD_

Mirage stared at the large screen that the guards had set up in the security center. All of the guards were laughing as the news broadcast showed people running in terror from the Omnidroid. There was a heavy feeling of guilt pooling in her stomach. She forced herself to turn away from the screen. She glanced over at one of the security monitors and watched in surprise as the escaped Supers and Keyblade Master ran through the halls in plain view of the camera.

_LD_

Mr. Incredible forced his way through the reinforced door to the hangar, which was completely empty of all vehicles with the exception of a blue and white RV that seemed out of place.

"Where are all the guards?" Mr. Incredible asked aloud. His answer came in the form of muffled laughter emanating from the RV. "Go, go!" He whispered to the others. They all dashed into the hangar while Mr. Incredible held the door open for them.

They ran across the hangar and pressed themselves up against the back of the RV, doing their best to stay hidden. Mr. Incredible pressed a finger to his lips and he slipped inside the RV. A few moments of silence passed quickly while He trashed the few guards inside the vehicle. He stepped back outside and whistled to the others, signaling the all-clear. The others darted out from their cover and continued running across the hangar, looking desperately for anything that could fly.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Riku's vision was filled with gold as something metallic swung towards his face. Reacting on instinct, he rolled backwards, barely dodging the blow. The Way to Dawn appeared in his hand in time to counter the second strike. His mouth dropped open in surprise as he stared at the Inverse Kingdom Key. His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the Wielder. Her eyes were a familiar cerulean and her caramel colored hair sent shivers down his spine. The girl glared up at him. A feeling of déjà vu filled Riku. It was like he was staring at a female version of Sora. The girl leapt back, putting several feet between her and Riku. The Incredible family stopped as they heard the clash of metal on metal.

"Don't worry about me!" Riku called out to them, his eyes remaining locked onto the other Wielder. "I can handle her. Just find us a way out of here!" Mr. Incredible nodded towards him.

"Good luck, kid!" He said, turning to keep looking. Riku narrowed his eyes and shifted his feet so he was standing in his signature fighting stance.

"Who are you and what do you want?" He demanded. The girl grinned.

"Name's Keila, Wielder of shadows," she said, flourishing her Keyblade with unnecessary flamboyance. "And I'm going to kill you. It's nothing personal, Maleficent just wants you dead." She lunged at Riku, the tip of her Keyblade aimed at his sternum. Riku easily side-stepped the attack. The Way to Dawn lashed out, knocking Keila's feet from under her. She let out a cry of surprise. Riku didn't give her time to hit the ground. He unleashed a long string of blows, knocking her higher and higher into the air. They were almost at the ceiling when Riku delivered one final blow across her chest and sent her crashing back down to the ground.

"That was my boob, you jerk!" Keila groaned, clutching her chest. Riku fell back to the ground with a thud. He glanced up to glare at her and felt his face grow warm as he got a perfect up-skirt view of her red and black striped underwear. Keila's face blushed crimson as she realized where he was looking. She quickly righted herself and lashed out at Riku with her foot, which caught Riku squarely in the jaw. "Perv!"

"Hey!" Riku growled. "It's not my fault you're wearing a skirt while fighting!"

"That doesn't mean you have to look!" Keila snapped back.

"Try wearing some pants, and then I won't accidentally see anything!" Riku retorted. Keila opened her mouth to say something but was stopped as the flat of Riku's Keyblade slammed against the back of her head before she had time to realize that the silver-haired teen had moved. She collapsed to her knees as blinding pain erupted from the base of her skull. Darkness quickly clouded her vision as she fell; face first, onto the floor.

"Nothing personal," Riku said, "but we're in a bit of a rush. Let's save this for another time, shall we?" He turned away from the unconscious Wielder and ran to catch up to the Incredible family.

"This is the right hangar," Mrs. Incredible was saying. "But I don't see any jets."

"A jet's not fast enough," Mr. Incredible replied.

"What's faster than a jet?" Riku asked as he reached them.

"Hey," Dash called from a large pair of doors. "How about a rocket?" The others ran over to him and saw a gleaming white rocket identical to the one used to send the Omnidroid to Metroville.

"Great!" Mrs. Incredible said. "I don't know how to fly a rocket."

"You don't have to," Violet said. The others turned to look at her. She shrugged. "Just use the coordinates from the last launch." Mr. and Mrs. Incredible smiled proudly at their daughter's intuition.

"Wait. I bet Syndrome's changed the password by now," Mr. Incredible said. "How am I supposed to get into the computer?"

"Say please," Mirage's voice said over the PA system. The escapees all looked up at the flight control deck, where the platinum-blonde was smiling down at them.

_LD_

Lucius Best smiled at his reflection in the mirror as he dabbed cologne onto his neck. Tonight was going to be a great night. He and his wife had been planning this night for weeks; an opportunity for them to reconnect in their marriage. Nothing was going to ruin it. Not even Bob.

Lucius sighed. It had been over two months since he had last been able to see his best friend. The last time they had seen each other, they had been reliving their glory days as Supers by listening to a police scanner and saving a bunch of people from a burning building. Since then, he hadn't heard so much as a peep from the former Mr. Incredible. He glanced at a picture on his nightstand. Mr. Incredible and Frozone. Bob and Lucius. Even though they rarely worked together in the old days, they were still known as best friends. He turned back to the mirror to finish working on his appearance.

Outside of his window, a large, round robot on five legs stomped past, closely followed by three military grade helicopters that were unleashing a torrential rain of lead on the robot, but to no avail. Lucius ran to the window to make sure he wasn't seeing things before darting over to his dresser. He rifled around in one of his drawers before producing a remote with a single, blue button in its center. He spun around to his bed and pressed the button.

The bed and bookcases folded up into the wall, revealing a detailed map of the city, a police scanner and an indent in the shape of a man. Lucius stared at the indent for a few seconds before calling out to his wife.

"Honey?"

"What?" His wife replied from the other room. Lucius ran back to his dresser and began digging through his clothes.

"Where's my super suit?" He asked desperately.

"What?" His wife repeated, clearly confused.

"Where is my super suit?" Lucius repeated slowly as he dug through the laundry basket in the corner of the room.

"I uh… put it away," his wife said. Outside of the window, Lucius watched one of the helicopters spin out of control and explode

"Where?" Lucius asked, his temper rising.

"Why do you need to know?"

"I need it!"

"Uh-uh!" His wife shouted angrily. "Don't you think about running off doing no  
derrin'-do! We've been planning this dinner for two months!"

"The public is in danger!" Lucius said as he ran out into the hall to search the closet.

"My evening's in danger!" His wife said.

"You tell me where my suit is, woman!" Lucius demanded. "We are talking about the greater good!"

"'Greater good'?" His wife repeated in an irritated tone. "I am your wife! I am the greatest good you are ever going to get!" Lucius sighed. He could already tell this was going to take awhile.

_LD_

The driver of a gas tanker practically threw himself from the vehicle as the Omnidroid reached for it. All around civilians were running around in a panic. The Omnidroid grabbed the tanker and hurled it into the air. A mother snatched her child up from its stroller and took off running as the tanker spun through the air towards her and her child. She clutched her child tight as the tanker's shadow loomed over her, seconds away from impact.

A bright blue energy surrounded the tanker and it lifted high into the air. The mother slowly opened her eyes and saw her rescuer, Syndrome, as he lifted the tanker into the air with his zero-point energy beam.

"The Supers have returned!" A man exclaimed as a small crowd formed below Syndrome, who was smiling proudly. The crowd below him was beginning to applaud.

"Is that Fironic?" One woman asked. Syndrome's face fell slightly.

"No, Fironic has a different outfit," another woman explained. Syndrome shook his head.

"No, no," he said kindly. "I'm a new superhero!" He flung the tanker behind him where it exploded against the ground. "I'm Syndrome!" The Omnidroid quickly advanced on Syndrome, extending one of its clawed arms to grab the 'super'. Syndrome smirked.

"All right. Stand back." He pressed a button on his gauntlet and the arm froze in place less than a foot from him. Syndrome flew up and behind the Omnidroid. He fired off a couple of harmless energy beams against its armor plating. "Someone needs to teach this hunk of metal a few manners!" He pressed another button on his gauntlet before punching one of the leg joints. The connecting leg popped off with a loud hiss and dropped heavily to the ground. "Ha ha!" Syndrome held his arms up proudly as he faced the crowd.

The Omnidroid's visual sensor followed Syndrome before staring at its arm. Its artificial intelligence quickly analyzed how it had lost its arm and locked onto Syndrome's gauntlet. The laser cannon on the side of its sensor fired a single burst of blue energy that knocked the gauntlet off of Syndrome's wrist. Syndrome let out a cry of shock and stared up at the Omnidroid in disbelief. He narrowly dodged another of the Omnidroid's arms and took off as fast as he could, weaving his way in and out of the retreating crowd. The Omnidroid fired several more beams of energy at him. One managed to strike one of Syndrome's rocket boots, causing it to malfunction. Syndrome let out a cry as he was sent spinning out of control. He slammed into the side of a building and collapsed onto a balcony. He struggled in an attempt to get back up before passing out.

_LD_

High in the atmosphere, the rocket carrying the Incredible family and Riku split apart as the black jet built inside took over. Instead of transporting an Omnidroid, this jet carried the RV from the hangar, supported by Mrs. Incredible stretching her body to the maximum. Violet and Dash drummed their fingers on the small table barely large enough for one person, let alone two, that was built inside. Mr. Incredible sat in the driver's seat while Riku napped on the bed in the back.

"Are we there yet?" Dash groaned.

"We get there when we get there!"Mr. Incredible snapped. He had heard that question too many times in the past couple of hours. He forced his window open, and leaned his head out of the window into the intense wind. "How you doing, honey?"

"Do I have to answer?" Mrs. Incredible shouted back, clearly exhausted. Mr. Incredible stared back out of the windshield. The clouds were beginning to thin and he could see that the jet was quickly approaching the city.

"Kids, strap yourselves down like I told you," he called into the back. Violet and Dash both secured themselves in place as Riku snored softly. Mr. Incredible leaned his head back out of the window. "Here we go, honey!" He glanced back at his kids. "Ready, Violet?" Violet nodded and placed her hand over a button. "Ready, now!" Violet's palm slammed down on the button. The jet split in half and Mrs. Incredible let out a groan of pain as her body stretched for a moment before releasing her grip on the plane to climb inside the RV. Mr. Incredible slammed the gas pedal down onto the floor. "This is gonna be rough!" He warned the others. The RV slammed back down to solid ground, directly onto an interstate full of cars, which swerved out of the way of the now speeding RV.

The impact knocked Riku from the bed and into the ceiling. He let out a cry of shock and pain as he missed the bed coming back down and slammed into the floor. Clutching his now throbbing goose egg, Riku stumbled up towards the front of the RV.

"The robot's in the financial district," Mr. Incredible was saying. "Which exit do I take?"

"Traction Avenue," Mrs. Incredible replied.

"That'll take me downtown," Mr. Incredible replied as he veered towards a different exit. "I take Seventh, don't I?"

"Don't take Seventh!" Mrs. Incredible shouted. The RV, which had been feet from being on the exit ramp, swerved back into traffic, eliciting a chorus of car horns from angry drivers.

"Great, we missed it!"

"You asked me how to get there and I told you. Exit at Traction!"

"That'll take me downtown!"

"He's coming up! Get in the right lane! Signal!"

"We don't exit at Traction!"

"You're going to miss it!" Mrs. Incredible shouted angrily. Riku suddenly felt glad that there were no cars back on Destiny Islands. They only created tension on the roads. Mr. Incredible let out an angry groan and swerved onto the Traction Avenue exit, cutting several people off and causing more than a few cars to spin out of control. The RV slammed into the sides of the winding exit ramp and narrowly missed an oncoming gas tanker as it sped through a red light. Mr. Incredible slammed his foot on the brake, causing the vehicle to fishtail and collide with several of the cars parked alongside of the road. They continued to speed along at a dangerous speed.

Desperately, Mr. Incredible slammed both feet on the brake, bringing the RV's wheels to a complete stop. The RV spun to its side and began to roll down the road. Violet let out a scream. Riku swore under his breath as a shard of a shattered window sliced open his forearm. The RV rolled to a stop, perfectly parked, in the only free spot at the end of the street.

"Is everybody okay back there?" Mr. Incredible asked as he turned around in his seat. Violet and Dash were both giggling.

"Super-duper, Dad!" said Violet.

"Let's do that again," Dash said with a large grin plastered on his face.

"Please don't leave me with the horrible doctor," Riku said, sounding somewhat dazed. The Omnidroid emerged from behind a pair of buildings, making its way towards them.

"Wait here, and stay hidden," Mr. Incredible said. "I'm going in." He climbed out of the hole where the driver's side door used to be and began to make his way towards the Omnidroid. Mrs. Incredible followed suit. Her arm stretched out and spun her husband around to face her.

"While what?" She demanded. "I watch helplessly from the sidelines? I don't think so."

"I'm asking you to stay with the kids," Mr. Incredible explained.

"And I'm telling you not a chance," Mrs. Incredible said. "You're my husband. I'm with you for better or worse."

"I have to do this alone," Mr. Incredible said, turning back towards the Omnidroid. Riku, feeling capable of movement again, hopped out of the trashed RV.

"You can't stop me," he said. Mr. Incredible stared down at him.

"No, but I'm going to ask you to stay put," he said. "That thing trashed me in the jungle, you saw it." Riku nodded.

"And then I sliced it into pieces," he reminded the Super as the Way to Dawn appeared in his hand. "Or did you forget?" Mr. Incredible placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Please, just stay here," he asked, his eyes almost pleading. Several onlookers were pointing at the supers and whispering. Riku glanced down at his feet and noticed a black mask similar to the ones the Incredible family was wearing. He quickly bent down and put it on. If he was going to be fighting alongside superheroes, he needed to at least look the part. There was a bright flash of light that temporarily engulfed him. It faded to show that his clothes had changed.

His outfit now resembled the Darkness boosting outfit Maleficent had given him, only now, rather than being mainly purple in color, it was a bright orange with gold and red accents, like the sky at dawn. The Heartless symbol in the center of his chest had been replaced with an elegant, blue heart emblazoned on a golden shield. The useless belts on his upper thighs as well as the white tufts of fur had been removed. Riku smiled down at his new attire approvingly.

"What is this to you?" Mrs. Incredible asked. "Playtime?"

"No," Mr. Incredible replied.

"So you can be Mr. Incredible again?"

"No!"

"Then what? What is it?"

"I'm not…"

"Not what?"

"I'm not strong enough." Violet and Dash watched their parents arguing with nervous expressions.

"Strong enough? And this will make you stronger?"

"Yes. No!"

"That's what this is? Some sort of workout?"

"I can't lose you again!" Mr. Incredible grabbed his wife desperately by the shoulders. He hung his head while she stared at him in mild surprise. "I can't. Not again. I'm not… strong enough." Mrs. Incredible looked sadly at her downtrodden husband for a moment before pulling him into a kiss. Violet and Dash averted their eyes while Riku whistled innocently. They broke apart after a few moments.

"If we work together, you won't have to be," Mrs. Incredible said softly.

"I don't know what'll happen," Mr. Incredible said, apprehension evident on his face.

"Hey, we're superheroes," Mrs. Incredible said comfortingly. "What could happen?" Behind her, Violet let out a scream as she and Dash ran from the RV. One of the Omnidroid's legs crushed it a split second later. The Supers and Riku ran across the street in an attempt to gain some distance. Another of the Omnidroid's legs crashed into the ground, stopping Violet and Dash from catching up with their parents.

"Vi! Dash! No!" Mrs. Incredible cried out. Mr. Incredible and Riku turned back. The Omnidroid brought its leg back down on the two children. Dash covered his head and prepared for the inevitable, but it never came. He looked up and saw that Violet had created a force field around them. The Omnidroid pounded twice more against the force field before repositioning itself over it. It slammed its body down, finally breaking the force field and almost knocking Violet out. The Omnidroid raised its body again. Dash covered his head as the body dropped, only to be stopped by Mr. Incredible's strength.

"Dad!" Dash exclaimed in relief.

"Go! Go!" Mr. Incredible groaned. Mrs. Incredible ran up and pulled the kids out from under the Omnidroid and carried them to safety. Mr. Incredible forced the Omnidroid further off of the ground. His eyes widened in shock as one of its four pointed claws reached under itself and grabbed hold of the Super. With a cry, Mr. Incredible was thrown into the upper floors of a nearby office building.

Riku charged the Omnidroid, dodging the claws that came crashing down around him. With a shout, he leapt onto one of the arms and quickly ran along its length before stopping at the joint. He raised the Way to Dawn above his head and brought it down on the joint with as much strength as he could muster. He had expected his blade to slice through the metal like it had with the last one. The last thing he had expected was the bone-jarring clang that went along with the impact, causing him to lose his balance and fall off of the Omnidroid. One of the Omnidroid's claws grabbed hold of him and slammed him into the ground several times. Light formed along the Way to Dawn's edge, sharpening it with magic and allowing Riku to slice his way free of the claw. The leg whipped around and slammed into Riku, hurling him through the side of a nearby parked bus.

The Omnidroid ignored Riku and turned its attention back on Mr. Incredible, who leapt from the office building and knocked the Omnidroid off balance. The ground shook violently from the Omnidroid's fall. Mr. Incredible rolled to a stop and grinned victoriously up at the Omnidroid. A patch of ice quickly formed alongside of him as a Super, dressed in a white and baby blue super suit skated along past him.

"Frozone!" Mr. Incredible cheered as his best friend attempted to freeze the Omnidroid's joints as it stood back up. The Omnidroid grabbed Frozone and hurled him into the roof of a nearby car. Another of the Omnidroid's legs crashed into Mr. Incredible and sent him flying into the side of another building. Riku stumbled to his feet with a groan.

"I hate robots," he growled. He swung his Keyblade back, ready to go for another strike when he was grabbed from behind by one of the Omnidroid's claws and thrown straight up into the air. The Omnidroid turned its attention on Mrs. Incredible as she bounded up the side of a nearby building. It narrowed one of its claws into a point and stabbed at the building in an attempt to impale her. Mrs. Incredible easily dodged the blow.

Frozone, supported on a thick patch of ice he had formed into a slide in midair, slid by and covered the claw in as much ice as he could before moving out of harm's way. The Omnidroid pulled its claw from the building and opened it, easily shattering the ice. Its visual sensor locked onto Mrs. Incredible and fired off several bursts of energy as she ran across the street. Several cars exploded into thick columns of smoke and flame.

Mr. Incredible shook his head as he slipped back into consciousness and immediately spotted Syndrome's gauntlet. He had a momentary flashback to when he had met Syndrome on Nomanisan Island and Syndrome controlled the Omnidroid version Nine with this same remote. He snatched it up and held it above his head victoriously.

"Syndrome's remote!" He exclaimed, turning to grin at the others. The Omnidroid's visual sensor spun around and locked onto the remote before making Mr. Incredible its primary target. Mr. Incredible's face fell. One of the Omnidroid's claws slammed Mr. Incredible into the ground and grabbed hold of him. Mr. Incredible almost dropped the remote, but managed to save it by the tips of his fingers. Desperately, he pressed the buttons on the remote randomly until the arm that had a grip on him ejected itself from the joint. Violet and Dash, both hiding around the corner of a building like their mother had told them to, managed to see what their dad had been so excited about.

"The remote controls the robot!"Violet exclaimed. Dash gave her a glance that clearly told her she was stating the obvious. Violet grinned sheepishly. The Omnidroid fired several bursts of energy at Mr. Incredible, who barely succeeded in dodging them.

"Dad!" Dash called out. Mr. Incredible looked around for his son and spotted him as he appeared in a red and gold blur behind the Omnidroid, waving his arms above his head. "Throw it, throw it!" Mr. Incredible nodded and hefted the remote like it was a football.

"Go long!" He shouted to his son as he used all of his strength to hurl the remote over the Omnidroid. Dash spun around and ran directly underneath the remote. The Omnidroid's attention turned to Dash as it began firing off an endless stream of energy blasts at him. Dash effortlessly avoided the blasts and exploding concrete around him. He kept running, straight into the city's largest park, complete with manmade lake. Dash increased his speed so that he didn't sink into the water. He caught the remote in his outstretched hands as he reached the opposite shore.

"I got it!" He shouted back to the others, he kept on running, intent on coming around full circle and bringing the remote back to his parents. The road in front of him exploded into fire and debris as one of the Omnidroid's blasts struck a gas line, igniting it and blowing a crater in the concrete. Dash turned around to change course only for his only other exit to be blocked off by a secondary explosion. Riku sat up on the roof of the building where he had landed, groaning in pain. He ran to the edge and peered down. Forty-three stories directly below him was the Omnidroid. Riku took a moment to steel himself before he jumped headfirst over the edge.

"Honey! Take out its gun!" Mr. Incredible shouted to his wife. The Omnidroid's visual sensor spun around long enough to fire a blast at Mr. Incredible's feet, knocking the Super onto his back. At the same time, Mrs. Incredible had grabbed a manhole cover and was utilizing a light pole and her rubber-like arm to create a make shift sling shot. She carefully aimed and released the cover, which spun rapidly towards the narrow band of metal that supported the gun, and missed. Mrs. Incredible's eyes widened in disbelief as the Omnidroid's visual sensor locked onto her. With a roar, Riku crashed into the Omnidroid, leaving a massive dent in its armor while the Way to Dawn easily sliced off the gun.

"You're welcome!" He shouted down to Mrs. Incredible as he leapt off of the Omnidroid in time to avoid a sweeping blow from one of its arms. Riku channeled as much energy as he could muster into the palm of his hand. An orb of Light quickly formed. "Take this!" The orb burst from his hand and collided with one of the Omnidroid's remaining legs, which was obliterated as the orb exploded.

Riku let out a victorious laugh and attempted to create another orb of Light to attack with. Nothing happened. Riku groaned as he realized he needed to focus on increasing his Light-wielding skills. As of now, he was only good for one decent sized shot.

Frozone quickly came to Dash's rescue, scooping the kid up in his arms and skating away from the fires. The Omnidroid locked onto the remote again. Its legs and sensor retracted back into its body as it started to roll in pursuit of the remote. Frozone created the ice path for him and Dash to skate on as quickly as he could, but the Omnidroid was gaining on them a lot faster than he had expected. Thinking quickly, he changed course and veered out onto the lake where he was able to make a path quicker. The Omnidroid's legs and sensors reemerged and it leapt high into the air, crashing down on the water and creating a massive wave that sent Frozone and Dash flying into the air.

With seconds to spare, Frozone froze the wave, turning it into a massive pile of snow that a quickly gave him and Dash a soft spot to land. The remote skidded across the road. Mr. Incredible chased after it as the Omnidroid emerged from the water. It spotted Mr. Incredible and aimed one of its claws for him. A set of rockets built into the claw propelled it away from the Omnidroid and into the Super, trapping him and knocking him away from the remote. The Omnidroid turned to destroy the remote.

Frozone skated himself ahead of the Omnidroid and froze the ground beneath it, causing it to slip and slide in an attempt to keep its balance. Mrs. Incredible stretched herself between a pair of light posts, tripping the Omnidroid as it stumbled forward. Riku leapt out of the way of the collapsing hunk of metal just in time as it crashed to the ground. Even though it had been downed, the Omnidroid was still determined to destroy the remote. One of its clawed legs lashed out and missed as the remote floated up into the air, seemingly of its own accord.

Violet, in her invisible form, ran with the remote as the Omnidroid stood back up. Its legs crossed as it attempted to crush the invisible Super and the remote, which caused it to collapse again now that it was missing the majority of its legs.

"Mom, I've got it!" Violet exclaimed as she ran over to where Mrs. Incredible, Dash, Frozone and Riku were all standing. "I've got the remote!" Behind them the Omnidroid was getting back on its feet.

"A remote?" Frozone asked in confusion. Violet saw the Omnidroid get back up and began to press buttons in a panic. "A remote that controls what?" Violet pressed one of the larger buttons on the remote and activated the rocket propellers built into the Omnidroid's claws. "The robot?" The five of them ducked as the Omnidroid went sailing over their heads and into the stonework of a nearby skyscraper. The Omnidroid slowly got back up.

"It's coming back!" Dash said. He grabbed the remote from his sister and pressed random button. Mr. Incredible let out a cry of surprise as the claw that had trapped him suddenly opened up, vaulting him several dozen feet into the air. "That wasn't right."

"Give me that!" Violet snapped, taking the remote back. Mr. Incredible got back to his feet. He stared hopelessly at the Omnidroid.

"We can't stop it," he realized. "The only thing hard enough to penetrate it is…" He paused, as he flashed back to the time he had fought the Omnidroid version Eight and how he had managed to trick it into ripping out its own power source. He glanced at the claw, lying uselessly on the ground next to him. "Is itself." He grabbed hold of the claw and hoisted it.

"It's getting closer!" Riku said, readying his Keyblade.

"It doesn't work!" Violet said angrily, slamming her fist down on the buttons. The rockets on the claw in Mr. Incredible's hands. Helen grabbed the remote from Violet and glanced at Riku and Frozone.

"Lucius, Riku, try to buy us some time!" She said.

"You got it!" Riku shouted as he charged towards the Omnidroid.

"Try the one next to it!" Frozone shouted as he created an ice path. A pair of skis emerged from the bottom of his boots and transformed into a sled-like object, increasing his speed and mobility as he attempted to create a wall of ice to slow down the Omnidroid.

The Way to Dawn spun through the air and impaled itself in the center of the Omnidroid's visual sensor. Bits of machinery and red glass rained down as Riku shouted triumphantly, grabbing his Keyblade from midair as it sailed back to him of its own accord.

Frozone's wall was unable to stand up to the Omnidroid's strength; it effortlessly walked straight through it. The rockets on the claw Mr. Incredible was holding shut off as Mrs. Incredible pressed a random button.

"Wait a minute," Mr. Incredible muttered slowly as he realized he wasn't being dragged across the ground anymore. "Press that button again!" Mrs. Incredible complied but hit a different button by mistake, causing the four 'fingers' that made the claw begin to rotate at a high velocity. "No, the other one! The first one!" He shouted. Mrs. Incredible quickly scanned the remote and found the button her husband wanted her to press.

"First button! Got it!" She shouted. Riku let out a cry of shock as one of the Omnidroid's limbs knocked him back to lay at the feet of Mrs. Incredible and the kids. "Get out of here kids, find a safe spot!" She ordered.

"We're not going anywhere!" Violet shouted back.

"Press the button!" Mr. Incredible shouted desperately as Riku got back to his feet.

"Not yet!" Mrs. Incredible shouted at him.

"Helen!" Frozone shouted as the Omnidroid broke through another ice wall.

"What are you waiting for?" Mr. Incredible asked.

"A closer target!" Mrs. Incredible shouted in explanation. "You got one shot!" Frozone was right up next to them and the Omnidroid burst through the last wall. Mrs. Incredible's finger slammed down on the button, igniting the rockets.

"Everybody duck!" Mr. Incredible shouted, as he released the claw from his grasp. The five of them threw themselves to the ground, narrowly avoiding the low flying claw as it burst through one side of the Omnidroid and out of the other, dragging the main power core with it. The Omnidroid remained standing for a few moments before it collapsed sideways into the lake, where it promptly exploded in a cloud of bright orange flame. They all stared at the smoking ruins of the Omnidroid for a moment before breaking out into a fit of relieved laughter.

"You see that?" An old man said to his companion as the two watched from a nearby bench, somehow having miraculously avoiding the battle. "That's how you do it. That's old school."

"Yup," his companion agreed. "No school like the old school."

High above them, Syndrome came to. He peered over the edge and saw, to his horror, the ruins of his Omnidroid and a crowd of people beginning to form around the Supers, all applauding and praising their heroes. Rage quickly consumed Syndrome.

"Just like old times," Frozone said as the six of them waved around for the flashing cameras and smiling citizens. Mr. Incredible chuckled and gave Frozone a heavy pat on the back.

"Just like old times," he agreed. Frozone let out a small groan and rolled his shoulders and neck.

"Yeah, hurt then too," he teased. Riku chuckled and winked at a group of teenage girls who couldn't stop staring at him. The entire group swooned comically and collapsed to the ground. Riku grinned. He and Sora had used to pretend they were superheroes back when they were younger, and today, he was one. He just couldn't stop smiling.

Keila stared down at the crowd from her vantage point in one of the offices high above the gathering crowd. Darkness swirled around her and she vanished.

_Next time._ She silently vowed to herself.

_LD_

Several hours and countless handshakes and photograph poses later, the Incredible family and Riku were sitting in the back of a limo that was en route to their home in the suburbs, all provided by their fellow passenger, Rick. A gentleman in his early forties, the stress from Rick's job in a government agency that didn't exist made him seem like he was in his fifties. He and Mr. Incredible spoke in low tones as Mrs. Incredible checked her voicemail. Riku hummed softly to himself as he examined his reflection in the window.

"We've frozen all of Syndrome's assets," Rick was explaining to Mr. Incredible. "If he even sneezes, we'll be there with a hanky and a pair of handcuffs. The people of this country are indebted to you."

"Does this mean we can come out of hiding?" Mr. Incredible asked.

"Let the politicians figure that one out" Rick suggested. "But, I've been asked to assure you we'll take care of everything else. You did good, Bob." Mr. Incredible smiled and leaned back in his seat. Dash, Riku realized, seemed to have an excessive amount of energy and was enthusiastically re-describing their battle.

"That was the best vacation ever!" He cried out before collapsing back into his seat. "I love our family." Riku chuckled softly and stared out of the window as the limo slowly began to slow. Mrs. Incredible motioned for her husband to listen in on the phone with her. They were silent for a few moments as the limo pulled up in front of their home, a quaint looking, one story building with tasteful masonry adorning the exterior.

"Here we are," Rick said. He extended a hand towards Riku. "Pleasure to meet you, my boy." Riku took his hand and shook it briefly.

"The pleasure's all mine," he said. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mr. and Mrs. Incredible share a worried glance over something they had heard on one of the voicemail messagaes.

"Replacement?" Mrs. Incredible said fearfully. "I didn't call a replacement." She and her husband burst from the car and sprinted towards the door to their home. Violet and Dash shared a confused glance before taking off after them. The hairs on the back of Riku's neck stood up.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," he muttered as he bolted from the limo after the family. He caught up to them as they burst through the door, barely having time to spot Syndrome, standing in the Incredible family's living room, holding the sleeping form of Mr. and Mrs. Incredible's infant son, Jack-Jack, in one hand before the villain spun around and trapped all five of them with a beam of zero-point energy. Syndrome grinned evilly at them.

"Shh. The baby is sleeping," Syndrome whispered before laughing. "You took away my future. I'm simply returning the favor. Oh, don't worry, I'll be a good mentor. Supportive, encouraging. Everything you weren't." He glared up at Mr. Incredible as he spoke. And in time, who knows, he might make a good _sidekick_." With a nasty grin decorating his face, Syndrome flicked his wrist and sent the five of them crashing through a nearby bookcase. He raised his fist and blasted a hole through the roof, waking the sleeping child in his arms by accident.

"He's getting away, Bob!" Mrs. Incredible cried as she scrambled to her feet. "We have to do something! We have to do something now!" Syndrome's rocket boots roared to life and Syndrome took off into the sky. Directly above the house, a jet that was shaped like a manta ray hovered, waiting for Syndrome's return. In the villain's arms, Jack-Jack began to cry loudly. His wailing turned into a growl as his entire body turned into a bright yellow flame.

Syndrome let out a cry of shock and almost dropped the child. The flames vanished as Jack-Jack's body turned to steel. The sudden increase in weight caused Syndrome to plummet several feet, his rockets barely able to compensate the additional weight. Down below, the five heroes ran out of the house and stared up at the fleeing figure of Syndrome desperately.

"Something's happening," Mrs. Incredible said in a panic. She turned to her husband. "What's happening?" Mr. Incredible shook his head, unable to tear his eyes off of his infant son. Jack-Jack's whole body shook as it became bright red. The tiny spike of hair he had became a horn as his hands grew claws. The imp-like Jack-Jack began pounding its fists against Syndrome and wrapped his arms tightly around the villain's neck.

"We have to stop him!" Mrs. Incredible cried. "Throw something!"

"I can't!" Mr. Incredible retorted. "I might hit Jack-Jack!" Jack-Jack was climbing all over Syndrome, punching every inch of him he could reach and ripping out his flame like wig.

"Throw me," Mrs. Incredible said softly as the idea occurred to her. Jack-Jack climbed down Syndrome's leg and ripped one of his rocket boots off. Syndrome spun out of control and slammed into the underside of one of the jet's wings, causing him to drop Jack-Jack, who fell, crying back towards the ground.

"Bob, throw me!" Mrs. Incredible shouted. Mr. Incredible grabbed her by the waist and threw her into the air like he would a javelin. Mrs. Incredible sailed through the air and grabbed hold of her falling son, who immediately stopped crying in the safety of his mother's arms. Mrs. Incredible stretched her body, changing its shape so she quickly became a human parachute.

"This isn't the end of it!" Syndrome shouted down to the family as he managed to land himself in an open doorway on the side of the jet. He grinned like a deranged madman. "I will get your son, eventually! I'll get your son!" He laughed like lunatic for a brief moment before he saw something flying right at him. Mr. Incredible had thrown Riku, the Way to Dawn glinting in the light from the setting sun. "Oh no."

"No you won't!" Riku shouted as he sliced the front of the jet off with one fluid motion. "It's over!" The resulting explosion knocked Syndrome off of his feet and onto the top of the jet's remaining wing, feet from the engine. Syndrome's cape snagged on one of the rotating blades. He struggled desperately for a few moments before he was dragged, feet first into the engine, causing the rest of the jet to explode violently. Riku plummeted back to earth, creating a barrier of light to land softly on, only to bounce off and land on his face. He cracked his knuckles as he stood up and gave Mr. Incredible a high five as Mrs. Incredible and Jack-Jack landed next to them.

A split-second later, fire and debris rained down on top of them in a secondary explosion that completely leveled the Incredible family's home. They were spared from certain doom by a dome of bright purple energy created by Violet.

"That's my girl," Mrs. Incredible said proudly.

"Does this mean we have to move again?" Dash said. The others all chuckled for a few moments, all grateful to be alive. The smoke cleared, revealing the rubble that used to be their home. In the middle of a street, a small boy on his tricycle watched the family and Riku with open-mouthed amazement.

"Oh man. That was totally wicked!" He shouted. The six of them all glanced at the kid with bemused smirks.

"Well, that's it for me, I guess," Riku said. "Time for me to hit the road."

"You're leaving?" Dash asked, sounding slightly disappointed. Riku chuckled.

"Yup," he said, glancing out at the setting sun. "I've got places to go. You know? But I'll be back, don't worry." He gave the speedster a thumbs up and received one in return. Mrs. Incredible gave him a hug.

"Thanks for your help, Riku," she said. Riku hugged her back briefly.

"It was my pleasure," he said. "How often do you get to fight alongside superheroes?" Mr. Incredible held out his hand and Riku took it, wincing slightly at the Supers' grip.

"Take care of yourself, kid," he said. "Thanks for helping us stop Syndrome." Riku smiled up at him.

"No problem," he said as he turned away from them. "See you guys around!" The Incredible family all waved him goodbye and immediately fell into a group hug, thankful to have each other. Riku smirked and pressed the button on the Gummi ship remote in his pocket. As the light surrounded him, Riku spotted a Keyhole in the middle of the street. In the instant before the light surrounded him, Riku quickly summoned his Keyblade and sealed the Keyhole, remembering what Sora had told him about how sealing a Keyhole prevented it from being lost to the Darkness. And in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

_LD_

_Twilight Town_

Olette suppressed a bored yawn and straightened her silver dress. Sometimes, she hated when her parents got invited to these major social events. Especially when they dragged her along with them, just like tonight. Some great archeological find was on display at the Twilight Town Natural History and Science Museum. Her parents had been close friends with the Museum curator for many years so she invited them and Olette to attend a formal gala to celebrate the find. The worst part of it all was there was no one around her age she could talk to. Everyone around her was at least ten years older than her if not more.

She took a sip of the sparkling cider from her glass and made her way lazily through the numerous glass displays hosting pots and tools and several ancient swords that miraculously seemed to have retained their beauty after being buried for thousands of years. After several minutes of wandering, she found herself drawn to the one artifact that had captured nearly everyone's attention, a jet-black orb the size of her head, covered with some form of ancient writing that seemed to glow, even in the bright lights. She found herself captivated by the writing. What could possibly make the letters glow on their own?

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice said from just over her shoulder. Olette gave a start and spun around. A man in his early twenties was standing just behind her. His long bronze hair was tied behind his head and the base of his skull and his silver eyes seemed to be filled with awed wonder as he stared at the artifact. Olette's eyes were drawn to the multiple x-shaped scars on the man's face. She couldn't help but wonder what could have caused them. The man's silver eyes locked onto her emerald ones. Olette felt her face grow slightly warm from embarrassment. She nodded in agreement and turned her back on the man, looking back down at the orb.

"Yeah, it is," she said. "What do you suppose these markings mean?" The man stepped around her and leaned in close to the display to get a better look. He spent several minutes muttering under his breath as he examined the writing. Out of nowhere, a grin broke across his face.

"You old geezer, you actually got all thirteen of us," he took a step back from the display. "Now I can finally have my revenge. Thanks old man."

"You can read this?" Olette asked the silver-eyed man, who nodded in response.

"You got it," he said. "I'm probably one of the few people who can. This writing hasn't been seen in almost a five thousand years."

"What language is it?" Olette asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. The man shook his head.

"It's not a language, well, technically it isn't. It's a code," he gestured at the orb. "You can't speak it, only read and write it. It's 'Chaser Dialect'."

"'Chaser Dialect'?" Olette's brow furrowed in confusion. "What's a Chaser?"

"A person that possesses the ability to make a very powerful weapon," the man answered. "How am I going to get this out of here without anyone noticing?" Olette did a double take.

"You're going to steal it?" She whispered in shock.

"Of course," the man answered with a grin. "This is the map I've been looking for. It's going to help me get some answers." Olette's confusion level was steadily rising.

"Answers about what?" She asked. "And it's a map? Seriously?" The man opened his mouth to answer but was cut off as a woman nearby let out a shriek of terror. Dozens of Neoshadows were rising from the ground while countless Soldiers burst through the Museum's front doors.

"Heartless," Olette said in breathless whisper. She remembered seeing the inky black denizens of Darkness back when Sora, Donald and Goofy had last been here. A shiver ran up her spine. The man standing next to her grinned.

"That'll work," he said as the crowd of party-goers began to break into panic. His elbow slammed into the glass display case protecting the orb, shattering it.

_LD_

_Onboard the Dawn's First Light_

Riku let out a sigh as he climbed the stairs leading to the bridge onboard the _Dawn's First Light_. Now that the adrenaline from the almost non-stop action from the past couple of days was rapidly fading, his muscles were beginning to scream at him. He couldn't wait to take a nice, hot shower and crawl into bed. A faint orange glow filled the bridge as the holographic avatar of Dawn carefully examined a large projection of a star chart. Dawn glanced behind her as Riku entered.

"You look like you've had fun," she commented as Riku practically dropped himself into the pilot's chair. Riku grunted in response as he set himself to powering on the systems Dawn had shut off in his absence. Riku glanced down at himself as the engines roared to life. He was still dressed like a superhero. A flash of light illuminated him for a brief instant as his outfit changed back into his usual attire. He peeled the black mask off of his face and placed it on top of the center console.

"Did you bring me a present?" Dawn asked with a tiny bit of sarcasm. Riku chuckled.

"I can tell you a story, does that count?" He asked. Dawn rolled her eyes.

"I can also tell you a story," she said, gesturing with one hand at the star chart surrounding her. "Only my story is all about the observations I've made over the past few days about the worlds." Riku yawned widely.

"Tell you what, I'm going to go shower and sleep now and we can swap stories in the morning," Riku suggested. Dawn shrugged.

"Fine by me, I'm busy recording the movement of the worlds at the moment anyways and that's taking up more of my processing power than I had anticipated," she said. Riku noticed that her body was covered with innumerable rows of zeros and ones moving at a high speed as she worked. "And did I mention we have a guest?"

"A what?" Riku asked as he spun his seat around to stare at Dawn. Instead, he found himself face to face with a woman dressed in a pink skirt and suit jacket combination. Her long blonde hair fell neatly behind her shoulders and her short bangs parted down the center, placing emphasis on the tattoo of the numeral I framed by a pair of lightning bolts in the center of her forehead. Her lavender colored eyes were fixated on Riku's aquamarine ones. In her left hand, she carried a golden sword by its scabbard. The woman bowed to Riku.

"Greetings, Master Riku," she said in a professional tone. "My name is Sephiria Arks. I am Number _I_ of the Chronos Numbers. We need your help."

_LD_

* * *

_Well, that's it for this week. _

_As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Your opinions do matter, people! I'd especially love to hear everyone's theories on Keila and her meddling._

_Until next time!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_-Shadow Horizons_

_P.S. I know there's more than thirteen of you out there reading this. So please go vote in the pole on mt profile page. It's very important and will only be open for another week or so._


	17. Overrun

_Mwahaha! I have returned! I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter! Or if you don't celebrate Easter, a fantastic Sunday of eating candy that went on sale at your local supermarket._

_I've also realized that not having any plans for more than three days is dreadfully boring. But that's less significant. _

_I'm on a roll with writing this month! Three consecutive weeks with updates and I've completed seven chapters in the novel I'm working on. April has been a great month for me so far! I hope all of you readers have had a great month as well._

_Thanks go out to all of those who have recently reviewed! You guys are awesome! _

_Disclaimer__: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Disney, or the characters and events described from Black Cat. I do own my plot and original characters/artifacts/events/worlds._

_Enjoy! I'm going to go brutally devour this defenseless chocolate rabbit. Mwahaha!_

_**Edit: **__Timeline and Xanthos' age corrected._

* * *

Chapter Seventeen: Overrun

_Friday June 4th, 4794 P.C._

_Twilight Town _

Alarms began to blare inside the Twilight Town Natural History and Science Museum, but were easily drowned out by the screams of panicking party-goers as Heartless emerged from the ground. Olette stared; emerald-eyes wide with shock and mouth open in disbelief as her silver-eyed companion shattered a display case with his elbow and grabbed hold of the jet-black orb inside.

"What do you think you're doing?" She hissed at him. "That's stealing!" The silver-eyed man scoffed at her.

"Thievery?" He said, faking his offense at her accusation. "It's simply taking back what is mine."

"But it's not yours!" Olette snapped. She was faintly aware of her parents calling out for her from somewhere in the crowd. "It was found in an archaeological dig in the great forest and now it belongs to the Museum!"

"Except for the fact that this map was left for me by my Master!" The silver-eyed man growled at her. "After he sealed us away, he must've made this map so we could find each other after we woke up."

"What are you talking about?" Olette demanded, her confusion level rising. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw several inky-black shapes moving rapidly towards them. The silver-eyed man groaned and rubbed his eyes with the back of his gloved hand.

"I don't have time for this," he muttered. His black and white suit vanished in a flash of light, replaced by a black cloak decorated with a pair of silver tassels and a slightly oversized zipper. Olette felt her blood run cold. This man was wearing the same style cloak as the red-haired man who had kidnapped Kairi had been. The silver-eyed man muttered something under his breath and the orb in his hands shrunk down to the size of a small marble.

He slid the orb into a pocket on the side of the cloak and held his hand out in front of him. Olette gasped as an obsidian, key-shaped weapon appeared in the man's hand.

"A Keyblade," she whispered in mild awe. The man raised an eyebrow at her.

"You know of the Keyblade? How?" He asked.

"I'm friends with someone who has one," Olette said, still trying to wrap her head around everything taking place around her.

"What's your friend's name?" The man asked.

"Sora," Olette replied. The man smirked.

"Is that so," he said softly. "Why am I not surprised? The Chosen One certainly has touched an awful lot of hearts." Olette noticed they were completely surrounded on all sides by the Heartless, who seemed to have ignored the other party-goers and gone straight for her and the silver-eyed man.

"You never told me your name," Olette said, nervously staring around at the Heartless. She was suddenly grateful the thief she was standing next to had a Keyblade. The surrounding Heartless began to close in on them, shrinking the circle they had made. Olette backed into the man and placed her hand on his Keyblade to make sure it was real and not an illusion. The Keyblade seemed to glow with an other-worldly light for a brief moment. Every Heartless' head turned so their yellow eyes were fixated on Olette. The man looked down at his Keyblade than back up at Olette with a look of mild surprise on his face.

"It's Master Xanthos," he said. He twisted his Keyblade from Olette's grasp and shifted his grip on it so that he held it in a reverse grip. A bright blue and black blade of energy appeared in his left hand. "Now stay put while I give these Heartless a proper greeting." His entire body became a blur as he leapt at the nearest Heartless. Olette stared in shock as Xanthos moved fluidly through the ring of Heartless, leaving only black mist in his wake. Olette stared in amazement. In less than fifteen seconds, Xanthos had annihilated more than thirty Heartless.

"Olette!" Olette turned at the sound of her mother's voice. For a woman in her late forties who never got out of the house very often, Shiori Fairchild was running towards her daughter at a pace Olette didn't think possible.

"Mom!" Olette cried out as she ran to her mother. "Why are you-" Olette was cut off as her mother let out a blood curdling yell. Olette's eyes widened in disbelief and fear. "Mom?" A jet black claw lined with blue veins jutted out from the center of Shiori's chest. The older woman stared down at her chest in shock. There was no blood, only faint wisps of Darkness that gently floated to the ground. Shiori collapsed to her knees, revealing the Neoshadow that stood behind her.

The Heartless wrenched its claw from Shiori's chest, dragging a pink, crystalline heart out with it. Shiori looked up at her daughter with wide, terror filled eyes.

"Olette," she managed to whisper before Darkness rose up and swallowed her body.

"Mom!" Olette cried out, tears beginning to stain her face. "Mom! No!" Xanthos spun on his heel, beheading a pair of Neoshadows as he did. His eyes locked on the Neoshadow that was triumphantly holding the heart in its hand. The Neoshadow paid him no heed as Darkness consumed the heart in his hand. Instead, it turned its attention to Olette, confirming Xanthos' fear. Rather than going for the experienced Keyblade Wielder, the Heartless were targeting the newest one. Olette's cries were becoming hysterical. The Neoshadow lunged, its movement going unregistered by the girl's grief filled mind.

"Stop!" Xanthos shouted. Time came to a complete standstill in the museum. The clocks on the walls were frozen seconds from striking the new hour. The Neoshadow hung in midair, suspended mid-leap while Olette was inches from collapsing onto her knees. Xanthos panted heavily as the Stop spell he was using drained his energy at a rapid rate. He had no time to lose.

Moving quickly, he ran through the frozen Museum, slicing Heartless in half as he went. He thrust his blade through the abdomen of the Neoshadow that had been about to attack Olette before dispelling his Keyblade in a flash of light. He grabbed Olette by the waist and hoisted her onto his shoulder before he released the spell. The entirety of the Museum's insides was filled with a black mist and freed hearts that hung in midair as all of the Heartless inside were defeated.

The sudden blindness sent the remaining party-goers into a panic as they stumbled around, trying to find the exit. Olette's cries were replaced by a gasp as she tried to make sense in her sudden change in position and orientation to the ground. Xanthos ran to a nearby window and leapt through it. Olette let out a scream as they plummeted down the three stories to the hard earth below. Despite their speed, Xanthos managed to land gracefully on the ground.

"Put me down!" Olette shouted, pounding her fists against Xanthos' back. The Chaser complied and placed the brunette back down on her feet. Olette stared painfully up at the broken window that Xanthos had leapt out of with tear-filled eyes for a moment before turning to leave. Xanthos grabbed her forearm.

"I can't let you do that," he said. Olette spun around and slapped Xanthos angrily. The Chaser, to his credit, didn't even flinch.

"Let me go," Olette growled. Xanthos shook his head.

"I can't let you go. You're safer with me."

"Why the hell would I be safer with you? The Heartless seem to be focused on you and your map thing! Because of you my mom's dead!" Olette shouted angrily. Her hand struck Xanthos across his face again.

"I won't deny that the Heartless being here is my fault," he said, his head hanging slightly in guilt. "Someone is after this map and I'm in their way. So they sent their Heartless to do both. But when you touched my Keyblade in there, you accidentally triggered an Inheritance Ceremony, and the Heartless abandoned their orders. Now they only want you." Olette scoffed at him.

"And why would they want me when they were sent after you?" She demanded, the anger from losing her mother taking over. "What did I ever do to them?"

"You inherited a Keyblade from me," Xanthos answered. Olette's anger vanished in an instant, replaced by disbelief. "Now the Heartless will come after you, a new Wielder, because you have yet to summon your Keyblade. They're coming for you and you alone." He pointed his finger up at the winding streets of the downtown Districts of Twilight Town not far from where they were. The streets were black as night, thousands of glowing yellows eyes shifted like an eerie river as an army of Heartless moved slowly towards where she and Xanthos stood.

"I have a Keyblade?" Olette whispered in stunned disbelief. "But, why would the Heartless come after me then? Wouldn't they run away?" Xanthos shook his head.

"The Keyblade is the only weapon that permanently vanquishes the Heartless," he explained as he tugged on her arm in an attempt to get her moving. "The Heartless are afraid of it. So, in an attempt to defeat the object of their fear, the Heartless will relentlessly pursue anyone who wields a Keyblade. It is very unfortunate that they were around when you inherited the Keyblade from me because now the Heartless view you as an easy threat to eliminate." The sea of Heartless was drawing closer.

"We need to get to the forest," Xanthos said. "The Heartless will follow us en masse and that should keep the other citizens safe." He shivered slightly as he remembered the last time he had seen this many Heartless, back when the instigator of the Keyblade War summoned nearly half a million Heartless to lay waste to the Kingdom of Keys. Xanthos dragged Olette behind him. She followed half-heartedly as she stared behind her at the endless sea of dark creatures, trying her hardest to convince herself that Xanthos was wrong, that they weren't after her, that this was all a bad dream; but deep down inside her heart, she knew she couldn't hide from the truth.

Xanthos' obsidian Keyblade flashed evilly in the pale light cast by the waning moon overhead as he and Olette ran through the many alleyways that wound through Twilight Town. Neoshadows and Soldiers exploded into black mist and pink Hearts under his unrelenting strikes. Olette gasped for breath, determinedly keeping her mind focused on anything other than her mother. The screams of terror from the residents of Twilight Town filled the air.

There didn't seem to be an end to the Heartless, everywhere she looked, their inky black bodies were moving towards them. Xanthos' hand flicked upwards. Several orbs of black and bright blue light flared into light over their heads and rained down countless beams of blue energy down on the Heartless, slicing the Denizens of Darkness into pieces. The pair of them burst free from the Heartless waves into the sandlot, a large square in the central part of Twilight Town where teenagers would frequently hang out and where the Struggle Competition took place each August. The entire square was completely devoid of any moving creature apart from Olette and Xanthos. Xanthos held his hand out in front of Olette to bring her to a stop.

"Something's not right," he muttered. "Why aren't there any Heartless here?" He glanced behind him. "And why did they stop following us?" Two black and purple portals of Darkness erupted from the ground in the center of the square.

"Look at what we have here, brother," a boy in his late teens said as he emerged from one of the portals. His features were hidden by the black, hooded cape he wore. "I do believe the Chaser has the map Mother wants us to retrieve."

"He even has a little pet with him," another boy said as he emerged from the second portal. "And isn't she a pretty one? A little young for you, wouldn't you say, old man?" He called out to Xanthos, who smirked.

"I'm not that old," he said. "I just haven't aged in the past century and a half or so. That's all." Olette looked around at him in surprise.

"Wait, you're more than four thousand years old?" She asked.

"Four thousand, eight-hundred and sixteen to be exact," Xanthos replied. "That's what you get when you're frozen in time and unable to age." He turned to face the two newcomers. "Alright then, who are you, what do you want and who sent you?" A second obsidian Keyblade flashed into existence in Xanthos' left hand. "And I suggest you make it quick." Under the hoods of their capes, the two boys glanced at each other before removing their capes in unison and tossing them to the side.

Both boys were nearly mirror images of each other. They each dressed in jet black pants and matching shirts. What appeared to be small sections of silver and red armor were attached to their shoulders. They both had golden-blonde hair that fell across their eyes.

"I am Kiram," said the one who had been the first to speak when he and his brother arrived.

"Etos," the other twin said. Both boys had sea foam green eyes. Or they would have, if each hadn't been blind in one eye, resulting in a milky-white color. "And we want the map for our Mother. Hand it over." Kiram held out his right hand and an Inverse Kingdom Key flashed into existence. Etos placed his left hand over his right hip, and as if he was unsheathing a sword, summoned his own Inverse Kingdom Key in one fluid motion.

"'Hand it over'?" Xanthos repeated with a small chuckle. "That's a rather rude way to talk to your elder, isn't it? Didn't your mother ever teach you two any manners?" Kiram and Etos both growled at Xanthos and leapt towards him. "I guess not." Olette winced as the sickening crunch of bone snapping, followed less than a split second later by a pair of pained cries sounded from the bodies of the twins as Xanthos' Oblivion Keyblades struck them down.

"You two are pathetic," Xanthos sneered down at them. "I've had a harder time fighting Shadows than I did you two." He kicked Kiram in the side of his head as the teen tried to get back to his feet. He turned to face Olette and gestured towards the alley that led to the Tram Commons. "Shall we?" Olette nodded and allowed Xanthos to lead her along.

Slowly but surely, Heartless were beginning to reappear around them at an alarming frequency, only now they were joined by the silver-white humanoid figures of the Dusk Nobodies. Xanthos groaned.

"If it's not one thing, it's another," he mumbled as he struck down a pair of Dusks, causing them to explode in a shower of bright light and what appeared to be tiny bubbles. He glanced up ahead and saw, to his great dismay, that their path was blocked by a small army of Berserker and Sniper Nobodies. The Berserkers hulking forms filled the narrow alley while the Snipers hung in midair, their arrow rifles zeroing in on Xanthos and Olette, who clutched to Xanthos' forearm as a fresh wave of fear coursed through her. She had never had to deal with death before and yet, she had found herself running for her life. In high heels, no less.

"Stay close to me," Xanthos whispered. "I'm going to-" Olette never found out what he was going to do. Several columns of fire roared to life and began to work their way through the Berserkers, reducing their bodies to piles of ash. The Sniper Nobodies spun around, trying to find the source of the flames. A pair of them dropped from the sky as a red and silver blur cut through them and flew back to the person that had come to their aid.

"Starting the party without me?" A voice called through the flames. "That's not very nice you know." Xanthos relaxed his grip on his Keyblades slightly and straightened up. Olette stared through the flames looking for the source of the voice. It sounded so familiar to her but she couldn't quite place her finger on it.

"About time you showed up," Xanthos called out as their mysterious companion emerged from the still raging flames. Olette's eyes were drawn to his jet black suit and fire red shirt, which was somehow able to avoid the burning effects of the flames surrounding him. Three concentric circles were embroidered with golden thread over the breast pocket. His vibrantly red hair was spiked and slicked backwards from his face. In his left hand, the man carried a large, red and silver disc that sported four smaller discs spread out at even intervals along the main disc. Small spikes adorned the tips of the smaller discs and the spaces between them. Olette's eyes traveled up to meet the emerald-green eyes of the newcomer. Olette let out a cry of shock and rage as she recognized the man.

"I'm the life of the party after all," the red-haired man said with a grin. "Got it memorized?"

"Where's Kairi?" Olette demanded suddenly, breaking free from Xanthos' guiding grip and storming her way over to the object of her frustration. "Where did you take her?" The man did a double take as he recognized Olette.

"Oh, hell," was all he managed to say before Olette raised a fist to punch him as hard as she could.

"Axel, you two know each other?" Xanthos asked in mild surprise.

"I uh, kind of kidnapped Kairi a few months back in front of this girl and her friends," Axel said with a nervous chuckle.

"What did you do to her?" Olette demanded again. She could feel her frustration building. Not only had she lost her mother, but she had been running through the city in high heels and a dress while being led by a thief and attacked constantly by Heartless. Now that Axel had arrived, she was practically at her breaking point and she figured the best way to relieve her frustrations was to take them out on the pyro. "Where'd you take my friend?" Olette drew back her fist to strike Axel. She didn't care if it hurt him or not, she just needed a reprieve.

"Kairi's just fine, kid," Xanthos said from behind her. Olette stopped her fist mid-punch and glanced behind her at the silver-eyed Chaser.

"What?" She asked, anger still prominent on her face.

"I said, Kairi's fine," Xanthos repeated. "Sora managed to rescue her."

"How would you know?" Olette snapped, her anger still boiling just under the surface of her usually calm exterior. She, Hayner and Pence had spent the past few months worrying about their new friend after the man in suit, inches away from her, had kidnapped Kairi right in front of them.

"Because I met her and Sora a few days ago," Xanthos said as he cautiously approached her. "Trust me, they're fine. And there's a good chance you'll run into them after we get the hell out of here." He jerked his thumb to gesture behind him. The sea of Heartless was back, although the endless black was now interspersed with the silvery-white forms of several dozen Nobodies.

"Okay," Olette said, relaxing her fist and letting it fall to her side. Xanthos pushed her towards the man in the suit.

"Axel, get her to the extraction point," he said. "I'm going to see what I can do about slowing these Heartless down." Axel nodded and spun his chakram around in his hands, making sure his wrists were still up for throwing. He turned on his heel and began to make his way towards the Tram Common. Olette hesitated. She didn't trust Axel. The only time she had ever met him before now was when he had dragged Kairi into a dark Portal, while she, Hayner and Pence hadn't been able to stop him. She glanced up nervously at Xanthos, who nodded comfortingly towards her before turning to face down the sea of Heartless. Realizing that she'd rather risk being kidnapped by Axel than losing her heart like her mother did, Olette took off after the pyromaniac.

"Okay then," Xanthos called to the Heartless horde as bright blue lights began to form at his fingertips. "Who's first?"

_LD_

_Onboard the Dawn's First Light_

Riku stared at Sephiria from across the small kitchen table. The blonde haired leader of the Chronos Numbers casually sipped at the tea Riku had prepared for them. Riku's own cup sat in front of him, untouched and rapidly growing cold.

"So, this Creed guy used to work for Chronos until he defected and formed the Apostles of the Star?" Riku asked, finally breaking the silence that had settled on the room since Sephiria had told him all about the Numbers, the Apostles and Maleficent's plans.

"Correct," Sephiria said as she gently set her cup down on the table. "Creed was one of our Erasers. An assassin. He had the potential of becoming Number XIII, but he's unpredictable and mentally unstable. So we gave the position to his partner instead."

"Black Cat," Riku said, making sure he understood everything. Sephiria nodded.

"Number _XIII_ became one of our best Erasers. He carried out his orders flawlessly and killed who needed to be killed, regardless of who they were. However, about a year ago, he failed one of his missions. When the elders sent him again to clean up his mess. He refused to execute the target for whatever reason. I sent Creed after him to bring him back, or kill him if he refused to return to Chronos."

"You'd kill one of your allies?" Riku asked in mild shock.

"'Either live in Chronos, or die outside.'" Sephiria recited. "That is one of the rules we follow in Chronos. Chronos will deal with those traitors of Chronos in the Chronos way."

"You think you could say Chronos a few more times?" Riku asked sarcastically. "What exactly does that name mean to you?"

"That's exactly what Black Cat said to me that night when I confronted him," Sephiria replied. "I told him, 'behind the name is effort; effort to make this corrupt world a just place again.' I stand by that belief now more than ever. On that night, Creed had not only failed to bring him back or kill him, but he killed three of our intelligence officers who had been sent to make sure the job was done. He betrayed us.

"Creed killed many of our agents shortly after that, and he announced his intentions to bring down Chronos with a powerful group of Taoist revolutionaries he called the Apostles of the Star. Creed desperately wants the Black Cat to be on his side because Black Cat is the only man Creed respects. When he thought that a friend of Black Cat's had made him soft, Creed killed her in an attempt to win him over. Black Cat swore revenge against Creed and I firmly believe we need him if we are to ever bring down Creed."

"So you want me to find out if Black Cat survived the destruction of your world," Riku said simply. Sephiria nodded.

"Yes. While you are out traveling the worlds, I humbly ask you to seek out the Black Cat. We need him now more than ever," Sephiria said. "Creed and his Apostles are powerful. Even more so now that they have joined forces with Maleficent. This isn't just about the war between Chronos and Creed anymore. It's about all of us against them. Will you help us?" Riku stared at her for a few moments before letting out a long winded sigh.

"I suppose you're right," he said. "Yeah, I'll look for him. Do you have a picture?" Sephiria smiled and handed Riku a photograph of a man in his early twenties. He had ruffled brown, golden cat-like eyes, and a red choker necklace with a bell on it. The numeral _XIII_ was tattooed on the left side of his chest, barely visible under the white shirt he wore.

"I'll keep my eyes open for him," Riku said as he got to his feet to attach the picture to the fridge with a magnet. Sephiria finished off the last of her tea and rose to her feet.

"Thank you for helping us, Master Riku," she said with a bow. "And thanks for the tea too. It was well brewed." Riku grinned.

"Thanks," he said. "Where would you like me to drop you off?" Sephiria smiled softly.

"No need to worry about it," she said as she pulled a small remote out with a bright blue button in its center. "My personal ship is maintaining orbit close to yours." She pressed down on the button and vanished in a flash of bright light. Riku stared at the sudden emptiness in the room and sighed. He placed the empty tea cups in the sink, making a mental note to wash them before he crashed on the king-sized mattress waiting for him in his bedroom.

He snatched a bottle of Coke from the fridge as he headed out the door, and popped the lid off. He quickly chugged the soda down as he made his way down the hall towards the only bathroom on the ship. Placing the drained bottle on the sink counter as he flicked on the light switch, Riku couldn't help but smile at the bathroom. Gleaming white tile, a bath-tub the size of a small hot-tub with whirlpool jets built right in, a standalone shower that was beautifully clean, and of course, several sets of incredibly fluffy white towels.

Riku quickly discarded his clothes into the laundry basket that was set into an alcove in the wall and stepped into the shower. He let out a sigh as the warm water sprayed against his shoulders, relieving a lot of muscle tension he had been carrying in them. Twenty minutes later, after he was satisfied that he was perfectly clean and well relaxed from the much needed shower after being in a jungle for more than a day, Riku stepped out of the bathroom to be greeted by the grinning face of Dawn's holographic image.

He let out a comedic cry of surprise and nearly fell backwards. Dawn chuckled at him.

"Have a nice trip?" She teased. Riku rolled his eyes.

"Oh, ha ha," he said sarcastically. "Care to tell me why you were standing at the door?"

"There aren't any holo-projectors in the bathroom" Dawn explained. "I couldn't appear to you in there." Riku continued to stare at her. Dawn cleared her throat. "Anyway, remember how I was telling you before about how I've been monitoring the positions of the worlds?" Riku nodded. "Well, just after you left, I used some of our power to boost the range of the radar and I discovered this." A holographic image of innumerable Gummi ships appeared in the air around her. Riku's eyes widened.

"What is this?" He asked. The image zoomed in on one of the ships. The Heartless insignia prominently displayed for Riku to see.

"This is a Heartless Armada of well over a thousand ships," Dawn said. "An invasion force by the looks of it. The ships remain close together and aren't traveling. I've come to the conclusion that they're waiting to join up with additional ships." Riku swallowed hard. "But that's not the worse part. I've discovered fourteen similar fleets all within our maximum radar range." Riku's mouth dropped. Fifteen-thousand Heartless ships? No world could possibly stand up to a force that size alone.

"I also think that this sudden increase in Heartless ships as compared to the data I've retrieved from the past few years is directly related to something I've noticed about the worlds," Dawn continued. The image of the Heartless armada vanished and was replaced by a star chart. Several of the stars were labeled. Riku glanced around and spotted Destiny Islands, Radiant Garden, Twilight Town, and Disney Castle.

"We're here," Dawn said. A star nearby the one that represented Destiny Islands flared brightly to attract Riku's attention. "The Heartless fleets are scattered throughout this empty space over here." The chart shifted position and zoomed in on a large, blank space where there were no stars. Fifteen red triangles appeared to mark the positions of the fleets. "And all of them seem to be converging on the center fleet right there." The triangle that Riku assumed was the centermost one changed to blue. "Now, over the past few days while you were on the world away from the ship, I noticed a subtle but still distinct change amongst the worlds."

"And that is…?" Riku encouraged her to get to the point. He was only dressed in a towel around his waist and the ships heater wasn't exactly set to a temperature he wanted to have it at while standing in a metal hallway.

"The worlds are moving apart from each other," Dawn said. She displayed a small chart indicating their distance from Destiny Islands. In the few days Riku had been down on the world, the time between here and his home had gone from being just a few hours to a day and a half.

"How is this possible?" Riku asked. For an answer, Dawn pointed at the image of the Heartless fleets and the map zoomed in on them.

"It is my belief that the presence of so many Heartless in one area has caused the worlds to attempt protecting themselves by moving further away from one another. It sure is going to make travel more difficult," Dawn said, shaking her head exasperatedly. "Anyway, I examined this area; because I found it odd that there wouldn't be any stars in it at all. That's how I found the fleets and the resulting conclusion I reached about the movement of the worlds. But I found something even more interesting than that." The map zoomed out and away from the markers of the fleets to show the blank space in the middle of the star filled space. "That empty sector is a perfect sphere. At first I thought it was an anomaly with the radar so I checked half a dozen times and calculated its size. I couldn't find an explanation for the shape anywhere."

"Maybe the Heartless took the hearts to all of the worlds in that area," Riku suggested grimly. Dawn shook her head.

"I thought that too, but look here," she said as the map zoomed in on a jagged black shape in the stars. "This is what it looks like when the Heartless take the hearts of worlds in a general area, they couldn't have possibly made a perfect circle like the one I found."

"Then what is it?" Riku asked as he leaned against the doorframe.

"I carefully examined the sphere zone to find an answer and I think I might know where it is," Dawn said. She placed one of her glowing fingers in the exact center of the sphere. The map zoomed in quickly until the image of a flat, diamond-shaped object came into view.

"What is that?" Riku asked, stepping into the projection to get a better look.

"I believe it's a world," Dawn said simply. "It gives of a similar energy reading to the ones I've registered coming off of several worlds."

"This flat thing is a world?" Riku asked in disbelief. "How big is it?" A three-dimensional image of the _Dawn's First Light _appeared next to the diamond-shape.

"It's barely big enough for us to land on," Dawn replied. "That's what makes it so intriguing. With your permission, I would very much appreciate it if we could travel to this sector and examine the object for ourselves."

"Are you forgetting about the Heartless fleets that are gathering there?" Riku asked the A.I. "I don't think this ship has the firepower to fight its way through fifteen thousand Heartless ships."

"We wouldn't have to sneak past them if we acquired a cloaking device," Dawn suggested. "And a radar jammer of course. Heartless ships all are equipped with poor radar so they usually rely on sight. If they can't see us or find us on radar, we'd be able to slip right past them." Riku considered it for a moment.

"Alright," he said. "But let's go get that cloaking device and radar jammer first. And something that packs a bigger punch than those Thunder cannons we have equipped. And faster engines." He paused as he reached his door. "On second thought, let's just go give this thing an all around upgrade, how's that sound?" Dawn beamed at him.

"Now you're talking," she said. "These Kingdom model Gummis are too bulky for my tastes and I think you'd prefer something a bit more sleek and stylish." Riku nodded in agreement.

"Where can we get all of these upgrades though?" He asked. Dawn vanished in a flash of orange light.

"Just leave it to me," her voice said. "I know just the guy to go see. I'll get us underway and you can go get some well deserved rest. I can see those bags forming under your eyes." Riku rolled his aquamarine orbs and headed into his room to fulfill his deepest desire of putting on a pair of sweatpants and crashing onto his mattress for a good night's rest.

_LD_

_Twilight Town Forest_

Olette followed Axel to the best of her ability through the thick nightly fog that had settled in the trees of the forest. The former Nobody weaved his way in and out of the trees, cutting down the occasional Heartless or Nobody with a slash from his chakram.

"Almost there," Axel called out to her. "The extraction point is in that clearing up ahead." Olette glanced past Axel's vibrant hair and could see the Old Mansion looming over the fog in the moonlight. A flash of blue light from somewhere behind them temporarily illuminated the forest behind them. Olette paused to look behind her.

"We've gotta keep going!" Axel shouted at her. "He can handle himself, trust me! That guy fought in the greatest war in history and he's still around to tell about it. Let's go!" Olette looked nervously in the direction of the city for a moment before she turned and continued to follow Axel up the hill to the small clearing in front of the Mansion.

Axel reached into his jacket and pulled out a small blue crystal, which he crushed into dust and tossed into the air. The pieces of the crystal hung, suspended in midair for a moment before vanishing into thin air as a large column of light erupted high into the night sky.

"What was that?" Olette asked.

"The signal," Axel said simply. There was a flash of blue light next to them as Xanthos appeared, panting heavily.

"We need to go," he said. "Now. The Heartless all just vanished and as relieved as you think I'd be, I don't like it when countless Heartless vanish for no apparent reason."

"Could they have found the Keyhole?" Axel asked. Xanthos shook his head.

"I doubt it. More than half of the world would have been consumed by now it they had," Xanthos said. "Although, I'll admit that I didn't expect there to be this many Heartless on just this world."

"What are you guys talking about?" Olette asked confusedly. "What Keyhole?" Xanthos began to say something but was cut off as a shout reached their ears from the entryway to the Old Mansion.

"Olette!"

The three of them turned to see Olette's two best friends, Hayner and Pence, both looking like they had just emerged from an all-nighter of killing virtual zombies in the basement. Hayner and Pence paused as they raced towards their female friend when they spotted Axel. Their excited expressions quickly became cold.

"Hayner! Pence!" Olette called out, relieved to see that her friends were alright. "What're you guys doing here?" Neither of the two boys responded. They were staring straight past her at Axel, who let out a groan as he recognized the two boys.

"Hey! It's that guy that kidnapped Kairi!" Pence shouted.

"He's trying to kidnap Olette!" Hayner growled. Olette slapped herself in the face in exasperation. "Let's get him and force him to tell us where Kairi is!" Hayner cracked his knuckles menacingly as he and Pence both charged at Axel, who turned to Xanthos.

"Nobody's going to let that go, huh?" He said. "You wanna handle these two?" Xanthos sighed and snapped his fingers. Hayner and Pence both let out cries of shock as they were hoisted into the air by a pair of Xanthos clones.

"Calm down, boys," he said coolly. "We're not kidnapping her. Axel here is on our side."

"Who are you guys?" Hayner demanded. "Olette, why are you with them?"

"I am Master Xanthos," the silver-eyed Master said. "I brought Olette along for her own protection. She accidentally initiated a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony with me tonight at the Museum."

"She initiated a what with you?" Pence asked.

"Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony," Xanthos repeated. "Long story short, she touched my Keyblade and because her heart is strong enough, she can now summon a Keyblade of her own."

"Wait, so you're like Sora?" Pence asked, calming down a lot quicker than Hayner was. "You have a Keyblade." Xanthos nodded and hoisted the Oblivion for them to see. "And why are you taking Olette exactly?"

"Because there were Heartless around when the Inheritance Ceremony was initiated and they immediately made her their primary target," Xanthos said. "Basically, any Heartless close to this world is descending upon it like starved wolves to the slaughter because they see Olette as an easy target; a new Keyblade Wielder who doesn't know how to fight them off is always at a high risk for Heartless attacks."

"So basically, you're telling us that Olette's in trouble because of you?" Hayner demanded, his anger rising again.

"In a way, yes," he replied. "But that little issue will have to wait. We have unwelcome company." Glowing yellow eyes appeared in the forest on all sides of the Old Mansion as the Heartless began to surround them. The Xanthos clones tossed Hayner and Pence closer to the others. Axel and Xanthos both summoned their second weapon and began circling the three teens while facing outwards towards the Heartless.

"That is a lot of Heartless," Axel muttered.

"You're not scared, are you?" Xanthos asked. Axel let out a bark of laughter.

"As if," he grinned. "But the last time I faced down this many enemies, I had to sacrifice myself so Sora could go rescue Kairi." Hayner, Pence and Olette all turned to look at Axel in surprise.

"I thought you were the one who kidnapped Kairi," Hayner said. Axel nodded.

"I was, but she was taken from me by-" He was cut off as half a dozen Neoshadows leapt from the ground barely feet from him. "Son of a- Burn!" A massive fireball appeared in the sky and crashed into the Neoshadows closest to him, reducing them to ash and black mist.

"Let's even the odds a little shall we?" Xanthos said. He snapped his fingers and two dozen Xanthos clones appeared, helping the original Xanthos and Axel to close the perimeter the pair had formed around the teens. In all of their hands, they held replicas of the bright blue Ethereal Blades Xanthos was capable of summoning.

"Let 'em have it boys!" The Xanthos clones all charged into the sea of endless Heartless, hacking and slashing at every enemy within their reach. Xanthos himself leapt into the air, dozens of bright blue and black orbs of energy forming around him that rained beams of searing energy down upon the creatures, accompanied by a down pour of ice shards as sharp and long as broadswords and bolts of lightning that descended from the heavens in rapid succession, blasting the closely gathered Heartless into oblivion. Axel's flaming chakram spun wildly, mowing down any Heartless that got past Xanthos and his clones. The three teens could only watch in amazement. Bolts of lightning descended from the heavens in rapid succession, blasting the closely gathered Heartless into oblivion.

"Where the hell is the _Reflection_?" Xanthos shouted to Axel as he landed next to the former Nobody. His twin Oblivion blades slashed through a pair of Neoshadows like a flaming knife through partially melted butter. "Shouldn't it have been here by now?" As if on cue, a beam of bright green light descended from the sky in the center of the perimeter Xanthos and Axel had been holding. "Never mind, everyone into the light!" The three teens obeyed and all moved towards the light. "You too, Axel! I'm going for one final blast to take as many of these bastards out as possible!"

"Okay!" Axel shouted as he burned himself a path through the Heartless to reach the light. "Just don't die!" Xanthos let out a laugh. A dozen Neoshadows piled on top of one of the Xanthos clones, slashing at it with their claws until it no longer moved. They looked up at the original Xanthos and made him their new target. Then the clone exploded violently, wiping out a ten foot radius of Heartless in a single blast.

"I have walked through the fires of Hell itself and through the pools of endless Darkness in the Dark Realm. I don't think anything I can do could possibly kill me!" Xanthos said. Another clone was overpowered by the Heartless. An explosion shook the ground. "Now go!" Axel ran up to the light where the three teens were standing hesitantly.

"Everybody in," he said before he proceeded to push each one of them into the light. One by one, they vanished as they were pulled up into the Gummi ship waiting for them in orbit. Axel took one last look back at Xanthos before stepping into the light as the last of Xanthos clones exploded.

"May this blessed sword of Light purify your heart of Darkness," Xanthos said under his breath. An ancient rite always read back in the old days when a person whose heart had been consumed by Darkness had no hope of ever coming back to the Light. A rite of death. High above him, innumerable swords crafted from Xanthos' bright blue light appeared in the night sky. The sea of Heartless looked up at the Light, the Darkness in them sensing the presence of a powerful Light.

"And may the Light guide you to paradise everlasting." The swords fell from the sky and impaled Heartless after Heartless, never missing their mark and never leaving any behind. Xanthos stared grimly, remembering the hundreds he had slaughtered with that same attack back in the War and the blood that had flown on the air that day instead of the black mist now rising in the night sky.

_For in paradise, we shall be no longer be enemies. We shall be brothers and sisters once more._

_LD_

_Memory's Skyscraper, The World That Never Was_

Creed Diskenth, former Eraser for Chronos and current leader of the Apostles of the Star, couldn't help but grin snidely at the two Numbers who had shown up to take his life. Number _V_, Naizer Bruckheimer, and Number _X_, Ash Delfonte. Both were dressed in traditional Numbers clothing, a black suit, dark purple shirt underneath and a golden tie with black lines crisscrossing it in a random pattern.

Naizer's shaved head gleamed in the dim lighting naturally cast by the world that had no sun of its own. The numeral _V_ tattooed onto his left temple. And of course, his well trimmed, jet black goatee. In his right hand was clutched his faithful pair of tonfas, the _Dioskouroi_, both decorated with the traditional jet black metal and ornamental gold pattern inlay of almost all Number's weapons. The black crystals set into the sides of both tonfas bore the same numeral _V_.He was exactly as Creed remembered him.

Ash still wore his spiky blonde hair up, supported by his trademark red bandanna he used to cover the scar his mother had left on him as a child. His hard, blue eyes stared into Creed's lavender ones. The numeral _X_ was tattooed in the cleft of his chin. He leaned heavily on his gold and black cane, the _Judgment_. He hadn't changed either.

"Your time has come," Ash proclaimed. Creed's grin became more pronounced. "Creed Diskenth, you are to be executed for treason against Chronos."

"Drop your blade, now," Naizer ordered in his gruff voice. "You know you can't escape from us." Creed chuckled sinisterly.

"The two of you, against me? You know you're outnumbered," he teased.

"Mock the Numbers all you want," Naizer growled. "It won't save you.

"You think Chronos is going to last forever as the perfect example of society?" Creed asked. "From Atlantis to Rome, they all fell."

"They were bound by borders," Ash said as he raised his cane. Naizer tossed his tonfas into the air and spun them around flamboyantly as he caught them.

"And we're bound by nothing!" He finished for his partner as the two of them charged towards Creed. Creed's eyes narrowed gleefully in anticipation of the fight to come.

_LD_

_Onboard the Reflection, Twilight Town Airspace_

The three teens stumbled out of the receiver node of the transport as Axel pushed them through. The red-haired man guilty of the act stepped through almost immediately after them. Hayner and Pence stared around the Warp System room in awe. The entire room was the size of a large classroom and seemed to have been made from white marble. Twenty doorframes were set up in a semicircular pattern across the majority of the room. There was a bright green glow filling the doorway they had stumbled out of. Several anthropomorphic swans dressed in bleached white lab coats bustled about several stations covered with computer equipment and helped the three youth to their feet.

Olette thanked the swan that had helped her up and glanced around at her surroundings. She noticed that a recurring motif in the room seemed to be the three concentric symbol she had noticed was embroidered on Axel's suit jacket. A pair of double doors slid open and Olette saw the living inspiration for the symbol; an anthropomorphic mouse dressed in regal, red robes with a small, golden crown adorning his head. The swans all bowed to the newcomer and even Axel fell to one knee before lowering his head as the mouse King approached him.

"Your Majesty," Axel said, keeping his head lowered. The mouse King stopped short of Axel and placed a hand on the man's shoulder. Axel stood up and glanced at the three teens, who were all staring at the King with wide eyes. He raised an eyebrow at them. Olette caught on and bowed to the King. Hayner and Pence followed suit. The King glanced at them before looking back at Axel.

"What happened to Xanthos' plan of not interacting with civilians?" He asked the pyro in a high-pitched voice. Axel placed a hand behind his head and chuckled nervously.

"It's actually kind of Xanthos' fault," he said. His eyes met Olette's. The King followed his gaze and stared at Olette for a brief moment. His eyes widened in surprise as something clicked within his mind.

"I see," the King muttered under his breath. He glanced around the room. "Where's Master Xanthos?"

"Right here," Xanthos said as he emerged from the glowing doorway. He bowed to the King. "Your Majesty. I have it." Xanthos held up the black orb. The King breathed a sigh of relief.

"You can still read it, right Master Xanthos?" He asked hesitantly. Xanthos nodded and gently caressed the orb.

"Yes, now we can get to the other surviving Chasers before Xehanort's minions can," he said. "Speaking of which, I encountered another pair of Wielders from his army. I believe he sent them to retrieve the map before we could."

"It's entirely possible," the King said. "But I do want to know, did you perform a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony with this girl?" He gestured at Olette, who blushed slightly as she felt the eyes of everyone in the room fall upon her. Xanthos nodded.

"I did, but it wasn't a proper one. She caused the Inheritance when she placed a hand on my Keyblade after I summoned it to fight off a group of Heartless that invaded the Museum. Now the entire world's swarming with Heartless because the damn Ceremony happened in front of the Heartless." The King's eyes went wide.

"How long 'till they find the Keyhole do you think?" He asked grimly. Xanthos shrugged.

"A week at most," he said. "I decimated a fair amount of the Heartless that had been chasing us while we made our way to the extraction point with the Purifying Blades." The King's face fell. "We need to get a hold of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee. They have the resources to pull off a full-scale evacuation and the space to fit nearly the entirety of the civilians of this world." The King nodded.

"I'll put in a call to Leon at once," he said. "Then I'll contact Mayor Lumen of Destiny Islands and see if he can take in any of the citizens Radiant Garden might not be able to." Xanthos nodded.

"I'll make sure the _Equus_ is properly prepared for retrieving the other Chasers," Xanthos said as he and the King began to make their way out of the room. The King gestured for Axel and the three teens to follow them. Axel nodded and began shepherding the three teens out of the room after them.

"Sounds good to me," the King said as the doors to the Warp System room slid shut behind Axel. He turned to face the three teens. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. I'm King Mickey Mouse." The King held out his hand to the three teens, all of whom seemed slightly intimidated by the presence of Royalty.

"I'm Olette," the brunette Wielder said, breaking out of her nervous shell and taking the King's hand. "This is Hayner and Pence." She gestured to the her friends, both of whom quickly followed her lead and shook the King's hand.

"Pleased to meet ya," the King said with a smile. "Well, I suppose a grand tour is in order." A large explosion echoed throughout the ship, quickly followed by a blaring alarm that wailed loudly. "But it looks like it'll have to wait. Follow me!" The five of them followed the King as he ran quickly through the labyrinth-like hallways of the _Reflection_.

"The _Reflection_ is a Class-Six War Gummi," Axel explained breathless as the five humans attempted to keep up with the amazing agility possessed by the King while dodging numerous anthropomorphic animals running throughout the hallways. "They are capable of transporting several thousand troops as well as a few hundred Gummi ships. The _Reflection_ had her inaugural launch just a couple days ago, so we're about to see how well she'll hold in battle." Pence grinned excitedly.

"An actual space battle? I've gotta see this!" He took off at a faster speed and managed to keep pace with the King, much to Hayner and Olette's surprise. The group burst into the main bridge of the ship which was lined with several control stations that monitored and commanded various ship wide function and all were manned by anthropomorphic dogs with jet black fur, long snouts and floppy ears. One of the anthropomorphs was standing close to the window, dressed in orange and bluish-gray armor and wearing a helmet so small it didn't even fit on his head. A large, round shield emblazoned with the King's seal was attached to his right wrist and he was staring out of the viewport through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars.

"I dunno, fellahs, they look like they're too far away to have been able to hit us like they did," he said as the King walked up to him. Axel sighed and flipped the binoculars around in the knight's hands. "Uh, never mind that last part."

"How're things up here, Goofy?" The King asked his trusted Captain of the Royal Knights. Goofy gave a start upon hearing the King's voice and quickly saluted him, knocking himself on the side of his head with his shield in the process.

"Ow! Just fine your Majesty!" He said in a professional tone as he massaged the rapidly forming goose egg on the side of his head. "Those blasts didn't even break our shields. Those there Heartless ships aren't suited for dealing massive damage."

"Good to know," the King said as he sat down in a chair. "Bring us about, Mr. Jones. All weapons online and ready to fire. We need to get to Radiant Garden ASAP and I'd rather not be stuck here fighting Heartless ships all day long."

"Aye, yer Majesty!" Mr. Jones said in a heavy accent that made one think of plaid kilts, bagpipes and haggis. The _Reflection_ slowly turned to face a fleet of several hundred Heartless ships. "I think this might be takin' us a bit longer than expected."

Pence grinned excitedly as the start of the space battle drew closer. Olette looked nervously around her. She wasn't entirely comfortable standing near a window that lead out to a vacuum of nothingness during a firefight. Hayner looked almost as excited as Pence. The pair of them exchanged a high five, which elicited a snicker from Olette.

_Boys and their spaceships. _

Axel and Xanthos both seated themselves at available weapons stations and began searching for targets.

"Contacts in range!" One of the crewman nearby shouted. The King pressed a small green button next to a microphone built into his chair.

"All weapons, open fire!"

From the viewport, Olette and her friends watched in amazement as the sky in front of them glowed blue from the beams of energy that tore across the empty space in front of them towards the enemy.

Their first Gummi battle had begun.

_LD_

_Twilight Town_

Kiram and Etos slowly sat up as their broken bones snapped into place. The twins groaned and glanced at each other in confusion before they each received a smack to the back of their heads. Both of them leapt to their feet to confront the offender, their Inverse Kingdom Keys appearing in their hands. There was a loud clang of metal on metal as they were instantly disarmed.

"Mother actually sent you two to get the map? Jesus, you two are pathetic," Keila's voice snapped. The twins stared at her.

"Sister, keep your nose out of our business," Etos retorted. Keila snorted.

"You two morons think you can talk to me like that?" She snapped. "Now that Xanthos has the map, Mother is going to flay you alive. You two screwed up big time. You know the other Chasers all hold a grudge against her for betraying them back in the War. Especially Xanthos. He won't stop hunting Mother until his hands are dyed with her blood." The twins glanced shamefully down at their feet.

"What should we do then, Sister?" Kiram asked, his head hung low. Keila smirked and held up a photograph of Radiant Garden.

"Go steal it from him and take it to Mother," she said simply. "If you fail, you either should get yourselves killed or never come home. Your choice." Kiram and Etos smirked slyly at each other.

_LD_

_Memory's Skyscraper, The World That Never Was_

Creed quickly weaved his way in and out of Naizer's heavy, lightning fast blows that would've reduced any normal man to a barely recognizable pulp while leaping out of the way of Ash's heavy strikes that shattered the fronts of buildings.

"If that's your best, Naizer, just pack your bags right now," Creed taunted as Naizer's blows flew past him.

"It'll be hard to laugh with no teeth!" Naizer retorted as he backed Creed into a corner. His tonfas slammed into the side of the building with enough force to bring it down as Creed leapt several yards into the air above him to avoid the strike. Ash leapt down from an even higher point, the tip of his cane stabbing down at Creed with rapid, bone-crushing force. The former Eraser grinned evilly and dodged the blows. Ash slammed into the ground, the strength from his strikes shattering the concrete and leaving behind a large crater around him. There was the sound of a sword being unsheathed and the building behind Ash was split in two. The two Numbers spun to look at Creed as he landed on top of an overturned truck.

"You got me worked up to draw my _Kotetsu_," Creed said in an amused tone. "Very impressive, even for a Number." In his hand was a the purple hilt of a sword, but with no blade. Naizer and Ash stared at the bladeless hilt in confusion.

Naizer recovered quickly and leapt at Creed only to hit the truck as the former Eraser jumped over his head and darted towards Ash. The truck exploded violently. Ash raised his cane above his head with a battle cry, preparing to bring it down on Creed's head. Creed grinned sinisterly.

"One number down," he said gleefully as he slashed at Ash with the bladeless hilt.

"What, you gonna club me to death?" He mocked. He had enough time to let out single bark of laughter before his entire body was split in half from head to groin with a sickening squelch. Blood flew in the air as Ash's body fell to the ground. Creed chuckled maniacally as Number _X_'s body fell.

"Ash!" Naizer cried out as he watched his partner die. He looked down at hilt in Creed's hand and saw Ash's blood hanging in midair where the blade would normally be on a regular sword. The air beneath the blood shimmered slightly and Naizer understood. "We don't use that kind of alien technique in Chronos. What is that?" Creed chuckled evilly.

"Oh, I don't think it's any of your business."

"You," Naizer growled. "You killed my partner you bastard!"

"Ha! You worked with him. He wasn't your partner," Creed laughed. "Maleficent and I, we're real partners. Although we don't always see eye to eye. Now, if you want to live you should start your begging on your knees." Creed waited expectantly. "Well?" Naizer hefted his tonfas and charged at Creed with a roar. "I guess not."

"You think you can trick me with your invisible blade?" Naizer demanded as he ran. "I can see the whole thing! It's covered with blood all the way to the tip!"

"Trick you?" Creed asked with a snide grin. "Oh, please. I know you're much too good for me to bother with trickery." He leveled his blade with Naizer's chest as the Number drew nearer. The invisible blade extended, stretching its length to pierce Naizer through his chest more than a dozen meters away. Naizer let out a cry and collapsed to his knees, Creed's invisible blade still buried in his chest. His _Dioskouroi_ clattering to his sides. Ash's blood still remained on the invisible blade, glowing faintly from the mysterious power creating the blade and revealing its full length.

"I missed the major arteries," Creed explained, "on purpose of course." The blade retracted back to its normal length as Creed rested it on his shoulder, staining his clothes with blood.

"But how?" Naizer asked weakly. "How could a former Eraser beat the Numbers? You're nothing."

"Crawl back to Sephiria," Creed told the wounded man. "I want you to tell her the end of Chronos is finally beginning. The times, they are a changing." Creed chuckled. His tongue flickered out and lapped up some of the blood from his blade. He licked his lips in satisfaction. "And tell her, that Maleficent's victory over all the worlds is guaranteed. It is absolute and undeniable." He turned on his heel and began to walk away from the crumpled form of Naizer. "As is my ascension to godhood." Creed's maniacal laughter echoed throughout the alleyways of the World That Never Was as the daily rain came and began to wash away the blood leaking from the fallen Numbers.

_LD_

* * *

_Well, that's it for this was one of my favorite chapters to write, despite the fact that it has a slightly darker atmosphere to it. First of all, we get to see the return of that loveable firestarter and he's wearing a suit to boot. Second, we get to have a taste of why Creed is my favorite all time villain with his Imagine Blade Level One. Thirdly, we meet two very important characters that will play a major role in the future._

_Anyway, for those of you who haven't voted in the poll, please do so quickly. I'm closing it tomorrow, or today I guess at 12 P.M. Noon. (American Central Mountain Time). For those of you who have voted, thanks a million! Your opinion has been heard and appreciated._

_Speaking of opinions, reviews are welcomed always and greatly appreciated. Your thoughts, opinions, and theories matter people! Don't think that they don't!_

_Finally, for any of you artists out there who want to do some __**Looming Darkness**__ artwork, I would very much love to see it. Just send me a message with a link to the work and I'll post it on my author page for all to see!_

_That's that for this week! See you all in May!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons_


	18. Exodus

(_Sora and Riku sit at a small card table, playing a game of GO FISH)_

_Sora: "Hey, Riku. Where are the others?"_

_Riku: "Well, as you'll recall, Kairi is busy beating up the author in the other room."_

_Sora: "I don't recall that! What'd he do to deserve that? (Riku simply stares at him) This is about that nightmare Kairi had, isn't it?" (Riku nods his head)_

_Riku: "And what he has planned involving said nightmare."_

_Sora: "I'm so confused."_

_Riku: "Good. I wish Kairi'd hurry up already. Shadow called us here for some big announcement." _

_Sora: "Really, I thought we were just here to give the disclaimer in honor of Looming Darkness reaching over a hundred reviews."_

_Riku: That too. (He turns to face the audience) "Shadow Horizons would like the following disclaimer put out there: If you are under the impression that he owns Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Disney, or Black Cat, you need to stop living under a rock and learn to use Google."_

_Sora: "He would also like it to be known that he does own his own plot, characters and ideas. Like Xanthos here." (Sora and Riku turn to look at Xanthos who no one seemed to have been paying attention to)_

_Xanthos: "While you two were giving the disclaimer I won." (Sora and Riku both look down at the cards in surprise)_

_Sora and Riku: "NO!"_

_Xanthos: (As he turns to the audience) "Enjoy!"_

_**Edit: **__Timeline corrected._

* * *

Chapter Eighteen: Exodus

_Saturday, June 5th 4794 P.C._

_Onboard the Reflection, Twilight Town Airspace_

King Mickey gave the order to fire at the first stroke of midnight. Bright beams of bluish-white energy lit up space around the _Reflection_ as its weapons unleashed their full power upon the Heartless fleet. The first wave of enemy ships was unable to maneuver themselves out of the way of the coming attacks and was obliterated within seconds. The ships behind them however managed to break their tightly grouped formation and scattered themselves. Their small, but more aerodynamic shapes allowed them to easily swerve past the energy beams blasting at them from the _Reflection_.

"They're too fast!" One of the weapons engineers on the bridge shouted. "We can't track them all.

"Speak for yourself," Axel and Xanthos said in unison. The pair of them had formed a friendly competition with each other to see who could gun down the most ships.

"Seventeen," Axel said proudly as his screen flared orange with an explosion.

"Twenty-four," Xanthos said proudly. "And I just took down two in one shot. Top that!" Axel growled at him. Olette couldn't help but wonder how those two managed to keep their heads cool in this sort of situation. She glanced at her two best friends, both of whom were having an almost fanboy-ish reaction to the battle.

"Donald, are you and the other pilots ready to launch?" The King said loudly as another explosion rocked the _Reflection_.

"Of course, your Majesty!" A quacking male voice said. Olette immediately recognized it from the anthropomorphic duck magician that had been travelling with Sora when the Keyblade Wielder was in Twilight Town. "We're just waiting for your signal!" A trio of explosions rocked the ship as the Heartless ships flew past. One had its engines clipped by an energy blast and was sent spiraling into one of its companions, destroying both in a beautiful conflagration.

"You're cleared for launch then," the King said. "Good luck, Donald."

"Thank you, your Majesty," the duck's voice replied. Fifty Falcon class Gummi ships all accelerated from the _Reflection_'s hangar, breaking off into pairs as they emerged and began to hunt down the Heartless ships one by one. A trio of Falcons was gunned down by Heartless ship as it attempted to kamikaze itself into the _Reflection_'s hangar, only to be blasted into oblivion by the last pair of Falcons to take off.

Flashes of orange and blue filled the air in front of the viewport and for several long minutes nobody made a sound until Donald's voice, even more difficult to understand with heavy static on top of his heavy accent spoke up.

"The Heartless are retreating!" He exclaimed. The crewman in the bridge all let out cheers of joy. Hayner and Pence were both grinning like madmen.

"That was awesome!" Hayner exclaimed, turning to grin at Olette, who couldn't help but smile warmly back at him. The only ones that didn't seem happy were the King, Xanthos and Axel. They all had the same, hardened expression. Heartless never retreated for any reason. Outside of the _Reflection_, the Falcons turned back and made their way towards the hangar. There was a flash of red light that lit up the inside of the bridge like a small sun as a Heartless ship three times the size of the _Reflection_ appeared out of nowhere, all of its weapons that were visible rotating to get a lock on the Falcons and the _Reflection_.

"Jones, get us out of here!" The King shouted. Jones was already two steps ahead of him. The second he had seen the Heartless ship materialize. He had begun to angle the ship away from it while powering up the _Reflection_'s Hyper-Gummis in preparation to get the hell out of Dodge. "Donald! You and the surviving pilots need to get back to the Reflection. Now!"

"What do ya think we're trying to do?" Donald retorted. "We can't fight that thing!" The Falcons within view of the Bridge were all beginning to accelerate towards the hangar.

"Their weapons are charging," one technician said nervously. "Almost hot!"

"They're firing!" Another one shouted as streams of purple energy raced towards the _Reflection_. "Brace for impact!" The attacks never reached the _Reflection_. Bright bolts of ruby-red laser fire streaked across space, each one larger and more powerful than the blasts fired by the Heartless ship, to intercept the purple energy blasts.

"What the hell was that?" Axel shouted as the Reflection was buffeted by shockwaves from the resulting explosions of colliding energy. Another large ship appeared from nowhere. Painted in various shades of red and gold, the new arrival began firing streaks of red energy shots into the side of the Heartless ship, which was slowly turning in an attempt to fall back and regroup.

"Your Majesty, that new ship is hailing us," a technician announced. "What should I do?"

"Put them through," the King responded. A holo-projector came to life overhead and the small image of a man in his early thirties, garbed in a gray, military style uniform appeared. The man saluted the King, who returned the gesture. "This is King Mickey of the _Reflection_. Who am I speaking to?"

"Commander Jackson Dunn of the Radiant Garden Destroyer _Tip of the Spear_," the man replied. "Sorry for getting you involved in this firefight, your Majesty. We just chased this dirtbag out from our airspace to here. I hope it didn't give you too much trouble."

"You showed up just in time, Commander," the King replied gratefully. "Thank you." The Commander nodded.

"My pleasure, sir," he said. "Do you need assistance of any sort sir? Or are you fine on your own?"

"We've actually got a bit of a situation down on the world's surface, Commander," the King said in a dreadfully serious tone. "There's a lot of Heartless, more than I've ever seen on just one world and it's only a matter of time before they find their way to the heart of this world and it's lost. Is there any way you can assist with an evacuation?" The Commander looked startled by the information he had received. He gestured for someone off screen and spoke quietly to a young woman dressed in a light gray uniform for a few moments before she darted out of view of the projector again.

"My Lieutenant is on her way to contact Radiant Garden," the Commander explained. "She'll find out how many transports we can get out here within the next four hours and report back to me. I'll prepare my troops ready to warp down to the surface to protect the civilians from the Heartless while we get the evacuations underway. If I may, your Majesty, I suggest you get in touch with the President of Twilight Town and inform him of the current situation and verify that it is okay for us to land our troops down there." The King nodded in agreement.

"It sounds like a plan, Commander," he said with a salute. "Let me know when we can be expecting those transports by." The Commander nodded in acknowledgment before returning the salute and ending the transmission. The King got to his feet and turned to find Goofy, Axel and Xanthos all ready to go.

"Your Majesty," Xanthos said, taking a step towards the King. "While you go to meet with the President, I will search for the Keyhole. If I can find it and seal it, then hopefully the majority of the Heartless will leave." The King nodded.

"Sounds good to me," he glanced over at Olette. "But what do you plan to do about her?" Xanthos stared over the King's head at the brunette and sighed.

"I can't exactly take her with me, since she doesn't know how to summon her Keyblade yet, she'd be at too great of a risk," he said thoughtfully before lowering his voice to barely a whisper. "And it's probably best that she and her friends remain here in any case. With her inexperience she'd only slow down my search because I'd have to keep looking out for her." The King nodded slowly.

"Alright then Master Xanthos, I hope you find the Keyhole quickly," the King held out his hand to Xanthos, who graciously shook it with a grim grin plastered on his face.

"I can only hope," he said. A flash of bright blue light illuminated the bridge as Xanthos vanished.

"Your Majesty!" One of the technicians exclaimed. "There's another Gummi ship entering this system, and I don't think it's one of the Radiant Garden transports."The King glanced around at the technician and strode over to look at his workstation. A small red and gold blip had appeared on the radar. "They're transmitting a signal, here." The technician flipped a switch on his control panel and a woman's voice filled the bridge.

"- Construct Unit Zero Four Zero One Four Two One Five of the _Dawn's First Light_, requesting immediate assistance. Does anyone read me? Our engines were damaged in a dogfight with some Heartless ships and now we're derelict. This is the AI Construct Unit Zero Four Zero One Four Two One Five of the _Dawn's First Light_, requesting immediate assistance." The technician flipped the switch again, cutting off the transmission.

"That's all it says, your Majesty," he said. "What do you want us to do?" The King immediately leaned past the technician and opened a COMM link to the _Dawn's First Light_.

"This is King Mickey of the _Reflection_," he said into the headset the technician passed him. "We read you loud and clear."

"About time someone answered," the woman's voice said. "I am the Artificial Intelligence Construct Unit Zero Four Zero One Four Two One Five. Our ship has sustained heavy damage from a sudden Heartless attack, we need immediate assistance."

"How many crewmen do you have onboard?" The King asked. He gestured with his hands to the other crewmen on bridge to move the Reflection closer to the derelict ship.

"Just one," the AI replied. "The _Dawn's First Light_ is Master Riku Hearne's personal ship. There's no one else onboard." The King let out a small gasp of surprise. It had barely been a week since he last saw Riku. "He was injured when our engines were taken out and has since passed out from his injuries. He needs immediate medical attention."

"Just sit tight," the King said. "We'll come get you."

"Please hurry," the AI said. There was a loud click as the line went dead. The King looked up at his crewmen.

"You heard the lady," he said. "My friend's in trouble so let's go help him out."

"Aye, sir!" The crewman all shouted, giving their King a salute before leaping into a frenzy of activity to bring the _Reflection_ up alongside the _Dawn's First Light_ as quickly as possible.

"Um, what do you want us to do, your Majesty?" Olette asked. The King looked over at her. She, Hayner and Pence all seemed to be at a loss for what to do.

"Why don't you three go down to the galley and get yourselves something to eat?" The King suggested. "You've already been through a lot in just barely an hour. I'm sure a little food and maybe a cup or two of coffee could do you three wonders."

"I'll take 'em your Majesty!" Goofy said, striding up to them. "I could really use some food myself." His stomach growled loudly as if to solidify his point. The King chuckled.

"Okay, Goofy," he said. "I'll just be sure to give ya a holler when we need ya." Goofy saluted the King, knocking his shield into the side of his head once more. He grinned at the three teens as he massaged his newest head wound.

"C'mon fellahs," he said happily. "I'll show you the way!" The three teens all chuckled as they followed Goofy out of the bridge and back into the labyrinth of halls that filled the _Reflection_'s interior. The King watched them go with a bemused expression before looking out of the viewport to watch as they neared the _Dawn's First Light_.

_Hang in there, pal._ He said to himself. _Help is on the way._

_LD_

"_Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside. Corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide."_

_Riku struggled as he descended through the Darkness. It felt like he was drowning in an ocean, slowly sinking through the murky depths to his doom. _

"_This heart belongs again to Darkness."_

_Voices echoed all around him, overlapping each other as each tried to make itself heard. One voice however, struck a chord in Riku's memory, sending a shiver down his spine._

"_Did you think me gone?"Riku's eyes snapped open as his feet touched solid ground. Beneath him was what appeared to be a stained-glass platform, mostly dark blue in color and depicting the image of him gazing fixatedly on the oceans of Destiny Islands. In small circles above the Paopu tree where the image of Riku rested where the images of Sora, Kairi and Mickey. _

_Four other circles were visible below the tree's image, two of them showing shadowy silhouettes. Another depicted the image of a sleeping young man with brown hair styled into messy, vertical spikes and bangs that framed his face. Inside of the fourth, to Riku's amazement, was the image of the girl that looked like Sora's clone, smiling warmly up at him rather than fixating the glare she had when he had met her on Nomanisan Island._

_Riku spun around and found himself face to face with Xehanort's Heartless. The humanoid creature of Darkness smirked down at Riku as the Way to the Dawn appeared in his hand. Riku leapt several feet backwards, placing a dozen feet between the two of them. The Heartless' amber-orange eyes bore into Riku's aquamarine ones. His ghostly white hair shifted as if it were blowing in a breeze._

"_Did you really think you could be rid of me so easily?" The Heartless said. "You cannot defeat the Darkness that easily, boy." Riku glared at him and hefted the Way to the Dawn. _

"_Where there is Light, there will be Darkness," Riku admitted. "Darkness can never really be beaten, just subdued. But that doesn't make you invincible!" He leapt at the Heartless, the Way to the Dawn gleaming eerily in the dim lighting cast by the platform beneath him. Xehanort's Heartless smirked._

"_It would seem that you need to be taught a lesson," he said. Darkness flowed from his fingertips and took shape, a double bladed Soul Eater appearing in his hand in time to parry Riku's fist blow._

_LD_

_Monday, June 7th 4794 P.C._

_Mt. Kathleines Gummi Station, Radiant Garden_

Olette felt her anxiety levels rising as she, Hayner, and Pence watched the newest refugees from Twilight Town begin to arrive. It had been almost a full two days since the _Reflection_ had taken them to Radiant Garden with the first group of nearly five hundred people. They had arrived and been pulled aside by a man named Leon. King Mickey had explained the situation to him before rushing off to have the person they had rescued from the derelict Gummi ship transported to the medical station _Angel on my Shoulder_ that was in orbit around Radiant Garden. Leon had immediately begun to contact people to come and help attend to the refugees as well as giving orders to send all available transports to Twilight Town to assist with the evacuation.

So far, only a little more than four thousand people had been successfully evacuated from their world due to heavy amounts of Heartless ships attacking the transports and the resulting battles were slowing down movement. Dread settled in the pit of Olette's stomach like a dead weight. Twilight Town had a population of nearly twenty-five thousand and not even a fifth of them had been rescued yet.

Olette carefully scanned the crowd, looking for any signs of her father, but so far, there was no sign of him. She only recognized a few people; Seifer and his gang, her algebra instructor, the owner of her favorite ice cream parlor, the guy who was in charge of the Struggle each summer, and her father.

"Dad?" Olette said in mild surprise. Hayner and Pence both looked around and spotted Olette's father, still dressed in the suit he had worn to the museum on the night the Heartless had attacked. Despite his age, Eric Fairchild usually looked like a distinguished man in his mid-twenties. But as his emerald-green eyes desperately scanned the crowd, he looked more his age than ever.

"Dad!" Olette cried out, breaking away from her friends to run towards her father. Eric turned and spotted his daughter shouldering her way through the crowd towards him. He let out a cry of relief and began moving as quickly as he could towards her. They met in a near-bone-crushing embrace, both of them clinging to one another for support.

"Thank god, you're alright," Eric said, kissing his only child on her forehead. "After those things attacked the museum, I couldn't find you or your mother anywhere. I was so worried they had gotten you two." He glanced around expectantly for his wife, his hopeful expression slipping slightly when he couldn't spot her through the thinning crowd. "Olette, where's your mother at?" He stared down at his daughter, and struggled to fight back tears as he watched her tears begin to flow down her cheeks. His wife wouldn't be joining them. He tightened his embrace on his daughter as she wept into his chest, silent tears breaking his composure as the two of them grieved their loss.

"Olette Fairchild?" A strong, deep voice said behind them. The teary eyed pair turned to see a tall, heavily muscled man. He had steel-gray eyes and prominent frown lines etched into his face. His long blonde hair seemed oddly out of place on him. He was dressed in a dark blue suit with a deep purple shirt underneath the jacket. A vibrant yellow tie decorated with seemingly random black lines stood out. Over the suit, he wore a long, jet-black coat decorated with gold trim and a pair of golden shoulder pads accented with long tassels that fell down to the middle of his biceps. He held out his hand towards Eric, who shook it slightly nervously.

"My name is Belze Rochefort," the man said. He stared down at Olette and offered her his hand. Olette shook it, unable to avoid noticing the numeral _II_ tattooed on the back of Belze's hand. "The Governor of Radiant Garden would like to meet with you as soon as possible, but he says he can wait until you find a place to stay. He says it's very important." He pulled his hand away from Olette's, leaving a card with an address written on it in its place. Belze bowed to the pair and walked off. Olette stared at the card in her hand before turning back to embrace her father again, thankful that she still had him.

_LD_

_Twilight Town_

Xanthos wiped the sweat off of his scarred face. He glanced at his reflection in one of the many polarized windows that lined the outside of Twilight Town's Central Station. He had been searching for the Keyhole non-stop since he had warped back down to the surface from the _Reflection_. He glanced down up at the skyline, the normal orange, pink and yellow sky had turned a sickly green color from the seven warp beams currently positioned in the Tram Common as the citizens slowly filled up the transport ships.

One of the beams slowly faded, followed shortly by the distant report of Gummi engines flaring to life. Overhead, a squadron of Scimitar class fighters roared past where Xanthos stood to escort the departing transport back to Radiant Garden.

Half a dozen Neoshadows suddenly emerged from the ground and attempted to surround the Chaser, only to be greeted by the sting of his blade as he made short work of them. For two and a half days, he had been searching non-stop and fighting a seemingly endless horde of Heartless. He took minimal comfort in the fact that he was making evacuation easier by drawing the Heartless to him.

He glanced up at the clock tower on the station's roof as the clock struck noon. Deep, booming chimes echoed throughout the city, announcing the time. Xanthos' eyes narrowed. Storm clouds were forming directly behind the clock tower. But something didn't seem right. The clouds were forming too quickly to be natural and they were only forming directly around the clock tower. Purple flashes of lightning lit up the inside of the clouds, creating small rumbles of thunder. Xanthos' shoulders sagged and his mouth dropped open as realization dawned on him.

_No…_

All around him, Heartless of varying shapes, sizes and power began to appear but they all ignored him, each of them intent on rushing the clock tower. In the center of the clock face, a tiny light shone. Xanthos stared at the light in disbelief. Two and a half days of running around the city searching for the Keyhole and here it was, in what should've been the most obvious place.

Xanthos snapped out of his state of disbelief and waded into the sea of Heartless, his Keyblade slashing left and right, cutting down Heartless after Heartless. He quickly realized that his efforts were in vain. For every Heartless he cut down, seven more appeared to replace it. Xanthos changed tactics. He raised his Keyblade and aimed it at the Keyhole. Bright, white lights circled around the Oblivion's tip before becoming a beam of blue energy that shot towards the Keyhole. High above him, the storm clouds began to fan out, quickly blanketing out the sun and casting the world into shadow.

The beam of light that had burst from the Oblivion's tip stopped halfway to the Keyhole and faded away. Xanthos stared in shock. He couldn't seal the Keyhole. That meant…

"Son of a bitch," Xanthos said under his breath. He spun on his heel and ran from the station, determined to get as many people onto the ships as quickly as possible. Behind him, deep purple cracks began to form around the clock face that held the Keyhole before a wave of Darkness erupted from the heart of the world and consumed it.

There were no people lining Market Street as Xanthos ran through it, but he found himself facing an almost literal wall of people as he entered the Tram Common. Silently cursing himself, he leapt up the side of a nearby home and turned to look back towards where Central Station once was. In its place was a massive orb of purple, black and blue energy that slowly drew debris from the world around it in. The storm above seemed to draw its power from the orb of energy. The clouds became as black as night, rather than a dull gray. Thunder rumbled constantly as bolts of purple lightning danced through the storm as the wind began to howl.

"Everyone into the portals!" Xanthos shouted above the roaring wind. "We're out of time!" The people that had managed to hear him turned to look at him in confusion, only to see the wall of Darkness advancing on the Tram Common, threatening to swallow them all. It didn't take long for panic to ensue after that. People shoved one another out of their way in a mad attempt to reach the glowing green portals. People who fell were trampled underfoot. Three of the beams of light turned from green to red, informing those on the ground that they were at full capacity. The red lights slowly faded and the ships could be heard leaving.

"Xanthos, what the hell's going on?" Axel shouted as Xanthos leapt down from the rooftops to stand next to him.

"I didn't get to the Keyhole in time," the Chaser panted. "This world is doomed." Axel stared hopelessly up at the wave of Darkness as it began to consume Market Street.

"Are you sure there isn't anything we can do?" He asked, his tone shaking slightly in defeat. Xanthos shook his head.

"Just one," he reached out into the crowd that shouldered their way past him and grabbed hold of a pregnant woman that had nearly been knocked over and began guiding her towards the nearest portal. "Help as many people as we can onto the ships before that Darkness reaches us. We've got two minutes at most." There were screams from the other end of the Commons. Xanthos and Axel both spun to take a look. A second wave of Darkness had swallowed what used to be the great forest outside of the city walls and was moving twice as fast as its counterpart.

"I take that back," Xanthos said grimly. "We've got twenty seconds. Tops." Moving like a black blur, he scooped the pregnant woman up in his arms and leapt high above the crowd before landing next to one of the portals and quickly placing the woman on her feet. Axel landed next to him, a pair of children in his arms. The screams of the crowd were intensifying as the Darkness drew closer. All of the beams except for the one Xanthos and Axel stood by turned red and faded away. Xanthos and Axel shared a nervous glance.

"In you go," Axel said, quickly pushing the children he had saved into the portal. Xanthos nodded curtly to Axel, who grinned in an attempt to hide his fear in face of certain doom for the third time in his life.

"You too," Xanthos said to the red-haired former Nobody. Axel looked incredulously at him before his eyes widened in shock. Xanthos kicked the pyro as hard as he could in his chest, sending him stumbling back into the portal a split second before it turned red. Xanthos closed his eyes as the waves drew nearer at an alarming rate and concentrated. The Darkness was less than a centimeter from consuming his hand when he vanished from the doomed world and appeared on the bridge of the _Reflection_, which had just returned to assist in evacuation.

The crewmen on the bridge didn't pay him any attention. They all simply stared in shocked silence as Twilight Town flared brightly with white light for a brief second before vanishing, leaving only empty space where it had once been.

Xanthos refused to stare. He hung his head, his heart filled with shame. Thousands lost to the Darkness. An entire world gone. He had failed.

_LD_

_Tuesday, June 8th 4794 P.C._

_Medical StationAngel on my Shoulder, Radiant Garden Airspace_

Riku opened his eyes, feeling somewhat groggy, and found himself staring up at an off-white, paneled ceiling. He tried to sit up and found that he couldn't move his arms or legs. He lifted his head up; silently sending his thanks to whatever all-powerful deities might be listening, and glanced around the room. He was in a hospital room, judging by the dreary, off-white paint on the walls and the smell of bleach. There was a steady beeping from a heart monitor that was set up next to his bed. He spotted an IV tube leading to a spot under his sheets, where he hoped that it was connected to his arm. A TV built into the wall displayed a Radiant Garden news channel that was busy covering the highlights from the previous night's Blitzball game.

He let out a groan and leaned back into the slightly less than comfortable hospital-grade pillows. Feeling was slowly returning to him. His body was covered with bandages and his side hurt like hell. His brow furrowed in concentration as he struggled to remember why he was in a hospital. He remembered being thrown from his bed and into a wall as the _Dawn's First Light_ was struck by Heartless ships and he remembered running up to bridge to see what was happening only to be impaled by a twisted metal rod as something inside the ship exploded. And then nothing. He assumed the impalement had missed everything important, otherwise he would've been dead by now.

His head was beginning to throb. He remembered dreaming about fighting with Xehanort's Heartless and beating him, and how the Heartless had taunted him, calling him weak and pathetic and an unsuitable host.

"You look like shit, you know that?" Riku opened his eyes. The girl that looked just like Sora, Keila (if Riku's memory was telling him right), stood at the foot of his bed, smirking down at him.

"Well, it's good to know that I at least I look the way I feel," Riku said weakly. Keila rolled her eyes. "So did you come to kill me or what?"

"Originally, yes," she said thoughtfully. "Especially since I still have a massive lump on the back of my head from where you whacked me. Do you realize how much it hurts me to wash my hair now?" Her cerulean eyes looking everywhere now except at him. "As I was saying, after they removed that pipe from your gut and patched you up, I was going to sneak in here to cut your throat before you had healed enough to wake up. But I changed my mind." She walked over to the bedside table and set down a vase of red and yellow flowers and a 'Get Well Soon' card. Riku raised an eyebrow at her, a motion that didn't go unnoticed by Keila.

"What?" She demanded. Crossing her arms.

"I thought you were trying to kill me," Riku stated. "So why are you bringing me flowers and a card. Change of heart?" Keila's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment for a fraction of a second before she regained her composure.

"Don't question my methods," she snapped angrily. "I'm not going to kill you now when you can't defend yourself. That wouldn't be very fair, now would it? I've decided I'm going to kill you after you get released here in the next couple of days or so. So don't get too used to the idea." She stuck her nose up in the air with a holier-than-thou air about her before exiting the room. Riku fought back the urge to laugh.

He glanced warily at the card and flowers. He had never known any enemy to send a 'Get Well Soon' card to their enemies and he couldn't help but wonder if it was explosive. Painfully and stiffly, he reached out to the card and tenderly took hold of it. Inside, written in elegant, flowing script was the message;

_Here's to hoping you get well soon so I can kill you in a fair fight, cockbite._

_Hugs and Kisses of Death,_

_Keila_

_P.S. Get a haircut._

Riku chortled and set the card back on the bedside table. Despite the death threats, he found the card to be somewhat sentimental.

"And just how is sleeping beauty today?" Riku looked around as a woman in her mid-twenties, dressed in a brilliantly white lab coat, stepped into the room. Her raven hair (accented with a dark purple stripe) was tied neatly into a ponytail that swayed gently from side to side as she moved into Riku's room. Her pale blue eyes carefully scanned the paperwork on the clipboard in her hand.

"I'm a little on the sore side and pretty thirsty," Riku said. The doctor gave a start and nearly dropped her clipboard in shock. Clearly she hadn't been expecting Riku to be awake.

"Jesus, you scared me," she chuckled nervously, clutching her chest as her heart rate settled back into its usual rhythm. "I honestly didn't expect you to be awake so soon." Riku shrugged to the best of his ability.

"I'm a quick healer," he said. "It always amazed the doctors back home."

"I see," the doctor said. She made a few notes on her clipboard, muttering to herself under her breath about Riku's general behavior. "I'm Doctor Stinson by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Doc," Riku said with a courteous smile as Doctor Stinson checked his blood pressure, and temperature. "Where am I?"

"You are onboard the medical station _Angel on my Shoulder_," Doctor Stinson replied. "We are in orbit over Radiant Garden. The entire station was designed for two purposes. One, zero-g surgery. And two, to isolate any virulent outbreaks if necessary." Riku couldn't help but wonder how zero-g surgery was performed. Doctor Stinson changed the subject and spent the next couple of minutes asking him routine questions about how he was feeling, what he could remember, if he had any allergies and so on. She made numerous notes on her clipboard before tucking it under her arm and giving Riku a half-bow.

"If there's anything you need at all, there's a call button on the side of your bed. I'm sure you know how it works," the doctor said. Riku nodded with a half-smile. "Volume and channel controls for the TV are also there. I'll see you tomorrow, Master Riku." Riku looked up in surprise as Doctor Stinson acknowledged his formal title as the door slid shut behind her. Riku sighed and turned his attention to the TV.

A young reporter, no older than twenty by Riku's guess, was giving a report. Riku was considering allowing himself to fall back in unconsciousness when an image of Twilight Town under siege from an army of Heartless appeared on the screen. Riku's eyes widened and his fingers scrambled quickly across the multitude of buttons on the side of his bed, searching for the volume controls.

"- with a force of more than fifty times the size of the swarm that attacked us just a few months ago," The reporter was saying. "And unlike us, the citizens of Twilight Town had no warning and no time to prepare their defenses when the Heartless army swarmed into their world last Friday evening. Governor Leonhart, King Mickey Mouse of Disney Castle, and President Westerlund of Twilight Town coordinated a mass evacuation of Twilight Town upon determining the size of the Heartless army.

"Sadly, the evacuation was met with tragedy. The transport Gummi, _Ring the Bell_, was boarded by Heartless. There were no survivors and the _Ring the Bell_ had to be gunned down to prevent the countless Heartless on board from reentering Radiant Garden airspace. Even more devastating than the loss of the _Ring the Bell_ was the complete destruction of Twilight Town." Riku let out a gasp of surprise. "We take you now to President Westerlund, who is about to speak at Mt. Kathleines to the eight thousand survivors of the Twilight Town disaster."

Footage was displayed onscreen of a man in his early fifties by the looks of him speaking to a crowd. On-screen text said that he was the President of Twilight Town speaking from the Mt. Kathleines Gummi Station here on Radiant Garden. Behind him stood King Mickey, a man with spiky brown hair and a scar across his face that Riku assumed was Leon, and (much to Riku's surprise) Master Xanthos.

"It is with great sadness that I tell you all today that our home was lost to the Darkness," President Westerlund was saying. "All that remains of our world is us, the survivors. But in your mourning over loved ones lost, take hope. I am told by King Mickey and Master Xanthos of the Kingdom of Keys that those who were lost to the Darkness yesterday afternoon have a chance to come back to us." A murmur went through the crowd.

"They tell me of a young man," the President continued, "a young man who braves the darkest forces any world has ever seen. A young man who has saved the worlds from total destruction not only once, but twice. They tell me of how, even now, he and his friends travel from world to world, Keyblades in hand, as they fight off the forces of Darkness that destroyed our world and threaten so many others. They have the power to restore our world and the hearts of our loved ones who were lost to the Darkness.

"I humbly ask you to put your faith in these young men and women. Put your faith in the Light they fight to protect. For by their blades, the Heartless shall be vanquished, and not only will they help bring an end to our suffering, but he will end the suffering of countless others as well." The crowd was growing excited, hopeful. Several of the younger generations cheered wildly. Riku couldn't help but feel the weight of an entire world on his shoulders. The survivors of Twilight Town were finding a reason to be hopeful. And he was part of that reason. These people were counting on him, Sora, Kairi and Naminé, the newest generation of Keyblade Wielders to help them, to give them a light to follow. And here he was, stuck in a hospital while Sora, Kairi and Naminé all were out traveling the worlds.

"The slogan, 'Remember Twilight Town', has become extremely popular overnight," the news reporter said as the image of the President's speech was replaced by the generic shot of a news room. "The survivors have begun using it as a rally point and it has become a call to arms for many of them, even amongst our native residents of Radiant Garden, against the Queen of Darkness, Maleficent, and her army of Heartless." A small image of the green-skinned, devil-horned witch appeared in the upper corner of the screen. "Governor Leonhart stated in a press conference last night that President Westerlund would be entitled to a seat in the senate as long as his citizens took up residence here in Radiant Garden. As for the citizens of Twilight Town, they are being given homes in the recently finished North District. From all of us here at Channel Thirteen News, we welcome the citizens of Radiant Garden to our city and we offer our condolences for their loss.

"In other news, the newly re-established Shinra Electric Power Company has offered to supply-" Riku let out a yawn, having lost interest in the news program, and began flipping through channels in an attempt to find something interesting, skipping over a Chocobo race and a program entitled 'Grifball Pre-Season Talk Show' before settling on the Food Network and relaxing back into his pillows for a long night of cooking shows.

_LD_

_Eternity Hotel and Day Spa_

_Radiant Garden _

Keila groaned as she stepped into her rented room. Her jet black pumps went sailing across the single bed to land with a dull thump on the opposite. Dragging her feet across the god-awful beige carpeting, she made her way to the plush, queen sized mattress and collapsed face down on it, her caramel-colored hair landing in all directions around her head.

"What do you want, Charden?" She mumbled into the cool comforter. Charden Flamberg stepped out from his hiding spot behind the closing door and removed his top hat, allowing his golden hair to enjoy a rare bout of fresh air. Even indoors, he kept his white silk gloves and sunglasses on.

"Maleficent wants a report," he said simply. "No one's heard from you for days." Keila groaned and sat up to face the Apostle.

"I took care of it," she said with a glare. "Granted, it took me longer than expected."

"So you killed him?"

"No, I left him brain dead and basically a vegetable," Keila said with a sinister grin. "He's no longer a threat, to us or anyone else." Charden nodded.

"She will be pleased to hear that," Charden said with a humorless chuckle. "I will report back to headquarters immediately." He spared a quick glance around the room. "I suggest you do the same." He placed his top hat back on his head and exited the room with a polite grin, the door behind him closing with a snap. Keila breathed a sigh of relief and laid back down on her bed. Staring up at the ceiling, she couldn't help but wonder why she lied about killing Riku.

She sat up and stared at her hands, trying to come up with a reason. He had been there, beneath her blade, unconscious and vulnerable. Yet, she hadn't been able to do it.

_Why couldn't I kill him?_

Slowly, she got to her feet and began undressing herself. Kicking her clothes aside, she made her way into the bathroom to sink to her nose in a nice, warm bath. She paused as she passed the large mirror that dominated more than half of one of the bathroom walls to stare sadly at the large, pale scar that ran down her body from her left shoulder, past the swell of her breast and almost to her waistline. She shivered from the memory of the cold sting of her Master's Keyblade as it dug into her side, a punishment for disobeying her mother.

"Some mother you are," Keila muttered under her breath, her fingers gently tracing the scar. It was days like today when she would often wonder why she never tried to leave her Master. But she always came to the same conclusion. It was because her brothers and sisters who worshipped their Mother like she was a goddess would hunt her down if she left. Especially Kiram and Etos, the two that seemed to be completely obsessed with pleasing their mother; they'd probably lead the hunt against her if she left. Above all else, she knew she was hopelessly outnumbered by her siblings. She sighed as she sat on the edge of the tub as hot water, and scented bubbles poured from the pair of faucets.

After a few minutes, she tenderly tested the temperature of the water with her toes. Finding it perfect for relaxing, she gently slid her aching body into the water with a groan of relief. As she lay in the bathtub, her thoughts slowly drifted away from her mother and siblings, instead focusing once again on the silver-haired Keyblade Master. A tiny blush crept onto her cheeks as she imagined him sharing the bath with her, helping her wash her back, his hands slowly moving lower along her body until-

Keila smacked herself as hard as she could to pull herself away from the fantasy before she lost herself in it. Her cheeks were flushed red from embarrassment.

"What's wrong with me?" She muttered, staring at the tiny pink bubbles floating on the water around her. "He's the enemy. I'm supposed to kill him."

_So why can't I stop thinking about him?_

_LD_

_Hallways outside of Governor Leon's Personal Office, _

_Formerly Ansem the Wise's Study, Radiant Garden_

Olette slowly made her way through the slightly intimidating corridors of the castle that dominated the center of the city. From what she understood, the castle wasn't occupied by anyone since there were currently no heirs to the throne and was being used as a secondary headquarters for the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee. After receiving vague directions from one of the gray-suited guards stationed outside of the castle, she had made her way deep into its bowels towards where she hoped was Governor Leon's office. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear the sounds of two male voices, both agitated and loud enough to create an echo.

"Absolutely not!" The deeper of the two voices shouted. Olette paused in mild surprise as she recognized the voice. "She is my daughter and I refuse to let her get involved with this stupid war of yours!"

_Why is my dad here?_ Olette wondered. She began to move quickly towards the source of the shouting.

"Mister Fairchild, please calm down," a calm, female voice said.

"I will not calm down!" Her father snapped. "Our world was destroyed. I lost my wife and Olette lost her mother and now you're telling me that you're going to be taking her away to train her to fight? You go too far!"

"So you would rather leave her to the mercy of the Heartless?" Olette recognized the harsh voice as that of Master Xanthos'. "Because guess what, they have none! The Heartless are relentless creatures. And now that your daughter is a Wielder, they will come after her. And you're telling me that you would leave your daughter unprotected against them? What kind of father are you?"

"Don't you dare lecture me on how to be a father!" Eric Fairchild roared. "Who are you to talk to me like that? Hmm? You don't have nearly the same amount of life experience as I do, boy!" Xanthos' cold laughter cut him off.

"I don't have the same amount of experience as you? That's a laugh," Xanthos chortled. Olette heard a loud thump and a grunt of surprise from her father as she neared an oak paneled door. "For starters, 'boy'? I'm more than four and a half thousand years your senior. Don't let my appearance fool you. Secondly, I fought in the most tragic war in the history of the worlds and I have the blood of hundreds on my hands. Don't even try to act like you're superior to me."

"That still doesn't give you the right to take my daughter away!"

"She needs to be trained so she can fight off the Heartless! Without the proper training she won't be safe! Are you telling me that's what you want; to have your daughter in constant danger because of your selfishness?" Olette peered through the crack in the doorway. She could only make out her father's angry expression as he shouted up at Xanthos, who towered a good foot and a half over him.

"The safest place for her is with me, her father!"

"Oh, so you can fight off a Heartless swarm all by yourself? I seriously doubt it. They'd take your heart and then who would be left to protect your daughter? Who?"

"If you take her I'll probably never see her again! I just lost my wife and Olette is all I have left. You can't take her from me. You don't know what it's like!"

"I don't know what it's like?" Xanthos growled. He grabbed Eric by the front of his shirt and hoisted him into the air so they were face to face. "I was married one year. One single year. Then my wife was killed in front of me and I was powerless to save her. I held my wife in my arms as she bled out. I lost my family that day. Both my wife and my unborn child she carried." Olette gasped and placed a hand to cover her mouth as she saw tears streaming down Xanthos' face.

"Don't you dare tell me I don't know what its like. At least your wife only lost her heart, she can still come back. My wife's gone forever. No magic can bring her back. Nothing I do will ever change that." Xanthos set Eric back down on the ground. "Try living over a four and a half thousand years in suspended animation, being aware of the passage of time around you. Try living that long, while reliving your wife's death, over and over again. Just try going through what I did." Xanthos turned towards the doorway, his silver, tear-soaked eyes locking onto Olette's emerald green ones.

"But I suppose the only person who can really decide whether or not she gets the training is her," he continued as he opened the door. "Right, Olette?" Olette quickly straightened up. In the small, circular study stood her father, Xanthos, King Mickey, Governor Leon and a woman with layered black hair, beautifully deep brown eyes and a kind expression. All of them turned to look at her.

"Olette Fairchild," Xanthos said, as he wiped away the tears from his face on the back of his gloved hand. "You have become my inheritor by accident. As such, I am offering you a choice. While I cannot take away your ability to summon the Keyblade, I can teach you how to wield it so that the servants of Darkness cannot defeat you. So choose. You can remain here, with your father, and not learn how to be a Wielder. Or you can come with me and become my Apprentice. The choice is yours. What will it be?"

Olette was quiet for a few minutes as she considered everything that had happened. She occasionally glanced from her father's pleading expression to the look of immense emotional pain still etched into Xanthos' features.

"I'm sorry," Olette said quietly before looking up at her father. "But I'm going to go with Master Xanthos." Xanthos smiled as Eric's face fell slightly. "It's not that I don't love you, but I want to help fight. The Heartless are the reason Mom's gone and our home is destroyed. I want to fight back so no one else has to suffer like we do. You understand, right?" Eric sighed and he pulled his daughter into a bone-crushing hug.

"Of course I do, sweetheart," he said. "I'm so very proud of you. I just wish you didn't have to go." Olette hugged her father back.

"Don't worry, Dad," she said. "I'm not leaving forever. I'll still be able to visit and I'll always write you each week I'm gone." She turned her head to look at Xanthos. "I can, right?" Xanthos nodded.

"I won't stop you," he said. "And there's one thing we need to take care of before I go attend to a few things." Olette pulled away from her father and looked up at her new Master. There was a flash of light in Xanthos' left hand and the Oblivion Keyblade appeared. Xanthos tossed the Keyblade into the air and caught it by the shaft. He extended it towards Olette, offering her the handle.

"I need to do this properly," he said with a slight grin. "In your hand, take this Key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend. No ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love." Olette smiled back at her father before reaching out and grasping the Oblivion by the handle.

There was a blinding flash of light and the Oblivion seemed to heat up to the point it was unbearable for Olette to keep holding on, yet she found herself unable to let go. There were twin pricks of pain that shot through her ears. She let out a small cry. She heard her father call out to her and heard Xanthos shout for everyone to remain put. The light and heat vanished and Olette collapsed to her knees, panting for breath as she released her grip on the Oblivion.

"It would seem I did more than make it easier for her to summon her Keyblade," Xanthos commented, his silver-eyes fixated on Olette's ears. Olette slowly opened her eyes and immediately caught sight of her reflection in a highly polished, silver shield that hung on the wall. Her mouth dropped open. Both of her ears now had piercings shaped like a pair of Kingdom Key Keyblades crossed into an x-shape.

"What are those?" Eric asked, staring at his daughter's new earrings.

"That is the Mark of the Chasers," Xanthos said. "Your daughter is the first new Chaser to appear to the worlds in well over a thousand years."

"What's a Chaser?" Eric and Leon asked in unison.

"A creator of Keyblades," Xanthos said simply as he knelt down next to his Apprentice. "Olette, can you hear me?" Olette nodded. Her gaze was still fixed on her reflection.

"So I can make Keyblades now?" She asked. The idea of being able to create such mysterious weapons filled her with excitement. She suddenly felt overeager for her training to begin. Xanthos nodded.

"Once I've taught you how, yes, you will be able to," he answered. He gripped her by her upper arms and helped her back onto her feet. "Now listen to me, Olette. In three days, we will be leaving Radiant Garden from Gummi Hangar Eighty-seven aboard my personal ship, the _Equus_. Take these next three days to spend time with your father and your friends because it will be awhile before we will be returning."

"Where will we be going?" Olette asked.

"The place where Chasers were trained back before the War," Xanthos answered as he turned to leave. He paused halfway out of the door. "You might want to go buy some warm clothes. It's very cold there. And the blizzards are absolutely dreadful. You're going to love it." Olette's mouth dropped in disbelief as her eagerness to get started with her training vanished with her Master's words.

"Great," she muttered as Xanthos closed the door behind him. She turned to face the Governor and gave him a courteous bow. "You wanted to see me, sir?" Leon nodded.

"Well, it actually was to discuss whether or not you wanted to be trained to be a Wielder but that's been cleared up, obviously," he said with a smirk. "So I'll simply wish you the best of luck with your training. How about that?" Olette bowed to him.

"Thank you, Sir," she said.

"Just call me Leon," the scarred governor said. "Calling me 'Sir' makes me feel old."

"But you're a governor. You're already old," the woman standing next to him teased. The entire room all let out a chuckle at Leon's expense. Leon scowled up at the woman who stuck her tongue out at him, successfully breaking Leon's scowl as the childish gesture made him smile.

"I'm sure you don't want to stay here any longer," the King said to Olette and her father. "Leon and I are just going to be discussing politics and what not. So we won't mind if you take off." Olette and her father glanced at one another before they nodded and made their way to the door.

"Thank you, your Majesty," Eric said as he and Olette bowed out of the room to enjoy each other's company for the next three days.

_LD_

_Thursday, June 10th, 4794 P.C._

_Medical Station Angel on my Shoulder, Radiant Garden Airspace_

_Room G 14_

"And that's basically what happened after we were attacked. The _Reflection_ picked us up about forty minutes later and brought you back here for recovery."

Riku glanced over at Dawn's miniaturized projection on his bedside table as he slid back into his regular clothes. According to Doctor Stinson, he was free to go on the grounds he didn't do any jumping off of tall buildings to attack fifty foot tall robots that were designed to kill superheroes. Riku had to admit, the fact that Doctor Stinson had become somewhat of a fan of his, especially after the speech given by President Westerlund on Tuesday, had made the past two days of bed rest bearable. It was nice having someone to tell about his adventures to. Although he was secretly glad to have Dawn back. The AI in question paced back and forth across the table, clearly impatient.

"Could you possibly take any longer to get dressed?" she asked. "I'm not getting any younger and I'm bored. This portable projector is a weak model. It doesn't even have Wi-Fi, can you believe it? Do you realize what boredom is to an AI like me? Each second is like ten years. Seriously! You try it sometime!" Riku chuckled softly to himself.

"I take it you're ready to go see our new ship?" He asked the AI as he grabbed the portable unit and clipped it to his belt. Dawn's holographic avatar vanished.

"I've already seen our ship," her voice continued over the built in speaker. "And technically it's not new. It's still the _Dawn's First Light_, only now it's received an all around upgrade; everything from weapons to shields and to all the bells and whistles in between."

"Well, I hope it can live up to your description, because you make it sound like it's a golden chariot," Riku said with a laugh.

_LD_

_Docking Bay Four, Angel on my Shoulder, Radiant Garden Airspace_

The newly refurbished _Dawn's First Light Mk. II_ did more than live up to Dawn's description. The _Mk. II_ was a long, sleek, polished ebony machine. Rather than the domed bridge favored by most Kingdom Model Gummis, the _Mk. II_ had a single viewport, elegantly crafted to enhance the ship's sleek appearance. The _Mk. II_ boasted a trio of high-powered Firaga class engines as well as a fully functional warp drive, enhanced radar, and a plethora of concealed weaponry. The ship's name was beautifully painted onto the side of the nose next to the rising sun crest of Radiant Garden. Riku couldn't help but stare at his ship.

"She's a beauty, isn't she?" The ship's designer, Cid, said as he stepped out from underneath her hull. "Definitely some of my finest work. She's a lot faster than that old Kingdom Model you were flying around. And she's got better shields than any Kingdom Model so you don't have to worry about a random explosion impaling you with a water pipe." Cid clapped Riku on his back, causing the newly released hospital patient to stumble forward slightly. "You take good care of her or I'll have your hide, you hear me?" Riku nodded slowly, still in awe of his new ship. Cid grinned and tossed his toothpick aside. "She's all yours. I had Tron make up some security codes for you and now your AI has them, so don't lose her." Cid clapped him on the back once more before heading off.

"And if you run into Sora, tell him to swing back on by sometime so I can give the _Kingdom _an upgrade," he called back to Riku as the silver-haired teen made his way towards the _Mk. II_'s boarding ramp. Riku gave him the thumbs up and eagerly climbed into his new ship. Aside from a few layout changes, the _Mk. II_'s interior didn't differ too much from the _Mk. I_'s. The biggest change was definitely the bridge. The removal of the dome and all around general shape change left it big enough to fit about three or so people comfortably, at the most. Dawn quickly guided Riku through the steps of linking the portable AI storage up to the _Mk. II_ and was uploaded to the ship's mainframe in a matter of seconds.

"Ah, so much roomier than that stuffy old storage unit," Dawn sighed contentedly over the intercom. "An initial scan shows we have the necessary equipment installed onboard to investigate that anomaly you and I discovered last Friday. Would you like me to chart a course for those coordinates?" Riku nodded.

"But don't hesitate to stop at any worlds we might pass," Riku said. "Just because we're investigating the mysteries of the cosmos doesn't mean we can't have other adventures along the way, right?" Dawn's avatar on one of the console screens nodded in agreement.

"Preparing for takeoff," she said. "This is the _Dawn's First Light_ to Flight Control Deck. Do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, _DFL_, this is Flight Control," a deep male voice said over the COMM. "You are clear for takeoff as soon as Bay Four is clear of all personnel and the barrier is deactivated. Have a safe flight." Riku glanced out of the view port as he saw the last of the few flight personnel in the bay exiting the massive room. Ahead of the _Mk. II_ was a bright orange energy field maintaining the atmosphere inside the bay. As Riku watched, the barrier deactivated and the _Mk. II_ shook as its three engines roared to life and blasted them out into space.

_LD_

_Dawn's First Light Cargo Bay_

Keila adjusted herself to make squeezing between the two crates labeled _Spare Water_ more comfortable. She had a feeling stowing away was going to make her trip on the _Dawn's First Light_ a lot longer than she would've preferred, but at least she'd have a better shot at killing Riku on another world.

Leaning back against a barrel of fuel, she produced the novel _Storm Fall _by Richard Castle and proceeded to pick up from where she had left off, softly humming to herself as the _Dawn's First Light Mk. II_ made its maiden voyage.

_LD_

* * *

_(Kairi and Shadow Horizons, who is dressed in a fine, all black, three piece suit which is torn in several places and stained with blood from his nose, enter the room where Sora, and Riku are eating some celebratory cake)_

_Riku: "Good God, Kairi! Did you have to go that far with him?"_

_Kairi: (As she shrugs) "I only pushed him down the stairs."_

_Shadow: (Mumbling) "Yeah, all forty-seven flights of them."_

_Sora: (As Kairi walks over and steals a bite of his cake) "So what was the big announcement you had for us?"_

_Shadow: "Ah, yes. (Clearing his throat) Good news, everyone."_

_Riku: "I just watched three hours of Futurama last night. Every time Professor Farnsworth said those three words it was usually followed by bad news."_

_Shadow: (Completely ignoring Riku, continues on with his announcement) "As you all know, I recently closed the poll which asked our readers if there should be a Halo world. And I just so happen to have the results. Sixteen percent of voters said 'Nay'. Twenty-six percent of voters chose 'Maybe'. And the remaining fifty-eight percent said 'Yes'! So congratulations you three. One of you will get to travel to the world of Halo to not only fight Heartless and Nobodies. But the Covenant and the Flood as well."_

_Riku: "Ah, hell."_

_Kairi: (Giving Shadow a confused look) "Why only one of us?"_

_Shadow: "I have my reasons. Reasons that will become clear to you and the readers in due time. Mwahahahaha!"_

_Sora: (Waving around a copy of the Looming Darkness script) "But we already have the script! We can see what you have planned?"_

_Shadow: (Grins evilly at Sora) "Can you?" (Sora flips through the script and to his horror finds it completely blank after the end of Chapter Eighteen) I haven't written the rest yet you fool! (Sora hangs his head in defeat as Shadow passes out assault rifles to the three of them)_

_Kairi: "What are these for?"_

_Riku: "Oh, god. Please no."_

_Shadow: "An excellent question. In order for me to decide who goes to the Halo world, I've decided to have you three fight against wave after endless wave of Covenant forces until you're killed. Just like a firefight match from ODST or Reach."_

_Riku: "Why, God? Why us?"_

_Shadow: "Quit your whining." _

_Sora: "Do we have to fight?"_

_Shadow: "Yes, but only to kill time while my beta decides which one of you actually gets to go on since she won the contest."_

_Kairi: "What contest?"_

_Shadow: "A contest of who had the best endurance."_

_Riku: "So she drunk you under the table?"_

_Shadow: "Pretty much."_

_Jeff Steitzer's Voice: "Firefight!"_

_Kairi: "What the hell was that?"_

_Shadow: "That was Jeff Steitzer, he does the multiplayer announcer voice in Halo. Have fun! (Shadow vanishes in a puff of green smoke as a horde of Covenant forces begin to pour into the room)_

_Sora: "Shadow! How do you work this thing?" (He shakes the assault rifle in his hands angrily as half a dozen Elites rush him)_

_Shadow: (Now safely in his private office several worlds away) "Ah. Well, I hope all of the you enjoyed that chapter. I would like to thank my guests, Sora, Kairi, Riku, Xanthos, the voice of Jeff Steitzer, and the Covenant for joining me today. As always, reviews are greatly welcomed and appreciated. And if any of you are artists who want to do Looming Darkness artwork, I would very much like to see it. Until next time!"_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons_


	19. Dive

_Damn. I almost managed to update once a week for an entire month. Oh well._

_As always, I would very much like to thank everyone who reviewed. You guys are awesome! And I would very much like to express my thanks to **Atem's Sister Atea**. After a discussion I had with her a week or so ago, she got me thinking about the timeline I had set up as to when the Keyblade War happened which led me to add a whole new element to the future of the LD plot. Long story short, I made a few minor changes in the following chapters, Two, Eleven, Sixteen, Seventeen and Eighteen. It's nothing major and to save you all the trouble of going back and looking for the changes, I only changed when the Keyblade War took place (About four and a half thousand years before Kingdom Hearts BBS) which of course meant I also had to change Xanthos' age. Like I said, nothing too major._

_I hope everyone's having a good week so far!_

_Disclaimer: You know the drill._

* * *

Chapter Nineteen: Dive

_Thursday, June 10__th__ 4794 P.C._

_Dawn's First Light Mk. II_

Riku let out a barely audible sigh. Any other time and he probably would have enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous view of the pinkish hue of the space near Radiant Garden. Of course, fate didn't seem to want him to enjoy the sights on his trip. The _Mk. II_ twisted and rolled through the field of purplish asteroids while dozens of small Heartless ships pursued them. The edges of the viewport flashed bright blue as Dawn fired the _Mk. II_'s brand new Thundaga-class weapons.

"You've gotta give these guys credit," Dawn said over a speaker as her shots took out the engines of one of their pursuers, causing it to spin wildly out of control and into a pair of its allies that were flying to close together in an attempt to pass through the field.

"For what?" Riku asked as he frantically worked the controls to keep them from dying in a ball of fire.

"They're persistent," Dawn replied. "And dumb. Who taught them how to fly? They keep crashing into the asteroids. I've barely had to hit any of them."

"You're complaining because the ships trying to kill us are blowing up?" Riku asked incredulously as he sent the _Mk. II_ into a barrel roll to avoid a pair of missiles fired from one of the larger Heartless ships. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"Our side, obviously," Dawn said. "But I really wanted to test out more of our new weapons on them."

"Shouldn't we just be happy that they're the ones biting it and not us?" Riku said, breathing a sigh of relief as he finally navigated them out of the asteroid field.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun with our new 'toys'. Right?" Her avatar image on one of the monitors grinned at him.

"It's your lucky day then," Riku said as he stared out of the viewport at the open space in front of him. "We've got a lot of company. I just hope we have enough refreshments for them." Lying in wait for them was a small fleet of Heartless ships. At least three hundred small fighters headed their way with a pair of Assault Carriers hanging in the space behind them. A small light on Riku's console flashed green, informing him that the _Mk. II_'s missiles had been armed.

"I'm sure we've got plenty to entertain with," Dawn said eagerly. "I hope none of them are allergic to sudden, fiery doom." Riku grinned at Dawn's comment as two missile pods (each containing more than a hundred miniaturized, auto-targeting missiles) launched from the _Mk. II_'s underside. Halfway between the _Mk. II _and her enemies, the pods broke apart and the missiles scattered into space, leaving behind trails of bright blue smoke as each one found a target and zeroed in on it. Riku grinned as he stared out at the massive flashes of fire as the Heartless fleet was decimated by the missiles.

_LD_

_Mt. Kathleines Gummi Station, Hangar 87_

_Radiant Garden_

"So, you're telling me that King Mickey is sending you with me to help set up the fall-back headquarters, and that you know next to nothing about computers, but despite that, he's sending you anyway?" Xanthos asked Axel incredulously. The red-haired former Nobody nodded, casually brushing dust off of his suit jacket. All around them, technicians rushed past as they wheeled heavy electronic equipment towards the power-lift that led into the _Equus_' cargo bay.

"In a nutshell, that sounds about right," Axel said with an apologetic grin. "And I may have neglected to mention to him that I don't know anything about computers." Xanthos sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with a gloved hand as he stepped out of the way of a pair of technicians transporting a crate labeled _Medical Supplies_ towards the lift.

"How in the hell are we supposed to set up all of this equipment?" Xanthos groaned. "I have to train Olette and it doesn't help that she has virtually no combat experience. When the King asked me to set up the fall-back and told me you'd be tagging along, I assumed you would know how half of this crap works!"

"So that just means we have to find someone who understands computers, right?" Axel suggested. Xanthos nodded.

"I guess I'll go put a want-ad in the local paper," he sighed sarcastically, turning to leave the hangar and immediately having to leap aside as several pallets laden with large missiles was wheeled past.

"And I'll go ask around. There's gotta be someone we can trust who can help us out," Axel suggested. Xanthos gave him a look that said _yeah-you-go-do-that_.

_LD_

_Dawn's First Light Mk. II_

Riku let out a whooping laugh as the _Mk. II_ swerved though a debris field of freshly destroyed Heartless ships. The _Mk. II_'s Thundaga cannons fired off a steady burst of laser fire as Dawn began targeting the final wave of Heartless ships. Dawn chuckled. Not only we're the Heartless terrible pilots, they were terrible shots as well. She mercilessly cut down ship after ship with the _Mk. II_'s superior firepower until there was nothing left of them but scattered Gummi blocks floating in the multi-colored void of space.

"That was awesome, Dawn," Riku said with a grin. "I can't remember the last time I had so much fun." Dawn's avatar grinned.

"Thanks," she said. "This ship flies like a dream and it shoots like a war vet. I'll be damned if I let the Heartless so much as scratch the paintjob. And those small fry were pathetic! We didn't even have to bring out our big guns on them." Riku chuckled and turned his gaze out of the viewport in time to see a massive Heartless Gummi ship several hundred times the size of the _Mk. II_ emerge from behind a series of asteroids. "Uh, Dawn? You might want to think about bringing them out now."

"That won't help us much," Dawn noted as the _Mk. II_'s external cameras fixated themselves on the Heartless ship. "This thing doesn't come equipped with enough explosives to effectively damage that thing. It can easily overpower us. I'm getting us out of here." Several lights flared red on the console and a repetitive alarm began blaring loudly. The Heartless ship had spotted them and was targeting them with its weapons. "I'm going to activate our jump drive and get us as far away from here as possible. You might want to fasten your seatbelt." Riku immediately obliged as the monitors around him began displaying the message _Jump Drive Activated_. If there's one thing Riku had learned in the short time he had known the AI, it was that he should follow any suggestion she made like his life depended on it. For all he knew, it very well could.

"How safe is the jump drive exactly?" Riku asked.

"Well, once calculations have been made, it's usually safe. There's only a fraction of a percent of a possibility of jumping into a fleet of enemy ships, or an asteroid, or directly into a world," Dawn quickly explained. Outside of the _Mk. II_, the Heartless ship's weapons all rotated to aim at them. "But make a blind jump like we are, that small fraction becomes a thirty percent probability."

"I don't like the sound of that," Riku said nervously. "Can't we just try to out maneuver them? I'm pretty sure we're more aerodynamic than they are." As if on cue, hundreds of smaller Heartless ships emerged from within the bowels of the larger one and began zooming towards the _Mk. II_. "Never mind. Can we please jump now?"

"Of course," Dawn said. A bright, purplish light enveloped the _Mk. II_ for a split second before it vanished, creating an electromagnetic wave in its wake that disabled a few of the Heartless ships within range.

Riku kept his eyes squeezed shut as the _Mk. II_ hurtled through space at speeds that nothing should be allowed to travel at, in his opinion. He heard the alarms go silent for a brief moment only to blare back to life again. Dawn let out a muttered curse and Riku felt the _Mk. II_ attempt to come to a stop but to no avail. He allowed his eyes to open and immediately spotted and ocean blue world rushing up to greet them.

"I can't stop us in time," Dawn announced. "Radar didn't even pick up the world until it was too late. I'd keep your seatbelt buckled if I was you and you might want to brace for impact."

"You mean we're going to crash land?" Riku asked in desperation. The viewport flared orange as the _Mk .II_ broke through the atmosphere.

"Not exactly," Dawn said as they passed through several nimbus clouds before breaking free into a full view of a beautiful, sparkling ocean.

"Can this thing work underwater?" Riku asked, his fingers digging into his armrests as they rapidly approached the water's surface.

"We're about to find out," Dawn said nervously. The _Mk. II_ slammed nose-first into the waves and vanished beneath the surf. A lone fisherman stared at the spot where the sea had claimed it in total shock, his boat rocked gently by the waves created by the Gummi.

For several minutes, the _Mk. II _slowly sank into the murky depths of the ocean, darkness swallowing the ship as the rays of light from the sun failed to penetrate the water further. The exterior lights flared to life on the ship and a pair of massive propellers emerged from in between the engines and began moving the _Mk. II_ through the murky depths. Riku stared out of the viewport in an awed silence.

Years of living above the waves, always wondering what it was like below, and here he was, living out one of his life's dreams. Sora would never hear the end of this. As far as he could tell, they were near the bottom of the ocean. Massive pillars of rock rose on all sides, scattered at first but growing closer and closer together as they neared a massive trench in the ocean's floor. Riku swallowed hard as he spotted the wreckages of countless ships, each one differing greatly in design. He could spot small fishing boats made of wood, powerful war galleons, luxurious cruise liners and metallic husks of naval battle ships, all lined up in a massive graveyard on the ocean floor and piled high on the tops of the pillars.

"Hauntingly beautiful, isn't it?" Dawn said, watching from the _Mk. II_'s external cameras. Riku nodded in agreement. Not too far below them, Riku spotted what appeared to be a long cylindrical submarine, covered in brown plating with a golden tinted, orb shaped window at the bow slowly descending towards the trench, its floodlights waving back and forth across the wreckage. Something shifted and moved within the darkness between the rock pillars, catching Riku's attention.

He leaned closer to the viewport. Something moved quickly in front of the _Mk. II_, staying in sight for a fraction of a second. The _Mk. II_ shook as the water around it was displaced. Riku leapt back further into his seat in shock as a loud metallic screech filled his ears.

"What the hell is that?" He shouted over the screech.

"Analyzing," Dawn said. She paused for one second before continuing. "The sound is coming from whatever that thing is. Scans show both are non-biological in origin."

"Meaning what?" Riku said as the _Mk. II_ stopped shaking.

"Meaning that whatever that thing is, it isn't alive," Dawn said. "Most likely it is an automaton although I can't identify its energy source. I've never seen anything like it."

"That thing is a robot?" Riku asked incredulously. The automaton swam back into view. Oddly, it was shaped like a giant, mechanical lobster. It had a single tail, two massive claws that could easily slice their way through the _Mk. II_ and then some, as well as a pair of smaller claws by what Riku assumed was its mouth. It had several glowing red eyes and the armor plating along its body was lined with intricately swirling patterns.

The automaton swam over the submarine below the _Mk. II_, giving Riku a full scope for its size. The submarine, easily a dozen times the size of the _Mk. II_, was barely larger than the automatons head.

"I'm intercepting transmissions from the submarine," Dawn said. "They're calling it a Leviathan. Apparently it's a guardian to something."

"I suppose that would explain all of the wrecked ships," Riku said grimly. "Somebody obviously doesn't like company." Another metallic screech filled the bridge as the Leviathan swam back into view and slammed into the submarine, sending it spinning in tight circles dangerously close to the rock pillars. The Leviathan grabbed hold of one of the other pillars and spun itself around, ready another attack.

Riku stared, open mouthed as the tip of the Leviathan's claw dug into side of the submarine, allowing water to pour into it. The submarine spun around again, steadying itself in time to face the Leviathan head on as the automaton charged. Riku noticed a second pair of claws perched on the Leviathan's head like a pair of massive pincers.

"We've got to do something!" Riku shouted.

"Already ahead of you," Dawn said coolly as a pod of missiles fired from the _Mk. II_'s underbelly, leaving trails of bubbles in their wake. Unfortunately, the missiles missed their mark, blasting a rock pillar into pieces and sending stone and ship debris scattered into the water. Riku heard Dawn let out a barely audible curse as she attempted to lock on to the Leviathan again with another missile pod. The Leviathan's pincers gripped the submarine and turned it so the bow was facing its glowing red eyes. A multitude of smaller pods emerged from the bottom of the submarine, each one with a domed, amber tinted viewport and armed with eight missiles.

"Fire!" A strong, male voice ordered over the radio. It took Riku a moment to realize that Dawn was still intercepting the submarines' transmissions. Riku slammed his thumbs against the red triggers built into the steering wheel as each sub pod began firing their missiles at the Leviathan, now accompanied by the bright blue streaks of energy flaring from the _Mk. II_'s cannons. The Leviathan gave a start as the weaponry exploded violently against its head, releasing the submarine from its pincers.

"We're free," the male voice said again. "All ahead full. And could someone tell me what those blue things were?" The submarine began moving underneath the Leviathan as the automaton shook off the attacks.

"That would be me," Riku said. "This is Riku of the _Dawn's First Light_. I can provide you with cover while you make your escape."

"Glad to hear it, son," the male voice said instantly. "Give our pods some covering fire. The fewer we lose the better off we are."

"Roger that," Riku said. The _Mk. II_ spun around for another pass at the Leviathan. Bright streaks of blue strafed the creature's side, leaving black burn marks in their wake. The Leviathan let out another metallic screech.

"Our cannons can't even scratch that thing," Dawn muttered. "What material is that armor made of?" The _Mk. II_ barely swerved out of the way as the Leviathan's claw slammed into a pillar, piercing straight through one of the sub pods that had come to provide them with back up.

"Worry about it later!" Riku shouted as he jammed his fingers on the triggers again, giving the Leviathan a face-full of blue energy. The Leviathan roared and slashed at the _Mk. II_ with its massive claws, narrowly missing the ships' propellers and instead crushing a rock pillar.

"Fire torpedoes!" A voice said over the radio. Four amber tinted domes armed with torpedo tubes swerved and fired a volley of the explosives directly into the Leviathan's mouth, allowing Riku and the sub pods to escape. The Leviathan burst from the smoke, a steady stream of blue and white energy surging from its mouth and through the side of the submarine. A few seconds later, a young woman's accented voice broke over the radio.

"Rourke! We took a big hit down here and we're taking on water fast." The voice said hurriedly over the steady whine of an alarm in the background. "I don't want to be around when it hits the boilers."

"How much time do we have?" The strong male voice Riku had heard earlier inquired.

"Twenty minutes if the bulkhead holds," the woman replied. Riku jerked the wheel in time to dodge one of the Leviathan's energy blasts as he heard a loud clang echo over the radio. "You better make that five." Riku's eyes widened. The submarine was going down.

"Don't we have anything more powerful onboard?" Riku asked aloud, dodging a swipe from the Leviathan's claw.

"Not if we don't want to sacrifice our shields for the next twenty-three point four seconds," Dawn said calmly as the _Mk. II _shook violently as it was slammed into a rock pillar by the Leviathan's tail. "Speaking of which, we are now down to forty-one point two seven percent shield capacity."

"Great," Riku muttered sarcastically. In front of him, a trio of sub pods exploded, temporarily lighting the gloom.

"All hands, abandon ship," a bored-sounding, female voice said over the radio. The Leviathan diverted its attention from the pods as they fired the last of their missiles at it and _instead_ focused on the listing submarine. The automaton dived after it, another bolt of blue-white energy charging up as it dove.

"Try this on for size you overgrown seafood-platter!" Riku cried out as he flicked a hidden switch on his console. A pair of large cannons folded out from inside the _Mk. II_'s underbelly and fired a pair of bright green circles that passed by the Leviathan, causing it to jerk and twitch as bolts of green electricity covered its body. "Ha ha!" Riku cheered. "EMP for the win! Take that you stupid crustacean!" The Leviathan shook its head and fired a bolt of energy directly into the _Mk. II_, sending it spinning through the water. As the ship righted itself seconds before it would've slammed into the ocean floor. Dawn let out a curse.

"I don't understand it," she muttered as Riku steered them back towards the battle where the Leviathan was gaining on the submarine. "It's a machine. An EMP burst should've taken it out but it only stunned it. Why?" The Leviathan charged up another bolt of energy and zeroed in on the submarine as it dove towards the ocean floor. "Okay, new strategy." The EMP cannons folded back into the _Mk. II_ and a single, large missile lowered from its underbelly. The missile flared to life and shot towards the Leviathan with surprising speed. The Leviathan turned and fired its energy blast at the missile instead. Dawn, remotely controlling the missile's path, easily managed to dodge the blast and keep the missile on target. The Leviathan fired several more blasts, each one easily evaded through Dawn's efforts. The missile collided with the Leviathan's side and quickly transformed into a giant ball of flame. For a brief moment, the ocean was quiet again as only smoke and dust floated in the water.

"Did we get it?" Riku asked. In response, the Leviathan burst from the smoke and slammed into the _Mk. II_,effectively sending it spinning through the water once again. Riku let out a grunt of pain as he was thrown left and right against his restraint. The Leviathan turned back towards the submarine and fired another round of energy straight through the submarine's center. The lights visible on the submarine flickered once then died. A group of four transport ships, each rectangular in shape burst from the submarine's stern hatch and immediately went into a dive. At that moment, the flooding waters entering the submarine from the damaged hull must've hit the boilers.

There was a massive explosion, followed less than a heartbeat later by a pair of secondary explosions that blew the submarine to kingdom come. The fourth craft to exit the submarine wasn't able to put enough distance between it and the explosion and was blasted into pieces. A split second later, the Leviathan emerged from the smoke and debris in pursuit of the survivors. The _Mk. II _followed the survivors closely, its cannons rotating to unleash a flurry of energy bursts to cover their escape. The survivors emerged into a clearing in the rock pillars that housed a massive crevice in the ocean floor.

"All craft make your mark twenty degrees down angle," A woman's voice said over the radio.

"Roger! Twenty degrees down angle."

"Right behind you!"

"I've got your six," Riku shouted, weapons still blazing. He glanced at the targeting computer on his console. The Leviathan's ghostly image was drawing nearer, unfazed by the energy bursts. The surviving craft dove and the Leviathan slammed into the ocean floor in its attempt to keep up. One of its claws struck one of the larger craft, turning it into an orange ball of fire and debris.

"We're getting killed out here!" One of the sub pod pilots shouted. The six surviving craft dove into the crevice entrance, which proved to be too narrow for the Leviathan to follow. It let out a roar of rage and fired a burst of blue energy, instantly vaporizing one of the sub pods and narrowly missing another. A second burst struck the side of one of the larger craft, sending it spiraling into one of the sub pods, both vanishing in a ball of flame. The remaining sub pod and larger craft moved dangerously close together as the passageway became barely large enough for them to fit through. Riku winced as he saw the back end of the larger craft crack the viewport of the sub pod.

The three craft surfaced from the water into an underground lake. A blonde woman emerged from the top of the larger craft and shone a floodlight around the cavern they were now in, revealing the numerous stalagmites emerging from the water around them and the ancient looking road lined with crumbling architecture leading into the open mouth of a several story tall, intricately designed carving of a fish.

"How much shield power is left?" Riku asked Dawn as he undid his seatbelt, gently rubbing his flesh where it had dug into his skin.

"You'll sleep better if I don't tell you," Dawn said simply. Riku swallowed hard. That did nothing to ease his confidence.

"Let me guess," he said thoughtfully. "Less than ten percent?"

"Try no shields," Dawn said. "If we had slammed into anything we would've exploded. That's how bad we had it." Riku chuckled in nervous relief, praying to whatever god or gods may be listening that Dawn was just messing with him.

_At least we're still alive._

Over the course of the next ten minutes, the two surviving craft had been unloaded of their crew, supplies and a handful of vehicles. Dawn guided Riku through the process of transferring her to her transport unit, a small, square shaped device that clipped to his belt and constantly glowed a faint orange color before revealing to him one of her favorite features of the _Mk. II_, the Shrink Gummi. Riku had gaped as the powerful ship had transformed into a miniaturized version of itself, totaling less than half the size of his palm when all was said and done. Riku carefully placed the _Mk. II_ into a case specifically designed to hold it before slipping it into the backpack he now wore that he had stuffed full of food, water and emergency blankets.

"That was pretty awesome," Riku commented in a hushed tone as he approached the group of thirty or so survivors that now had gathered at the shoreline.

"And now you see why it's one of my favorite features," Dawn's voice said into the flesh colored earpiece Riku had clipped to his left ear. "It makes it easier to keep track of our ship and it helps make a quick getaway if necessary." The survivors had placed an overturned helmet in the water, allowing it to float away, bearing a single candle as its passenger in remembrance of those who had perished in the battle against the Leviathan. Closest to the shore stood a man with graying hair, a well built physique and the same strong voice Riku recognized from the radio. He was garbed in an olive green explorer's outfit and held his hat in his hands.

"Seven hours ago," he said sadly," we started this expedition with two hundred of the finest men and women I've ever known. We're all that's left." Everyone, including Riku, bowed their heads in respect for the dead. "I won't sugar-coat it, gentlemen. We have a crisis on our hands. But we've been up this particular creek before and we've always come through, paddle or no paddle. I see no reason to change that policy now. From here on in, everyone pulls double duty. Everyone drives, everyone works." He turned to face a young man with large glasses, messy hair and a pointed chin. "Looks like all our chances of survival rest on you, Mr. Thatch. You and that little book." Riku's eyes darted down to the brown leather tome in the man's hands. The survivors began moving towards the vehicles.

"We're all gonna die," an older woman, dressed in an off tan outfit and matching helmet over a radio headset said, as she flicked her cigarette away.

"Okay people. Saddle up," the strong-voiced man said. "Lieutenant, I want this convoy moving five minutes ago." He turned finally to face Riku and quickly gave him a once over glance. "And you must be Riku." He held out a strong hand towards the silver-haired teen who took it with a nod. "I'm Commander Rourke. My Lieutenant, Helga Sinclair," he gestured towards the blonde woman, who was busy barking out orders to the other survivors. "Thanks for having our back. I can honestly say I didn't expect help from just one person. And someone so young at that. No offense."

"None taken," Riku replied with a nonchalant grin. "Since our only exit is blocked by a giant mechanized lobster that wants to kill anything that passes by, I hope you don't mind if I tag along with you guys, do you?"

"Welcome to the party, son," Rourke said gratefully. "By any chance, are you checked out on this class of vehicle?" He jerked his thumb towards one of the empty trucks. Riku stared around him and let out an 'um' sound. "Can you drive a truck?" Riku shook his head and Rourke sighed. "That's alright, we'll just-"

"I can drive one." Riku and Rourke both turned, Riku turning slightly faster as he recognized the voice. Striding towards them through the convoy, dressed in black combat boots that were laced high up on her shins, dark forest green pants and a low cut, black sleeveless shirt decorated with soaring birds up the left side, her cerulean eyes piercing as they met Riku's aquamarine ones, was none other than Keila.

"You can drive one of these?" Rourke asked the Dark Wielder as she approached. Keila nodded, her ponytail bobbing slightly.

"Keila, at your service, Commander," she held out her hand towards Rourke, who shook it gratefully.

"Alright, it's settled," he said, "You two load up and take that truck over there." He gestured towards the one remaining empty truck and left, making his way towards a large green machine with a large drill attached to the front. The second Rourke was out of earshot, Riku rounded on Keila, pushing her up against a fuel canister. Keila's eyes widened in surprise at Riku's sudden aggressiveness. Somewhere in the background, someone was honking a horn with annoying frequency.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He demanded in a low whisper. "Are you following me?" Keila raised an eyebrow at him, as if she was asking him why he would ask such an obvious question.

"Didn't I already tell you that I was going to kill you?" She retorted. She attempted to remove Riku's hand from her shoulder but Riku tightened his grip on her painfully.

"If that's the case, then why didn't you try to kill me already?" Riku growled.

"Because you're the only way I have off of this world," Keila snapped, taking Riku by surprise. "Something in this world is interfering with my ability to open portals of Darkness. So basically, if I follow through on my plan to kill you, I get trapped here because Maleficent doesn't know I'm here." She glanced around at the cavern. "And quite frankly, the idea of getting stuck here doesn't exactly appeal to me. So what do you say to a temporary truce? While we're on this world, neither of us tries to kill the other and we act somewhat civilized, okay?" She held out her hand to Riku, who eyed it cautiously.

"How do I know you aren't lying about making a portal?" He asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Do you really think I would've announced the fact that I was here if I could?" Keila asked. She had a point. Riku took her hand and shook it once before releasing her.

"Truce," he said as Keila began to massage her shoulder. "But if you try to kill me in my sleep or stab me in the back, or poison my food, I will not hesitate to beat you senseless and drop you in a hole."

"I'll keep that in mind," Keila growled.

"Flirt on your own time, kids," Commander Rourke shouted as he climbed into one of the trucks. "We've gotta get this convoy rolling."

"We're not flirting!" Keila and Riku shouted in unison, their faces turning identical shades of red. They immediately stepped away from each other and climbed into the empty truck as Keila got it to rev to life.

"What're you guys doing down here anyways?" Keila asked a bald-headed, kind looking man with darker skin as he walked past towards a truck painted with a bright red cross.

"You mean you don't know?" He said, looking around at the two teens in confusion. Riku and Keila shared a quick glance with one another before shaking their heads. The bald-headed man chuckled. "We came here to find the lost continent of Atlantis." Riku's mouth dropped open and his eyes widened eagerly.

_I can't wait to tell Sora about this one. _Riku gloated to himself as the convoy began to move. _The only way he could possibly match this adventure is by finding the city of gold or something._

_LD_

It had barely been two minutes since the convoy had started moving and already, Keila was tempted to slam her forehead into the steering wheel repeatedly. They had been moving at a stop and go pace the entire time courtesy of the truck taking up point, driven by none other than Milo Thatch, a person Keila could only classify as a Grade-A nerd. Not only was she not impressed by his physique, but his driving was terrible, and no amount of smarts he possessed was enough to make up for his being a horrendous driver. He was constantly trying to shift into the wrong gear, causing his truck to lurch forward at a painstakingly slow pace as they inched towards the carving of the fish head.

"Come on!" She shouted loudly from her place in the middle of the convoy, her palm slamming against her horn.

"So- sorry about that!" Milo called back as he truck gave another lurch forward.

"Come on, civilian!" Another driver shouted. A stout man, dressed in a grey overcoat that was covered with dirt and a helmet that covered his eyes with a pair of magnifying lenses and a built in lamp, slammed his hand down on the digger's horn. Keila's forehead hit the steering wheel out of frustration. Riku grinned smugly and she glared up at him.

"Not a word," she growled. Riku whistled innocently. Up ahead, the stout man, named Moliere ('Mole' for short), drove the digger past Milo's truck and got out to lash a rope to tow him. Keila turned to Riku while they waited for Mole to finish up. "So what's got you all excited about this Atlantis place?" Riku looked around at her.

"Haven't you ever heard of Atlantis?" Riku asked her. Keila shook her head. Riku let out a gasp of feigned shock, which earned him a slug in the shoulder from the Dark Wielder. Truthfully though, he was a little surprised. "Back on the Islands where I grew up, everyone had heard the story of Atlantis. The legend goes that Atlantis was once the most advanced of all civilizations. They had technology others couldn't even begin to comprehend."

"I bet you four hundred munny that they weren't smart enough to make an AI," Dawn grumbled in Riku's ear. Riku ignored her and continued on.

"Anyways, the Atlanteans did something to tick off the gods and in their anger, sent a flood to cleanse the continent. 'In a single day and night of misfortune, Atlantis sank into the sea.'" Keila was silent for a few moments.

"And that's the story?" She asked, glancing at Riku out of the corner of her eyes. Riku nodded. "Well, I guess I'll believe it when I see it."

The next few hours flew by uneventfully. At times, it was a dreadfully slow process as they slowly drove along winding paths over ravines that had no visible bottom which led to both Keila and Riku deciding they led to the planet core. They joked about that for a long while, saying that all a Heartless would have to do to reach the heart of the world would be to throw itself off of a cliff and that only led to a thirty minute conversation about suicidal Heartless and how hilarious that would be in battle.

Keila felt a twinge of sadness in her heart as they finally stopped to make camp for the night after a revolting meal of beans, bacon, whiskey and lard, all thrown together in a pot and all of which were the four main food groups according to the expedition's chef, Cookie, a man with a heavy southern accent and the stereotypical appearance of a person who travelled the country side by wagon.

Even though they were enemies, she and Riku had begun to warm up to each other after being stuck in the same vehicle for hours on end. They hadn't really gotten to know each other much better, but their joking around had certainly made it easier to be so close to one another without wanting to tear each other's throats out. She couldn't help but let out a heavey sigh as she realized that it might have been a mistake for her to reveal herself earlier.

Despite the fun she was having (a concept she had been deprived of her whole life by her Master and mother, Cynthia), she knew that when the time came, she was going to have no choice but to kill Riku. Both Maleficent and her Master had ordered it and while Maleficent had no real power over her, her Master still did. For the first time in her life, she didn't know what to do. And as if that wasn't bad enough, now she had to do this. Keila let out a groan as she approached Riku as he set up the only spare tent the convoy had with them.

"Shouldn't you be setting up your tent or something?" Riku asked as he staked his tent to the ground. Keila mumbled something inaudible. Riku finished hammering in the last stake and stood to face her; he couldn't help but notice that she was now dressed in a pair of sweatpants decorated with stars and a loose hanging pink t-shirt that read _It's not pink. It's lightish red_. "Come again?"

"There aren't any more tents and I don't have any blankets to make one," Keila muttered, barely audible. Riku raised an eyebrow at her.

"And what do you want me to do about it?" He asked. Keila mumbled something incoherent again, her cheeks flushing red. Riku stared at her, waiting for her to speak more clearly. Keila sighed.

"Can I share with you?" The redness in her face became more pronounced, rivaling Kairi's hair in color. Riku was taken aback.

"I know we have a truce and all, but don't you still want to kill me?" He asked. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. Keila's cerulean eyes were locked on Riku's feet.

"Yes," she mumbled. "No. I don't know, okay?" Riku took a step back as her voice began to rise. "I was told to kill you but I don't have any real reason to. It's Maleficent who wants you dead. Not me. If things were different, I honestly think you and I could be friends." Riku stared at her for a moment before shrugging and climbing into the tent.

"Fine," he said as he crawled under his blanket. Keila gave him a gracious smile and followed him into the tent. Riku tossed her a blanket and she laid herself down with her back facing him. "But no funny business. I'd rather not wake up with a knife in my back." Keila fought back a snort of laughter.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that," she said with a yawn. "I left all of my knives at home." Riku rolled his eyes and stared at the fabric of the tent wall. Judging from the light snores coming from behind him, Keila was one of those people who closed their eyes and immediately fell asleep. Riku closed his eyes as well, waiting for sleep to overtake him as Keila's words replayed in his mind.

"_If things were different, I honestly think you and I could be friends."_

"I think we could be too," Riku whispered softly.

Underneath her blanket and fake snores, Keila couldn't help but smile a real smile for the first time in years.

_LD_

_Friday, June 11__th__ 4794 P.C._

_Mount Kathleines Gummi Station, Hangar 87,_

_Radiant Garden_

Olette hugged her father tightly as she said her goodbyes. Both were teary eyed as they held each other. Xanthos and Axel kept themselves deliberately busy with making last minute preparations so as to avoid interrupting the father-daughter moment.

"You take good care of yourself, okay?" Eric Fairchild whispered to his daughter. "And don't wear yourself down to the bone training either. Remember to find time to have some fun." He hugged Olette tightly as she nodded in understanding and straightened up.

"Ready?" Xanthos asked as he strode over to the pair. Olette smiled up at him and grabbed hold of her suitcase.

"Yes, Master," she said. Xanthos grinned and held out his hand to Eric.

"Please, keep my daughter safe," Eric asked the Chaser as the two of them clasped hands. "She's all I have left. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to her."

"Don't worry. She will be well protected," Xanthos said comfortingly. "And in a few short weeks, she'll be able to properly protect herself without any outside help." Eric smiled faintly at him.

"Thank you, Master Xanthos," Xanthos nodded and turned back towards the ship. Olette hugged her father one last time.

"I'll write to you every week to tell you how things are going," she said cheerily. Eric chuckled softly and hugged his daughter tightly to him.

"I look forward to it," Olette released him with a grin and glanced around at the massive hangar, her smile slipping slightly. Hayner and Pence had both said that their parents weren't letting them come, something about how they needed to help move stuff around. She sighed, silently wishing she could've at least seen her two best friends could've at least been able to see her off. She felt pressure applied gently to her shoulder and looked around to see Xanthos smiling warmly down at her.

"I'm sure they'll miss you just as much as you'll miss them," he said comfortingly. "Just remember, in no time at all you'll be able to see them." Olette gave her Master a half smile and the Chaser glanced over at the _Equus_. A man, dressed in a pristine black suit with a purple shirt underneath that was unbuttoned enough to reveal a small amount of his upper chest. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses and his perfectly styled brown hair shifted slightly in the breeze. Xanthos couldn't help but sigh as he spotted the numeral _VII_ tattooed onto the right side of his chest.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Jenos?" The Chaser asked with a smug smile. Jenos Hazard grinned back and bowed slightly to Xanthos.

"I came at Sephiria's request," he explained. "She and King Mickey decided to send a Number along with you and Axel to the fall-back headquarters and I got chosen." Xanthos stared at the slightly shorter Number for a moment before shrugging.

"Fine by me," he said, turning back towards the ship. "I hope you brought some cold weather gear. The blizzards where we're going are something awful and they happen frequently all year round." Jenos' mouth dropped slightly in shock as Xanthos strode off.

"Did you just say 'all year'?" He asked nervously, quickly running after the now chuckling Chaser. "All year? That's not cool!"

"Oh, it's very 'cool'," Xanthos said, trying hard to hold in his laughter. "That's why you need cold weather gear."

"And that's not funny," Jenos said as Xanthos broke into a fit of laughter.

"It's a little funny," Xanthos said in between laughs.

Olette watched their exchange from afar with a bemused smirk. It was good to know that her Master wasn't all hard expressions and seriousness. She moved out of the way of a fork lift as it transported a pair of large, man-sized barrels labeled _Flour_ towards the power lift that led into the _Equus_' cargo bay and proceeded to follow Xanthos and Jenos towards the ship, pausing long enough to wave back one last time at her father before ducking into the entryway.

It took her a couple of minutes to reach the bridge, where she found Axel and Jenos already sitting at a pair of workstations, each checking a different system onboard the _Equus_ as they prepared for launch.

Xanthos himself was speaking to a small, holographic projection of a young woman, whose silver image seemed to glow faintly while countless zeroes and ones scrolled across her skin. Xanthos looked around as Olette entered.

"Ah, perfect," he said with a grin before glancing back at the holographic image. "Dusk, take us out of here."

"Yes sir," the image said before vanishing into thin air. The _Equus_' engines roared to life and the entire ship lurched as it lifted off of the ground, hovering in place. "Please take a seat and properly secure yourselves in." They all obliged. Olette secured her seatbelt around her waist and spun her seat to face Xanthos.

"Who was that?" She asked. Xanthos glanced at his Apprentice.

"That was the Artificial Intelligence, Dusk," Xanthos explained. "She was created to operate the computer systems Axel and Jenos here will be setting up when we land." Axel and Jenos both looked around incredulously.

"Why do we have to do all of the work?" Jenos asked.

"What about you? Why can't you help us set up?" Axel demanded. Xanthos turned his stare onto both of them.

"I'm going to be busy training Olette," he said simply as the _Equus_ began to move towards the hangar exit. "So you two get to; plain and simple as that." The _Equus_ engines kicked in full, and it rocketed out of the hangar and into the sky. In no time at all, they had burst through Radiant Garden's atmosphere and were barreling through space. Olette stared out at the multi-colored space surrounding them. Olette couldn't find words to describe the majesty of it all.

"Conditions stable," Dusk announced. "Feel free to move around now. I shall warn you if I detect any enemy contacts within scanning range."

"Thanks Dusk," Xanthos said as he undid his seatbelt and got to his feet. "Olette, follow me." Olette did as she was told and quickly released herself from her seat to follow her Master out of the bridge. Xanthos silently led her down a series of hallways until they reached a pair of double doors labeled _Medical_. The proximity activated sensors responded to their approach and swung the doors open towards them. The lights inside automatically flickered to life, revealing half a dozen hospital beds, dozens of pieces of hi-tech equipment and even an observation window to an operating room. Xanthos guided her towards one of the beds and instructed her to lie down. Olette obliged, feeling her heart pound against her chest nervously as she laid herself down.

"What are you doing, Master?" Olette asked, her voice shaking slightly from her nerves as Xanthos removed his gloves, revealing his heavily scarred hands. Her eyes were drawn to the sapphire ring on his right ring finger, with a pair of Keyblades crossed into an 'x' shape over the gem. And to her surprise, a plain, golden wedding band on his left hand.

"I am going to use a spell on you to initiate Destati," Xanthos explained, taking great care to pop each knuckle one by one. Olette winced. Even after years of hearing both Hayner and Pence crack their knuckles, she had yet to get used to it.

"Um, what's 'Destati'?" Olette asked.

"Destati is derived from an ancient, dead language from the original home world of all Keyblade Wielders," Xanthos explained. "Literally, it means 'Awakening'. Most Keyblade Wielders will at some point experience Destati, although it's more common in those who have little or no combat experience and have yet to summon their Keyblade." He tilted his head from side to side, causing Olette to wince as she heard more of his bones popping.

"Now then," he continued, "during Destati, you will learn to summon your Keyblade and you will find a way to tap into the above-mundane skills all Wielders inherit along with the Keyblade; enhanced strength, speed and stamina that no normal human being can possibly hope to match. Lightning fast reflexes, you could catch a bullet with your bare hands and throw it back. Heightened senses, except for smell and touch, which to this day I still have no idea why only those two senses aren't. And of course, an increased mental processing rate during combat, which will allow you to make life saving decisions faster than a single beat of a hummingbirds wings." Xanthos placed the tips of his index fingers on the sides of Olette's temples.

"Close your eyes and take a deep breath," he instructed. Olette did as she was told. She closed her eyes, allowing the cool shadows beneath her eyelids to help relieve her from a sleepless night. "When I count to three, you'll be plunged into Destati. Understand?" Olette nodded her head. "Okay then. One. Two. Three. Ineo." Olette's mouth opened in a silent scream as pain coursed through her skull for a fraction of a second before her world went dark.

_LD_

_Darkness surrounded Olette's body, stretching endlessly in all directions. Slowly she sank down, deep into the darkness as if she were sinking below the ocean waves on the beaches back home. Olette's emerald-green eyes darted all around her nervously. There was just no end to the darkness. After several minutes of sinking, she felt her feet make contact with something solid. She glanced down, unable to see what exactly she was standing on. _

_Suddenly, a bright yellow light appeared beneath her feet. The sheer intensity of the light as it spread out around her feet forced Olette to cover her eyes with her arm. When she lowered it, she found herself standing on the center of a mostly orange, circular stained glass platform. The light dimmed and Olette glanced down at her feet. She immediately realized that she was standing on top of a large image of her sleeping body as it rested against the stone work at the top of the Central Station in Twilight Town. Arranged in a half circle above her image's head were six circles. Displayed in the circles were images of Hayner, Pence, her father, a cracked image of her mother, Sora and Kairi standing back to back, and Xanthos. Numerous diamond shapes lined the edge of the platform, each displaying an ice cream bar._

_Olette looked up from the images, staring out at the endless darkness. Her heart thudded in her throat, fear slowly taking hold of her._

"_**Don't be afraid."**_

_Olette spun around. She had heard a voice speak into her mind. But it was like the words were just there, like nobody had actually spoken them._

"_**Come to the center of the platform."**_

_Unsure of why, Olette did as the voice asked and stood in the center of the platform. The light shining from the platform dimmed, and three narrow bands of white light appeared around her in a perfect triangle. _

"_**Power sleeps within you."**_

_In the pillar in front of her floated a shield that was pentagonal in shape, mostly black except for the red outlining and trio of red concentric circles emblazoned in the center._

"_**If you give it form…"**_

_To her right floated a rod with a bright green handle, topped with three bright blue orbs in the same shape as the concentric circles on the swords pommel. _

"_**It will give you strength."**_

_A generically styled short sword, with a mirror finished blade, golden pommel accented with a trio of concentric circles and a dark blue handle floated in the pillar of light to her left. Olette glanced around at the three tools and focused her attention on the sword. The voiceless words floated into her mind again._

"_**The power of the warrior. A sword whose strength is invincible courage; the will to stand against anything. A sword of terrible destruction."**_

_Olette's eyes wandered away, her nervousness rising at the thought of what that sword might be capable. Her gaze settled on the oddly shaped rod._

"_**The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff whose strength is spirit; power the eye cannot see. A staff of wonder and ruin."**_

_Olette winced. Just what she wanted to hear. More destruction and chaos. Her eyes focused on the shield, the last of the three._

"_**The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to protect loved ones; a shield to repel all."**_

_Out of all three, the shield appealed to Olette the most. It was the only one that didn't involve destruction and ruin._

"_**Choose wisely."**_

"_I'm supposed to choose?" Olette said, glancing around at the darkness in confusion._

"_**Yes. You must make the same choice all Wielders make at one point in their lives."**_

_Olette glanced around at the three tools before moving forward, her mind already set on the shield. She reached out hesitantly as she approached the shield, her fingertips gently brushing the smooth, metal surface of it._

"_**The power of the guardian. Is this the power you seek?"**_

"_Yes," Olette whispered breathlessly. The shield vanished in flash of white light. The pillar of light that it had been resting in slowly faded, taking away its somewhat comforting presence. Olette turned around and gazed at the other two weapons. _

"_**Your path is set. What will you give up in exchange?"**_

_Olette immediately stared at the staff._

"_**The power of the mystic. You give up this power?"**_

_Olette nodded slowly. The staff and sword both vanished in flashes of light as their pillars faded, leaving only the dim light from the platform to illuminate the overwhelming darkness._

"_**You have chosen the power of the guardian. You have given up the power of the mystic. Your Destati is begun."**_

_A loud crack echoed through the darkness, startling Olette. The center of the platform had dozens of cracks forming. Pieces of the stained glass seemed to be falling into the platform's center. Olette ran from the center and nearly fell over the edge. Below her, she could see the dark gray walls of the platform descending into the darkness. The platform beneath her feet gave way and she found herself plunged into the abyss. _

_As she fell, the shards of shattered glass vanished, dissolving like a sugar cube being dragged underwater. She felt her feet gently touch down onto a platform nearly identical to the first one, the only difference was, instead of being mostly yellow; the platform was red in color and her larger-than life portrait was wearing the red and black shield on her right arm. A flash of golden light lit up the platform to her left. A stunningly white double-door towered at least thirty feet into the air on the edge of the platform. The frame decorated in intricate patterns that ended in a three points. The stained glass at the tops of both doors shone faintly for a brief moment._

_Olette waited for the voiceless words to enter her mind and was greeted only by silence. She glanced around, waiting for something to happen for several long minutes before she gave up and strode over to the door, cautiously examining it as she approached. She pushed on the center of the two doors to see if it had to be pushed open, but to no avail. She grabbed hold of the handles and pulled as hard as she was able. The door remained impassible. Olette grunted in frustration and collapsed in front of the door, panting from the lack of energy she had used to attempt opening the door._

"_**I would think most doors require a Key. Wouldn't you agree, Wielder?"**_

_The center of the door glowed with a bright, white light for a brief moment, revealing a Keyhole set perfectly in the center. Olette slowly stood to her feet and raised her left hand, guided by instinct. There was a bright flash of light, and Olette found herself thrown off balance by the sudden weight in her hand as a Keyblade took form._

_The 'teeth' were shaped from five long, golden spikes attached to a half circle. A small circle of turquoise shone brightly on the edge of the half circle where a spike connected the 'teeth' to the blade, which was shaped like a single sided, straight-edged katana. The handle was jet black with a golden pommel, barely visible beneath the upper half of the bi-sectioned guard. The Keychain that dangled off of the end of the Keyblade's rain guard was shaped like a diamond comprised of several small gold and turquoise spikes with an 'x' shaped gap in the middle. The Aubade. _

_Olette cried out and fell back to her knees as pain racked her body. A faint, yellow glow emanated from her skin. Despite her pain, her grip on the Aubade only grew tighter._

"_**You've gained the power to fight. Your inheritance is complete. Now, open the door and remember to keep your Light burning strong."**_

_Olette rose to her feet again, all of the pain suddenly gone. She felt stronger, more confident, than she ever had as she leveled the Aubade with the Keyhole. A bright beam of blue light shot from the Keyblade's tip and pierced the Keyhole straight through the center. There was a loud click, and the door swung open as the Keyhole vanished, revealing a blinding white light._

"_**Step forward."**_

_Olette hesitated. As warm and friendly as the light seemed, her nervousness got the better of her, freezing her in place._

"_**Don't be afraid."**_

_The voiceless words seemed to calm her. She began to move towards the light._

"_**And don't forget…"**_

_The light surrounded her; comforting, warm and mysterious all at once. Behind her, the door shut._

"_**You wield the mightiest weapon of all."**_

_Olette slowly closed her eyes, shielding them temporarily from the light. When the insides of her eyelids finally darkened, she opened them and found herself gazing upon a mostly red, stained glass platform. Aside from the coloring, the main difference Olette noticed in the image on the platform was that she was dressed in the same black cloak Xanthos was most frequently seen in and she clutched the Aubade tightly in her left hand. Half a dozen inky black shadows appeared on the platforms edges and quickly surrounded her. _

"_**With every passing minute, the forces of Darkness grow stronger."**_

_Six Neoshadows formed a circle around Olette, who spun around nervously. _

"_**There will be times when you have to fight."**_

_The Neoshadows leapt towards her, black claws outstretched._

"_**But don't be afraid."**_

_From Olette's point of view, time seemed to slow down so that everything was moving in slow motion. She quickly registered where each Heartless' claws were and quickly found a way to weave in and out of the attacks without taking damage. The Aubade gleamed in her hand as she swung it up into the chest of the nearest Neoshadow, black mist trailing on the air in its wake as the Heartless was defeated. The other Neoshadows claws seemed to miss her by inches as she ducked and weaved her way through the assault. Olette grinned as she emerged from the tangled mess of Heartless._

_She shifted her stance, allowing instinct to guide her, and pounced at the Heartless. The Aubade gleamed as it shredded through the first Neoshadow that had been to slow to react. A second Neoshadow fell victim to Olette's Keyblade as it attempted to charge her head on. Olette laughed wildly at the thrill of combat. She finally understood why Hayner always got worked up over the Struggle matches back home; she had never felt anything like the thrill of combat before. It was new and exciting to her. _

_The remaining three Neoshadows quickly formed a triangle around Olette, determinedly keeping her encircled. One of them leapt towards her, claws outstretched. Olette smirked and easily ducked underneath the Heartless' outstretched arms, sliding underneath its legs and coming back up on her feet behind it. The Neoshadow seemed confused for a second before it spun around to face Olette, only to receive a face-full of her foot as she kicked the Heartless as hard as she could, sending it tumbling over into another of its companion. _

_Olette leapt into the air, raising the Aubade high above her head. She felt a rush of excitement as she stared down at the platform surface seven feet below her. She had never heard of anyone being able to jump that high before. She slammed back onto the platform gracefully, her legs spread apart and her right arm thrown out to keep her balance as her left arm swung down in an arc and severed the Neoshadows' heads from their bodies._

_Olette straightened up and turned to face the remaining Neoshadow, which seemed to sink quickly into the ground. A black shadow remained in its place, quickly moving towards her. Olette's brow furrowed in confusion as the shadow came to a stop directly below her. Olette stared at the shadow for a full two seconds in confusion before the Neoshadow burst out without warning, knocking Olette off of her feet and sending the Aubade clattering across the platform. Olette rolled away from the Neoshadow as it landed on its feet and grabbed her Keyblade. She looked up and saw the Neoshadow's claws less than half a foot away from her jugular. Her eyes widened in fear. _

_Then the Neoshadow vanished in an explosion of black mist. In its place stood a figure in a suit of unusual, mostly orange armor. The armor didn't completely cover the body. It was segmented, covering mostly the shoulders, chest and back, forearms, knees, lower legs, hands and feet. Underneath the armor segments was what appeared to be a full-body, black flex suit made out of some material Olette couldn't come up with a name for. Intricate veins of silver covered the flex suit. The figures face was hidden by an angular orange helmet with a black visor that completely covered its face. A pair of prongs lined with silver patterning jutted from either side of the helmet and were angled back from the head and at a slightly upwards angle. A dark, red and gold cape fluttered softly in the non-existent wind. Judging by the shape of the chest-piece, Olette figured the person in armor was a well endowed woman. Olette readied her Keyblade as she spotted an obsidian colored Keyblade gripped in the left hand of the armored woman. _

"_Let's see if you can live up to your inheritance the Master gave you," the armored woman said as she turned to face Olette full on. The unarmored teen immediately began sizing up the armored woman. Aside from lacking in certain "assets" the armored figure had, Olette realized that both of them shared a similar stance when they held their Keyblades at the ready, and they both would be about the same height if the other woman would remove her armor. Both of them rushed forward in perfect unison, like oddly-mirrored images of one another and clashed their Keyblades together in the dead center of the platform, sparks of bright yellow light flying from their blades._

_LD_

_The Castle That Never Was_

Maleficent strode proudly into the laboratory currently occupied by the Apostle who was aptly named the Doctor. The Doctor turned around to glance away from the dark shape in the glowing green tube labeled _Seraph, Version One_. He was dressed in a startling white lab coat and horned rim glasses. His jet black hair was messy and un-kempt as he liked it and his permanently smug smile he wore only widened as Maleficent approached.

"How much longer, Doctor?" The Queen of Darkness asked as she drew nearer to the man. "Shiki has located the Keyblade wielding Princesses and the Chosen One. I would very much like for them to meet our new friend." She smiled up at the tube.

"Not much longer," the Doctor said proudly. "A few more days at most, but no more than a week. Fortunately, that oaf, Pete, managed to be of some use for once when he located Xehanort's notes on how to make an Emblem Heartless. The Seraph will be more powerful than anything those wielders have ever seen. They won't stand a chance against it." He spread his arms wide as he faced the tube again. "By combining both nano-technology and the power of Tao with the Darkness that makes a Heartless, I've created a virtually unstoppable creature of war!" He let out a cackle of maniacal laughter. Maleficent smiled as she exited the room. This had been a good day.

One of her Heartless fleets moved towards the home world of the Keyblade's Chosen One, and the Apostles had secured Princess Jasmine from Agrabah. All she needed now was the Princess Belle and of course, the seventh Princess, the one with a Keyblade. A few more days, and she'd have them all. She stared out of a massive window at the nearly recompleted moon of Kingdom Hearts.

"My Nobody forces are ready, your Highness."

Maleficent turned at the sound of the whisper quiet male voice. A hulking figure stood in the hallway, his body covered by a silver-white cloak. A massive broadsword was strapped to his back.

"Good, Jevenan," Maleficent grinned. "Join up with Maro and Shiki on Destiny Islands. The Princess' birthday is coming up soon and I'd hate for something to go wrong with her celebration." Jevenan bowed low.

"Yes, my Queen." He vanished as portal of Darkness surrounded him. Maleficent watched him go with distain. As much as she hated working with Nobodies, she had to admit, they did do certain jobs better than the Heartless could. She stared back out of the window towards her Kingdom Hearts.

"Yes, not long now," Maleficent cackled softly to herself.

_LD_

* * *

_And that's it for this week. As per usual, reviews are welcome and greatly appreciated. _

_See you guys in about a week!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_-Shadow Horizons_


	20. Finding Atlantis

_Geez, talk about a long week._

_Well, today is my twentieth birthday. So as a gift to you all, I present Chapter Twenty. No, I didn't actually plan this. Universe just works in mysterious ways. Ha ha._

_Anybody go see On Stranger Tides? I won't give spoilers, but it is now my second favorite Pirates film.  
_

_Thanks again to all of my reviewers. You guys are awesome!_

_Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Disney, Black Cat, or Motorcycle Drive BY by Third Eye Blind. I still own my plot and original characters though._

_Enjoy!  
_

* * *

Chapter Twenty: Finding Atlantis

_Friday, June 11__th__ 4974 P.C._

_Ancient Highway to Atlantis_

"Come and get it!" Cookie's cry echoed throughout the cavern campsite, accompanied by his relentless ringing of the metal triangle he carried on his person at all times.

Riku let out a groan and determinedly kept his eyes closed. If Cookie was calling out for breakfast than that meant that it was the ungodly hour of five in the morning. The last thing he wanted to do was be up right now, eating the glob of Cookies 'four main food groups' that was waiting for him outside of his tent. He let out a sigh and shifted himself to be more comfortable on the hard ground, drawing his arms a little more tightly around the warm and delightfully soft, body pillow lying next to him.

His eyes shot open as his sleep encumbered mind remembered that he didn't bring a pillow with him. His heart rate skyrocketed as he glanced down and saw a tangle of messy, caramel colored hair less than an inch below his chin. He pulse quicken as it finally clicked with him that Keila was lying asleep in his arms. He took a deep breath to calm himself before checking to see how their bodies were positioned and nearly had a heart attack when he realized they were spooning.

Keila let out a wide yawn and rolled over to face him. Her cerulean eyes slowly opened and met his aquamarine ones. She smiled warmly up at him for a brief moment before she realized what was going on. Her smile vanished, immediately replaced by a glare as her face turned a shade of red Riku had never seen before.

"Bastard!" She shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" With surprising agility and strength, she got to her feet and threw Riku face first out of the tent, where he slid along the stone for several yards before coming to a stop. Behind him, he could hear the laughter of his fellow campmates as they watched him fly from the tent moments before Keila stormed off to the truck she and Riku had to share. Riku groaned and did his best to not look embarrassed by laughing right along with everyone else.

"Rough night, kid?" Commander Rourke asked, slapping Riku between the shoulder blades in what was clearly meant to be a friendly gesture, only for Riku to be knocked back to the ground. "Oh, sorry." Riku groaned and allowed Rourke to pull him back up. "You know, I had a similar experience with a young woman much like her about fifteen years ago. I was trekking through the Peruvian-" He paused for a brief moment at the bored look Riku was already giving him.

"Never mind, you're young and I know you don't want to hear boring old stories." He pushed Riku towards a small ring of people that sat picking at their meals. "Let me introduce you to the crew. This here is Doctor Joshua Sweet," the bald-headed man with the kind looking face shook Riku's hand with a bone-crushing grip. "Over here we have Vinnie, our demolitions expert." A man dressed in mostly black and gray body armor, who was doing something involving several sticks of dynamite, wire and a paper clip made an acknowledging grunt in Riku's direction. . "Audrey Ramirez, our mechanic." The youngest out of all of them and dressed in a pair of denim coveralls, Audrey looked every bit like the tomboy she was, even as she gave Riku a flirtatious wink. "Miss Packard, our telecommunications expert." The older woman gave a grunt at her name and lit her fifth cigarette of the day before adjusting her headset. "And of course, Mole." The stout man in charge of driving the digger looked up from devouring his meal as Rourke said his name. "Gentlemen, this is Riku, he saved our rears yesterday." The group mumbled their thanks. Rourke shrugged and led Riku over to the makeshift table where Milo Thatch sat pouring over the brown backed, leather tome he always had with him. Out of the corner of his eye, Riku saw the shadows on the ground shift and move on their own accord. The bitter scent of Darkness flooded his nose and he fought back the urge to cough.

"And this young man is the reason we're on this expedition," Rourke said as Milo got to his feet. "Our expert on gibberish, Milo Thatch. Thatch, I'd like you to meet Riku." Riku held out his hand to the scholar, who shook it eagerly.

"Nice to meet you, Milo," Riku said. Milo nodded.

"Nice to meet you too, Riku," he said sitting back down and opening the tome again. "So what do you do?"

"I'm a combat specialist," Riku said, secretly proud of himself for coming up with that on the fly. Both Rourke and Milo looked around at him in surprise. There was something else in Rourke's expression that Riku couldn't read. Eagerness, perhaps.

"What sort of combat?" Rourke asked. Riku glanced at the dark shadows moving towards Rourke that he had spotted a few moments before. Riku grinned, the Way to Dawn appearing in his hand quickly as he leapt towards the shadows with blinding speed. It took Rourke and Milo a second to realize that Riku had moved, they spun around in time to watch a trio of Shadows explode into black mist.

"Oh, you know," Riku said in response to Rourke's earlier question. "Heartless extermination." Everyone in the immediate vicinity of the Heartless attack was staring at the Way to Dawn with awe. They all looked like they had millions of questions to ask him, but were only stopped by the appearance of several Heartless that quickly surrounded Riku. Ten Hook Bats fluttered overhead, their dark blue and black bodies almost difficult to spot in the dim lighting of the cavern. Fortunately, the bright red hooks for which they had been named were very easy to spot. At his feet at least a dozen Driller Moles tunneled up from the stone. Each one was predominantly gray except for their heads, which were green and orange with yellow 'x' shaped eye with brown and tan striped conical drills for noses. A trio of Red Nocturne's and a Crimson Jazz appeared above the Hook Bats and took off towards one of the trucks.

"They're going after the fuel canisters!" Rourke shouted as he pulled a handgun from its holster on his waist and began firing at the Heartless. "Stop them! If we lose that fuel, we're dead in the water out here!" Riku fought the urge to point out that if they were dead in the water that meant the Leviathan would've gotten them. Several members of the expedition crew, who Riku had never once seen remove their gas masks, raised automatic rifles and fired on the Heartless. Their aim wasn't very good and most of their shots went wide, embedding themselves deep into the stone walls of the cavern. There was a flash of light and the four Fire based Heartless fell to the ground in pieces. Riku glanced around to see what had taken them out. Keila stood near the fuel truck, Inverse Kingdom Key in hand and dressed in her combat gear of all black, from her boots to her low cut sleeveless shirt and combat knife strapped to her upper arm.

"I've got the truck covered," she announced to Riku. "You take care of the rest, Silver." Riku nodded and slashed down at the closest Driller Mole as six Red Nocturnes appeared in midair near Keila, ready to attack. Keila smirked and thrust the palm of her hand towards the Red Nocturnes. The shadows on the ground twisted and took a three-dimensional form, quickly producing a dozen shadow swords which flew up and impaled the six Heartless. A pair of Crimson Jazz Heartless appeared to take the place of the fallen Heartless. A pillar of shadow formed underneath Keila's feet and rapidly rose into the air giving her the advantage. The two Fire based Heartless ignored her and made a beeline straight for the fuel. Keila let out a growl and dove off of the pillar, slicing one of the Crimson Jazz in half as she passed. The remaining Heartless turned around as it realized its companion was no longer with it. Keila grinned and slashed at the Heartless.

Riku swung the Way to Dawn down at the ground repeatedly in an attempt to hit the Driller Moles. The Heartless kept dodging his blows by tunneling into the stone and emerging elsewhere nearby; like a giant game of Whack-A-Mole. A pair of Driller Moles chose the wrong place to emerge and were swiftly put down by the Keyblade. If Riku didn't know any better, he would say the Heartless were taunting him. After swinging and missing for the twenty-third consecutive time, Riku decided he had had enough.

"Burst!" He shouted, plunging the Way to Dawn's tip into one of the holes left behind by the Driller Moles. There was a bright flash of orange-red light, like sunrise contained in a bottle being unleashed, and two dozen Driller Moles were blown out of their tunnels, each one landing sprawled on the ground. Riku moved quickly, slashing and hacking his way through the stunned Heartless before they could recover. In a matter of moments, the only remains of the Driller Moles were the multitude of crystalline pink hearts rising into the air before they faded away. He turned his attention towards the fuel truck in time to see Keila thrown towards him by an explosion as a Crimson Jazz ignited one of the fuel canisters.

Acting on instinct, Riku dashed forward and managed to catch Keila before she hit the ground. She mumbled her thanks as he set her back on her feet before the pair rushed back towards the fuel truck. Another fuel canister exploded as a pair of Crimson Jazz circled it. Around the fuel truck, dozens of Red Nocturnes were beginning to appear.

"There's no way we can take down all of those Heartless and still protect the fuel," Keila said hopelessly as twenty or so Neoshadows rose up from the ground, forming a perimeter around the two Wielders and the fire Heartless. "What do we do?" A golden light flowed from Riku's hand and enveloped the Way to Dawn, extending well past the tip and adding about two feet in length to the blade. Small, curved spikes of orange light formed along the curved edge of the Light blade, each nearly six inches in length.

"Just watch," Riku said with a grin. He placed his left hand on the Way to Dawn's cross-guard and clenched his fist tightly over it. With a roar, Riku wrenched his hand back, dragging what appeared to be a chain of orange light with it. The Way to Dawn began to shake violently as the orange, curved spikes along its edge began to move. The sound of a motor kicking into life emanated from the Keyblade and the spikes became a blur as they moved from the tip of the blade back towards the hilt in a never ending loop

"This is the Sunblade," Riku explained. "It works perfectly against large groups like this. Watch." He hefted the Way to Dawn above his head. Several beams of light shot out from the cross-guard and wrapped themselves around each of the Heartless, slowly dragging them closer to him. Keila's mouth dropped open. In all of her years of training alongside her siblings, she had never once seen anyone do something like this before. The Heartless struggled against the beams of light that bound them as they were drawn in. Riku grinned as soon as the majority of the Heartless were within striking range.

"Let's go!" He shouted. The beams of light separated from the Way to Dawn and anchored themselves to the ground as Riku leapt nearly twenty feet into the air. "Can you feel it now?" The light on his blade began to shine brighter as he dove into the center of the trapped Heartless. The chainsaw-shaped light around the blade shredded its way through the Neoshadows, chunks of their flesh flying every before dissolving into Darkness. Riku stabbed the Way to Dawn into the ground. A bright flash of light suddenly flared to life from the Keyblade. The sheer intensity of the glare forced Keila and the other onlookers to avert their gazes.

"You're finished," Riku said as the glare faded. The light surrounding his Keyblade vanished as he flourished it before casually resting it on his shoulder. The remaining Heartless all seemed frozen in place, broadswords crafted from golden light impaled them all. All at once the Heartless exploded into clouds of black mist and glowing pink, crystalline hearts. Riku turned to face the onlookers and gave them thumbs up.

"You know, after seeing that, I don't think I'd be able to kill you in a fair fight," Keila said as she walked up to him. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Riku simply grinned at her.

"Sorry," he said cheerfully. "Don't you know a magician never reveals his secrets?" Keila rolled her eyes at him.

"That was a lame excuse for a joke," she said, her expression of mock irritation betrayed by her cheery tone.

"I know," Riku said. "It sounded a lot better in my head." Commander Rourke tapped him on the shoulder, prompting the two Wielders to turn around.

"That was quite the show," he said, smiling proudly down at them. "And thanks to you two, we still have fuel to continue on with our expedition." Riku grinned at the compliment. Keila kept her expression neutral. "Were those the Heartless you mentioned?" Riku nodded, Rourke's expression displayed a calm eagerness, and one Riku had to admit he wasn't entirely comfortable with. "What exactly is a Heartless?" Riku sighed. He hated explaining what the Heartless were, only because it could take forever to explain every aspect of their existence.

"Long story short, they're creatures born from the Darkness in people's hearts," Riku explained. Rourke glanced down at his chest as if he was trying to make sure his heart was still in there. "Not that heart. The spiritual one, you know, the emotional heart that feels love and happiness and all that. Basically, the Heartless act on instinct. They constantly yearn for more hearts and so they go out everywhere they can so they can steal them.

"When a Heartless steals a person's heart, they become a Heartless. They can be controlled though. If someone nearby is strongly in-tune with the Darkness, or if they have a strong will power, the Heartless will obey any command given to them. They feel no pain, or remorse, or anything. They're kind of like the perfect soldiers." Before Riku could explain anymore about the Heartless, his fellow adventurers descended upon him and Keila like a pack of vultures, barraging them with question after question about their Keyblades and the powers they demonstrated. Riku and Keila were led away from Rourke, both nervously doing their best to answer the questions. Rourke placed his wide-brimmed hat on his head and stared at the slightly damaged fuel truck with a thoughtful grin as Riku's words replayed in his mind.

"_They're kind of like the perfect soldiers."_

_LD_

"I spy something…" Riku said slowly glancing around trying to come up with an adjective to describe what he was looking at.

"Dirt," Keila responded dully. Her fingers drummed on the steering wheel of their truck as they waited for Milo to decode which path they were supposed to take from his brown leather tome, _The Shepherd's Journal_. Once again, they were parked in the middle of the convoy, which had come to a complete stop in front of an intricate carving of the upper half of a human skull. The road diverged about twenty yards away from the carving, each new path leading into the eyes of the skull.

"Damn it," Riku sighed. "How'd you know?"

"Well, you did rock last time," Keila explained in her bored tone. "That's all there is down here; dirt and rocks."

"I hate caves," Riku mumbled. He turned in his seat to look at Keila, who raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" She said. Riku studied her for a few moments before speaking up.

"If you can't create portals of Darkness, then how did you get on this world in the first place?" He asked. Keila eyes widened nervously.

"Come again?"

"You. How did you end up on this world if you can't use a portal of Darkness here?" Riku restated. Keila turned her attention back towards the 'Expert in Gibberish' as he deciphered the _Shepherd's_ pages.

"I… I stowed away in the cargo hold of your ship," she mumbled.

"You stowed away on my ship?" Riku said, a slightly surprised expression on his face. Whatever he had been expecting for an answer, it certainly wasn't that. "Dawn, did you know about that?" Keila stared at him in utter confusion. From where she was sitting, it seemed like Riku had gone off the deep end and was talking to himself. She nearly leapt out of her seat when a bodiless female voice spoke up.

"Of course I didn't. If I had, don't you think I would've told you?" Keila stared around wildly, trying to find the source of the voice.

"I suppose that's true," Riku said thoughtfully as he stared down at an orange and black flat box that was clipped to his belt.

"Who are you talking to?" Keila asked him, her confusion steadily growing into irritation. "Where is that voice coming from?" For an answer, Riku unclipped the box from his belt and held it out towards her in the palm of his hand. The orange segments of the box all lit up from a light within and a small hologram of a young woman dressed in short shorts and a bikini top so small that it was teetering on the edge of being inappropriate. Keila gaped at the AI's projection.

"That would be me," Dawn said, waving up at Keila. "I'm the Artificial Intelligence from the _Dawn's First Light_. You can call me Dawn." Keila still wore a mildly surprised look on her face. Dawn couldn't help but smirk... "I take it you've never met an AI before?" Keila shook her head and cleared her throat.

"I actually had never left home until a couple of weeks ago," she said distantly. "Mother kept me and my brothers and sisters at home. I don't know how she did it, she just did. She told us all when we were younger that she wouldn't let us leave until we were strong enough to." She let out a humorous chuckle and stared back at the convoy in front of them as Riku and Dawn watched silently. "Hell, I'm only out now because she claims I'm the only one of her children she could trust to get the job done without getting too distracted."

"What job?" Riku asked. Up ahead, Milo called out and gestured eagerly towards the left-hand path.

"Finally," Keila grumbled, shifting gears to begin driving again. The convoy lurched forward as Mole drove the digger towards the skull carving's left eye. "What'd you say, Silver?"

"I said, 'what-'" Riku was cut off as Keila slammed on the breaks, practically throwing him through the windshield. An insect-like creature stuck its head out and let out a roar. It was easily three times the size of the digger, had a massive horn growing out of its head and had a pair of razor sharp pincers that snapped angrily as it roared at the convoy. Every driver quickly recovered from the initial shock of the sight of the creature and put their vehicles in reverse, putting themselves back down the initial path and away from the monstrosity. Satisfied the convoy was far enough from its territory, the creature retreated back into the skull's left eye. Everyone turned to glare at Milo, who realized he had been reading the _Journal_ upside down. He corrected the book's orientation and nervously pointed towards the skull's right eye. Everyone's glares only intensified.

After a couple more hours of driving through the dark caverns, they came across a natural waterfall and stream that seemed to glow a pale blue color from some unidentifiable source. On Rourke's orders, the convoy stopped for their usual meal of Cookie's daily special of 'Shut up an' eat!' and to refill on fuel and water.

After forcing down Cookie's cooking, Keila felt the uncontrollable calling to empty her stomach in the nearest hole she could find. She ran off, mentally loathing the fact that the terrible food was about to pass through her mouth again. Riku watched her take off, mentally smacking himself as his eyes fixated themselves on a particular part of her body. He finished off the last of the water from the canteen and turned to head back towards the rest of the convoy, pausing only as he saw Vinnie staring wide eyed at him.

"You didn't just drink that did you?" The Italian-accented man asked Riku, pointing down at the canteen. Riku nodded with a grin and tossed the canteen into the back of a nearby truck. Vinnie's worried expression became more pronounced as he shifted his grip on the red-boxed detonator clutched under his arm. "That's not good. That's nitroglycerin." Riku immediately froze in place, unwilling recalling his last encounter with nitroglycerin. What memory remained of that particular incident told him it didn't end well. Riku pleaded with his eyes for Vinnie to help him somehow. Vinnie thought about it for a moment before giving Riku the best advice someone could give in that situation. "Don't move. Eh, don't breathe. Don't do anything except pray, maybe."

"If you're going to explode, can you at least put me down somewhere out of range?" Dawn asked through the earpiece in his ear. Riku fought the urge to tell her to be quiet and stand perfectly still like Vinnie had told him. His plan immediately went south when Mole snuck up unseen and unheard behind him and shouted 'Boom!' Riku nearly leapt five feet into the air in shock as Mole and Vinnie strode away, laughing at their prank. Riku glared after them for a moment, silently swearing to come up with a better prank to get back at those two.

He briefly wondered how Keila was holding up as he started to move back towards the truck he shared with her. His answer came in the form of the sounds of her violent retching followed almost immediately by a rather disgusting splattering noise. Riku winced and decided he'd better go check up on her first.

"Looks to me like someone has a crush," Dawn said casually in his ear as he turned towards the sounds of Keila's vomiting. Riku's cheeks flushed red.

"I do not," he said, perhaps a little too quickly. Dawn only laughed him.

"The first stage is always denial," Dawn teased. "And the last stage is love."

"I'm not denying it if it's not true," Riku pointed out, following the sounds of Keila's retching.

"Admit it," Dawn said knowingly, "you're falling for this girl. You're falling for the enemy."

"No, I'm not," Riku snapped. "Besides, I don't actually think she's our enemy."

"Oh?" Dawn asked, sounding intrigued. "And why is that? Care to share some of your insight with me?"

"Last night, she said that she didn't actually want to kill me," Riku pointed out. "She made it sound like she's just following orders. And would my enemy really want to share a tent with me under any circumstance?" Dawn processed his logic for a brief moment as Riku approached the stone slab where Keila had run off to.

"That's a good theory and all, but don't forget that she could very well try to kill you when we finally leave this world," Dawn reminded him. "She could just be leading you on, getting you to let your guard down around her."

"I'll keep that in mind," Riku assured the AI. He meant it too. The thought hadn't exactly left his head that Keila could just be putting a ruse on to make him an easier target. He fully intended to be on his toes just in case she tried anything.

"Hey, are you okay?" Riku asked as he approached the slab. He poked his head around the edge, scanning for Keila. She was kneeling next to the stream, rinsing the vomit off of her shirt in the flowing water. He realized that not only was she not wearing a shirt, but she didn't have a bra on either, and was about to duck back behind the stone when he caught sight of the bare skin on her back. His stomach lurched and he couldn't stop himself from letting out a gasp from the sight. Her back was covered in bruises, fresh wounds and scars. It looked like someone had taken a whip and struck her repeatedly.

Keila heard his gasp and immediately tensed up, dropping her soaked shirt on the stones at her feet as her hands flew to cover her chest. She slowly turned her head to glare at Riku, her cheeks flushed red and clearly under the impression that he was staring at what little of her chest was visible from where he stood, frozen in place. Her glare dissolved in the blink of an eye when she realized he was staring at her back, replaced immediately by a look of pure terror that someone had seen her scars. She quickly got to her feet and spun to face him, throwing a black hooded cape over her shoulders to better cover herself as she did so.

"What the hell do you want?" She snapped. Riku noticed the nervousness in her eyes and realized she hadn't wanted anyone to see her scars.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright," Riku explained in a tone that conveyed genuine concern. Keila glanced around her.

"I'm not throwing up anymore, am I?" She pointed out. Riku took a cautious step towards her, unsure of how she was going to react.

"I can see that," he said, taking a cautious step towards her. "But, if you don't mind me asking, how'd your back get so scarred?" Keila's glare returned in an instant.

"Well, I do mind you asking," she huffed. She scooped up her still soaking wet shirt in her hands and stormed past Riku. "It's none of your business how I got them, so drop it." Riku didn't say anything; he simply remained staring at the spot where Keila had been kneeling by the water.

Keila stormed all the way back to the truck, where she got in the driver's seat and slammed her head down on the wheel. She felt like total bitch for snapping at Riku just because he seemed concerned about her scars, but at the same time, she didn't care how concerned he was. It would've been better if he had never seen her scars. The last thing she wanted to do was drag someone into her problems, especially if that someone could actually be the first real friend she ever had.

A single, hot tear rolled down her cheek.

_LD_

"Good night! Would you look at the size of this!" Milo exclaimed as he and Vinnie stared up at a massive, intricately carved pillar that was built on the edge of what at one point must've been a bridge, but now was nothing more than a the deep chasm in the planet that went down into the unknown depths the ancient bridge used to cover. Next to him, Vinnie rigged the base of the pillar with several sticks of dynamite. "It's gotta be half a mile high at least. It must've taken hundreds- , no, thousands of years to carve this thing." Vinnie grabbed hold of Milo's collar and dragged him away from the pillar. He pressed down on the detonator and the dynamite at the base of the pillar exploded. With a thundering crash, the pillar collapsed, forming a new bridge over the chasm.

"Hey look," Vinnie said with a grin, ignoring the horrified look on Milo's face. "I made a bridge. It only took me, like, what? Ten seconds. Eleven tops." The two of them turned around and headed back towards their respective trucks.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier," Keila said quietly as they convoy began moving across the newly made bridge, finally breaking the eight hour silence that she and Riku had been enduring since the convoy had moved away from the stream. Riku glanced over at her, secretly relieved that their silence was over.

"It's fine," he said, lowering his voice so he was speaking as quietly as she was. "You obviously don't want to talk about your scars, so I won't mention them."

"Thank you," Keila replied. "It's nothing personal, it's just that talking about them or even thinking about them brings up bad memories that I'd rather not relive." Riku stared silently at her for a moment.

"I understand," Riku said after a couple of minutes of silence. "I won't bring them up again." Keila gave him an appreciative smile, which Riku returned. The moment only lasted for a moment before Keila's face hardened again, her natural glare she had around Riku returning. Riku let out a barely audible sigh. Despite the fact that they were getting along to an extent, she was still cold and hard towards him with annoying inconsistency.

_LD_

"I hate snow," Riku grumbled. The convoy slowly traveled through a cavern that was strangely filled with the powdery white substance associated with winter. Thick mounds of snow piled as high as the digger in some places only slowed them down further. Riku's teeth chattered and his body shivered despite the heat provided by the black cloak Xanthos had given him a couple of weeks before. Keila was worse off than he was. The only source of heat she had had initially was her black cape, which was as far from thick as possible. After nearly twenty minutes in the freezing cold, she had given up trying to use her cape to stay warm and instead had insisted on making Riku keep her warm by sitting next to her and keeping his arms around her. Riku had argued with her for a good five or so minutes before she finally threatened to cut off a very specific part of his anatomy before shoving it into another specific part of his anatomy. After that, Riku hadn't hesitated to help keep her warm.

_Not that it's too terrible._ Riku told himself as he glanced down at Keila, using his height to his advantage. _The view's pretty nice._ He couldn't help but notice the scar that was somewhat visible, running across her chest before vanishing somewhere along her stomach. He knew now that it would be better not to mention that he had seen it. Partially because he didn't want her knowing he was giving into his hormones and stealing glances down her shirt.

"The snow's not that bad," Keila grumbled, shivering despite the heat Riku's body provided her. "Well, it isn't when there's barely a foot of it on the ground. How the hell is there snow down here anyways? It doesn't seem scientifically possible to me."

"How about you two stop complaining about the cold for two minutes?" Dawn's voice suggested from her storage unit clipped to Riku's side. "I'm getting cold just listening to it and I shouldn't be able to feel temperature."

"Okay, Dawn. We'll talk about something else," Riku said w. "Since we've got plenty of time and we're being civil with each other, how about you tell me about yourself?"

"What about me do you want to know?" Keila asked hesitantly. "If you ask about my scars or my bra size I'll throw you under the digger." Riku chuckled nervously. He had no doubt in his mind that she wouldn't hesitate to.

"Okay, I won't ask about your scars or bra size," Riku said with a grin. "How about I ask about your childhood? What world are you from? What's it like there? Do you have any family? How did you get a Keyblade?" Keila let out a sigh, her mood lightening a little bit.

"Geez, I thought you were going to ask one question, not thirty," she said, playfully nudging Riku in the ribs while being careful not to jerk the wheel as the convoy slowed to a stop for a water break while Milo translated which of the four new paths in the snow filled cavern they had to take.

"I only asked five," Riku said defensively. Keila threw their truck in park and took a swig of water from her canteen. She shifted in Riku's arms to make herself more comfortable while they waited, her cheeks flushing red at their closeness.

"Details, details," she said, staring with slightly glazed eyes out at the snow covered rocks. "I can't honestly say what world I'm from; I've actually never been anywhere other than mother's land. But from what I've seen, it's absolutely gorgeous. The skies and plants are always a vibrant, emerald green color and the sea is crystal clear. I haven't been to very many worlds since my mother let me leave either, but in my opinion, none of them can match my world." She smiled warmly.

"As for my family, my mother raised me and my two hundred seventy-four siblings at her manor all by herself. I suppose she's lucky that she didn't have to raise us all at once, I don't think even someone as strong as her could-"

"Wait a second," Riku said quickly, cutting her off. "You have two hundred seventy-four brothers and sisters?" Keila nodded. "What kind of woman can possibly give birth to that many kids?"

"Oh God, you don't honestly think she actually gave birth to all of us do you?" Keila asked incredulously, laughing loudly when Riku slowly nodded.

"That's how you made it sound," he said defensively.

"Oh wow, I didn't think you'd be that stupid," Keila teased. Riku glared down at her. "Mother used to travel the worlds, rescuing any orphans, runaways or abandoned children she met who had a strong heart. She brought them home for the better part of twenty years.

"She told me she found me abandoned in a ditch in some backwater world, most likely no more than a few days old. Without Mother I'd probably be dead." Riku stared silently at her, unable to avoid noticing the hint of tears shimmering in her eyes. "I'll admit though, despite all that she's done for my siblings and me, I'm not quite as devoted to her as most of them are. I'm sort of the black sheep in my family." She grinned up at Riku. "I've always been a rebel. I guess that's why I haven't killed you yet." Her face fell slightly.

"What's wrong?" Riku asked, carefully studying her facial expressions.

"It's nothing," Keila said, shaking her head as if she was reassuring herself. "Let's see, you wanted to know how I got my Keyblade. Well, Mother is a Keyblade Master. She's performed the Inheritance Ceremony with me and my siblings." Riku's mouth dropped open.

"So all two hundred seventy-four of you can wield Keyblades?" Riku asked in complete and utter shock.

_Her entire family is a small Keyblade Wielding army?_

"Yes," Keila said with a nod. "She taught us how to use our Keyblades and how to fight by ourselves and in units."

"Let me guess, your mother was the one who convinced you and your siblings that Darkness was the way to go?"

"It's the only life any of us know," Keila said. "I don't know any other path other than Darkness."

"You sound just like I did almost two years ago," Riku said with a chuckle. Keila shot him a quizzical look. "I got bored with my home world. It was nothing more than a chain of island prisons. In my desire to escape, I opened the door to the heart of my world and the Heartless took it. I wound up in Hollow Bastion, which was all that was left of Radiant Garden and Maleficent took me in. She convinced me that my best friend had replaced me and that I didn't need him. I only needed the powers of Darkness she offered me. I accepted them. I attacked my best friend and tried to kill him." Keila stared at him.

"Then why do you side with the Light?" She asked softly. Riku smiled at her.

"My friend, Sora." Keila gave a barely noticeable start at the name. "He helped me realize I didn't need the Darkness. I still had my friends and they're all I need." They fell back into silence again. Keila kept her eyes fixated on the road ahead of them, one word dancing around her mind.

_Friends…_

_LD_

_Equus Cargo Bay, Nineteen Hours from Destination_

"This is your dumbest plan ever."

"I think you mean, most brilliant plan ever."

"No. I mean dumbest."

"Ouch. Thanks a lot, Pence.

"Hayner, we are hiding in barrels of flour. Have you ever considered what's going to happen to us if we get caught?" The ship shook slightly and a dull thud echoed from somewhere nearby the barrels that Hayner and Pence were currently hiding in. "Did you hear that?"

"What's happening?" Hayner whispered.

"We're both in barrels," Pence said sarcastically. "That's the extent of my knowledge." Both boys cried out in shock as the tops of their barrels came off without warning. Axel and Jenos both loomed overhead, grinning smugly down at the two stowaways.

"I told you I heard voices," Axel said proudly. "You owe me six hundred munny, got it memorized?" Jenos let out a long-winded sigh.

"Fine, just please stop saying that."

"Hey, it's my catchphrase. Got it memorized?"

"If you say that one more time I'll push you into an escape Gummi and fire you at some random world," Jenos snapped at the red-haired former Nobody before looking back down at the two teens. "Now, you two are going to come with me and you're going to tell us exactly why you stowed away on-" Dusk's voice cut him off as she spoke over the ship's intercom system.

"Now entering an asteroid field. Please secure your seatbelts. If you are standing up in the cargo bay next to a pair of opened flour barrels, you're out of luck I guess." Axel and Jenos exchanged a nervous glance.

"You think she was just messing with us?" Axel asked. The ship spun into a barrel roll, knocking Axel and Jenos off of their feet and covering them and several dozen square feet of bare ground in flour.

"No. I don't think she is," Jenos replied sarcastically.

_LD_

_Saturday, June 12__th __4794 P.C._

_Ancient Highway to Atlantis_

"Looks like we have a little roadblock," Rourke announced to the convoy. It was just after midnight and they had entered yet another large cavern, except unlike the other ones, they had found their path to be blocked by a massive, carved stone slab that must've collapsed hundreds of years before. "Riku, think you can blast a hole through that?" Riku stared up at the rock.

"Sure, just give me another month. I can probably do it," he said sarcastically. Rourke turned to the demolitions expert of the voyage.

"Vinnie, what do you think?" Rourke asked. Vinnie studied the stone slab for a brief moment.

"I could un-roadblock that if I had about two hundred of these," the Italian-accented man said, hefting a stick of dynamite and shifting the match in his mouth slightly. "Problem is, I only got about… ten. Plus, you know, five of my own," he opened up his rucksack to check inside as Rourke rolled his eyes, "and a couple of cherry bombs… a road flare." He tossed the explosives back into the bag. "Hey, too bad we don't have some nitroglycerin, eh, Riku?" Riku felt compelled to flip Vinnie the bird, especially when Mole began to laugh hysterically, until Rourke's next sentence shut him up.

"Looks like we're going to have to dig," the Commander said. Mole's laughter abruptly stopped. He stared down at Rourke from his seat in the digger.

"It will be my pleasure," he proclaimed eagerly. With a few twists of some knobs and some pulling of some levers, the digger grumbled to life and slowly made its way towards the stone slab, the drill on its front beginning to spin at a high velocity. It barely had had time to have an effect on the stone before the drill came to a sudden screeching halt. The digger let out a sputtering, belching noise and promptly died, thick plumes of jet black smoke pouring out of its inner machinery. Mole slammed his forehead against the steering wheel.

"Stupid. You. Are. Stupid!" He grumbled with each hit. Riku let out a groan and clambered back into his seat next to Keila as Audrey made her way to examine the inner workings of the digger.

"Looks like we're gonna be here for a while," Keila said bitterly. "Awesome. Did I mention that I'm bored with seeing caves?"

"Only about three dozen times in the past ten minutes," Riku said. Keila glared at him.

"That was rhetorical," she mumbled.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm sick of the caves myself," Riku said with a grin. Keila just rolled her eyes.

"Hey, you know any good songs?" She asked suddenly. Riku raised an eyebrow at her.

"What brought that on all of a sudden?" He asked.

"Because I'm bored!" Keila whined softly. "There's no radio or CD players in these things and all we've had to listen to are the rumblings of the engines and the rocks under us. I need music."

"Spoiled much?" Riku teased as he began running through his mental playlist of favorite songs.

"Do you know any good songs or not?" Keila demanded. Riku grinned at her and began humming the opening notes to a medium tempo-ed tune. His foot began tapping a steady rhythm on floor of the truck cab while his finger tips drummed the acoustic guitar parts on the dash as he started to sing.

"_Summer time and the wind is blowing outside  
in lower Chelsea  
and I don't know what I'm doing in this city.  
The sun is always in my eyes.  
It crashes through the windows,  
and I'm sleeping on the couch.  
When I came to visit you,  
that's when I knew  
that I could never have you."_

Keila stared, simply enthralled by the beauty of Riku's voice, singing one of her all time favorite songs.

_"I knew that before you did.  
Still I'm the one who's stupid.  
And there's this burning,  
like there's always been.  
I've never been so alone.  
And I've  
never been so alive."_

Keila placed her hand on Riku's shoulder startling him slightly and took over the next verse for him.

"_Visions of you on a motorcycle drive-by,  
the cigarette ash flies in your eyes and you don't mind.  
You smile  
and say the world it doesn't fit with you.  
I don't believe you.  
You're so serene.  
Careening through the universe,  
your axis on a tilt.  
You're guiltless and free.  
I hope you take a piece of me with you."_

Riku felt himself take a sharp breath in, her voice a stunning mezzo-soprano.

"_And there's things I'd like to do  
that you don't believe in.  
I would like to build something.  
But you'll never see it happen.  
And there's this burning,  
like there's always been  
I've never been so alone.  
And I've…  
I've never been so alive!"_

Riku's voice melded with hers into a beautiful harmony on the last 'alive'. They tapped out the brief guitar riff on the dash with their fingertips, Keila struggling to not giggle as they did so.

"_And there's this burning, ah ha.  
There is this burning!  
Ay yai yai!"_

Riku took over once more, getting Keila to remain quiet by gently pressing a finger to her lips, causing her to blush slightly.

"_Where's the soul I want to know?  
New York City's evil.  
The surface is everything,  
but I could never do that.  
Someone would see through that. _

_And this is the last time  
we'll be friends again.  
And I'll get over you;  
you'll wonder who I am.  
And there's this burning,  
just like there's always been.  
I've never been so alone, alone.  
And I've, and I've,  
I've never been so alive."_

Together, they sung the next two words.

"_So alive."_

It was Keila's turn to get Riku to remain quiet by placing her finger over his lips.

"_I go home to the coast it starts to rain I paddle out on the water,  
alone.  
Taste the salt and taste the pain.  
I'm not thinking of you again.  
Summer dies and swells rise,  
the sun goes down in my eyes.  
See this rolling wave,  
darkly coming  
to take me  
home."_

Riku tried his hardest not to notice the slightly sad look that had formed on Keila's face as she sung the last verse.

"_And I've never been so alone." _

Keila smiled and in a hushed tone, she sung the final words of the song.

"_And I've never been so alive."_

The two of them were silent for a brief moment simply staring at each other. It took a few seconds for them to realize that during their singing, their faces had slowly drifted closer together until the tips of their noses were practically brushing up against one another. Both teens pulled quickly apart, their faces flushed red from the brief moment of closeness they had just shared. A somewhat nervous, awkward silence fell over the pair, broken only by Mole's cry of 'She lives!' Apparently, Milo of all people was the one who got the digger to work by simply 'persuading' the diggers' boiler with a wrench.

After that, it was a day full of uneventful driving as Mole tunneled through the roadblock to the other side, where he led the convoy through a series of smaller caves until they emerged onto a still intact bridge that spanned the length of another massive chasm. High above their heads, a stone lantern was carved into the ceiling, giving off and eerie, pale green light.

"This is it," Milo announced. He glanced from the sketches in the _Journal_ to the giant lantern. "It's gotta be."

"All right. We'll make camp here," Rourke announced.

"Why is it glowing?" Keila asked, looking up at the carved lantern.

"Pah!" Mole said in a disinterested tone. "It is a natural phosphorescence."

"That thing is going to keep me up all night," Vinnie grumbled. "I know it."

Within thirty minutes, the camping gear had been unloaded from the truck and fires had been started in metal cans all around the camp to keep them warm. Riku and Keila sat with Sweet, Audrey, Mole, Vinnie and Packard in a sloppily formed circle around one of said fires. Cookie had apparently been hard at work, making a three course meal for the entire convoy, as was evident when he came around with his pot of 'appetizers'.

"For the appetizer," the chef announced as he made his way to their little group, "We got Caesar Salad," a glob of slop landed on Sweet's tray, "Fried Potato Skins," Riku winced as the same slop Sweet had received was placed on his tray, "Shrimp Cocktail," Keila's face turned an odd shade of green as she poked at the slop Cookie gave her with the tip of her spoon, "Escargot," Audrey didn't even bother trying to appear grateful, "and your Oriental Spring Rolls." For a moment, Mole looked excited at the 'Spring Rolls'. Then he was staring longingly at Audrey's tray.

"I wanted the Escargot," he said sadly.

"Knock yourself out," Audrey replied, not hesitating at all to pass her tray along to the jubilant Mole.

"There you go, Milo," Cookie said warmly to the linguist as he handed him a tray. "Put some meat on them bones." Milo stared, weak stomached at the sight of the 'appetizer'.

"Thanks, Cookie," he said, trying not to be too disgusted by it. "It looks greasier than usual."

"You like it?" Cookie asked eagerly. "Well, have some more." He lifted up his pot and poured a large heap of the slop onto Milo's tray. "You're so skinny, if you turned sideways and stuck out your tongue you'd look like a zipper."

"You know, we've been pretty tough on the kid," Sweet said, watching Milo sit all by himself against a pillar of rock. "What do you say we cut him some slack?" The others all glanced around.

"Yeah, you're right," Audrey said with a sigh. "Hey, Milo! Why don't you come sit with us?" The linguist looked up from perusing the _Shepherd's Journal _for the umpteenth time.

"Really? You don't mind?" He asked, getting to his feet and closing the book.

"Nah, park it here," Audrey gestured to a flat rock to her right that would serve as a decent seat.

"Gee, this is great," Milo said as he walked over to them. "I mean, you know, it's an honor to be included in your-" he was cut off by a loud, rather rude sound created by a children's prank toy as he sat down. A whoopee-cushion, delivered courtesy of Mole, who was rolling on the ground with laughter.

"Mole!" The others all growled in unison, glaring at the expert in digging.

"Ah, forgive me," Mole said with an innocent grin. "I could not resist."

"Don't you ever close that thing?" Riku asked Milo as he placed his tray of 'fried potato skins' off to the side. "I don't think I've ever seen you take your nose out of it once." Milo glanced up from the pages of the _Journal_.

"Yeah," Sweet chimed in. "You must've read it a dozen times by now." Keila nodded in agreement as she braced herself to take a bite of Cookies cooking, only to discover that half of her spoon had dissolved. She set her tray down; secretly thankful she had discovered the small stash of power bars Riku had in his backpack.

"I know," Milo said slowly, carefully examining the book, "but this… this doesn't make any sense. "See in this passage here, the _Shepherd_ seems to be leading up to something. He calls it the 'Heart of Atlantis'." Riku's ears immediately perked up. "It could be the power source the legends refer to."

"You mean the one that helped them achieve technology beyond others?" Riku asked, suddenly feeling very interested. Milo nodded.

"That's the one," he said, flipping the pages of the _Journal_ with his spoon. "But then it just… it cuts off. It's almost like there's a missing page."

"Kid, relax," Vinnie said, still chewing on the back end of a match rather than attempting to force down Cookies food. "We don't get paid overtime."

"We're getting paid?" Keila whispered to Riku, who shrugged in response.

"I know, I know," Milo said as he tucked the book away. "Sometimes I get a little carried away. But, hey, you know, that's what this is all about, right? I mean, discovery, teamwork, adventure. Unless, maybe, you're just in it for the money." Everyone was quiet for a moment, staring at Milo.

"Money," Audrey said with a shrug.

"Money."

"Money."

"Money."

"I'm gonna say…" Vinnie began, looking for the right words. "Money."

"Bragging rights," Riku said with a grin. "If we find Atlantis, my best friend will never hear the end of it."

"I'm stuck with this guy for now," Keila said, jerking her thumb towards Riku. "And if I can get in on a cut of the profit, then it's for the money." Milo let out a sigh.

"Well, I guess I set myself up for that one," he said as he massaged his neck.

"Is something wrong with your neck?" Sweet observed, getting to his feet and striding over to stand behind Milo.

"Oh, yeah," Milo said with a nod. "I must've hurt it when-" Sweet grabbed Milo's head in both hands and cracked his neck in two different directions before releasing him.

"Better?" The Doctor asked. Milo rubbed the back of his neck, a look of surprised relief spreading across his face.

"Yeah," he said gratefully. "Hey, how'd you learn how to do that?"

"An Arapaho medicine man," Sweet said simply.

"Get outta here," an impressed Milo said.

"Born and raised with 'em," Sweet explained as he pulled out an old photograph from one of his front pockets to hand to Milo. "My father was an Army medic. He settled down in the Kansas Territory after he met my mother."

"No kidding," Milo handed back the photo.

"Nope," Sweet said proudly. "I got a sheepskin from Howard U and a bearskin from old Iron Cloud." He pulled out a necklace from under his shirt, showing off both skins. "Halfway through medical school, I was drafted. One day I'm studying gross anatomy in the classroom, the next I'm sewing up Rough Riders on San Juan Hill."

"Main course," Cookie announced, wheeling an even bigger pot than the one he had earlier over to them. The group came up with a dozen excuses, from being too full to eat another bite to watching their weight (in both Audrey's and, oddly enough, Riku's case). "Ha ha ha, don't you worry. It'll keep and keep and keep." Cookie chuckled as he strode off towards one of the other fires.

"Thank God I lost my sense of taste years ago," Packard said, putting out her cigarette in her food before she and everyone else dumped their trays into the fire, resulting in a miniaturized mushroom cloud as the fire was extinguished.

High above them, the pale green light slowly began to dim.

Half an hour later, Lieutenant Helga Sinclair gave the orders to pitch camp and hit the hay. It took Riku and Keila almost no time at all to set up their tent and change into their sleeping attire. Riku dressed in a pair of midnight blue sweatpants decorated with the logo of his preferred brand of soda, Pepsi, and a plain white shirt. Keila still wore her black sweatpants covered with the white outlines of stars and an oversized black t-shirt that read _You ever wonder why we're here?_

"Aren't you going to pitch up your tent?" Vinnie asked Milo as the demolitions expert unfurled his bedroll. Riku glanced over at Milo's tent, if one could call it that. It looked like a pile of sticks and cloth tied haphazardly together with rope and supported by a clothesline holding one of Milo's socks and a map.

"Uh, I did," Milo said, gesturing at his pitiful excuse for a tent. Vinnie sighed and went to help the poor linguist set up his shelter. "I guess I'm still a little rusty at this. I haven't gone camping since… well, since the last time my grandpa took me."

"I never got to meet your grandfather," Audrey said as she finished tying down her tent to the stakes in the ground. "What was he like?

"Where do you start?" Milo said with a chuckle as Vinnie walked away from the properly pitched tent. "He was like a father to me, really. My parents died when I was a little kid and he took me in." He stretched out on his bedroll, chuckling as he reminisced about his memories of his grandfather.

"What?" Keila asked, overhearing his chuckle as she kicked off her combat boots.

"Well, I was just thinking'," Milo said, clearly lost in memory. "One time, when I was eight, we were hiking along this stream and I saw something shining in the water. It was a genuine arrowhead. Well, you'd think I found a lost civilization the way Grandpa carried on about it. It wasn't until I was older that I realized that the arrowhead was just some compressed shale mixed with zinc pyrite that had fractured into an isosceletic triangulate."

"That is so cute!" Mole said with a giggle as he strode by, dressed in a pair of red, white, and blue striped pajamas, clutching a stuffed gray mole to his chest and still wearing his magnifying headgear with the lamp turned on.

"Say, Audrey," Milo began slowly. "No, no offense or anything, but how does a teenager become the chief mechanic of a multimillion dollar expedition?"

"Well, I took this job when my dad retired," Audrey replied, pulling her boots and socks off as she spoke. "But the funny thing was, he always wanted sons, right? One to run his machine shop and the other to be middleweight boxing champion but he got my sister and me instead."

"So, what happened to your sister?" Riku asked.

"She's twenty-four and Oh, with a shot at the title next month," Audrey said.

_Saw that coming._ Riku said to himself.

"Anyway," Audrey continued as she laid down in her tent, "I'm saving up so my Papi and I can open another shop." Milo smiled and glanced around as Packard strode by in an olive green bathrobe, fuzzy pink slippers, mud on her face and her hair in rollers with a magazine and pillow tucked under her arm.

"Forget your jammies, Mrs. Packard?" Milo asked.

"I sleep in the nude," Packard replied in her monotone voice. Looks of disgust and shock crossed Milo, Riku and Keila's faces. A pair of black sleeping masks landed in front of each of them, tossed by the ever so kind doc, Sweet.

"You're all gonna want a pair of these," he said with a grin. "She sleepwalks." Riku and Keila exchanged horrified glances.

"Well, as far as me goes," Vinnie said, securing his mask and tucking a match behind his ear as he laid down, "I just like to blow things up." Sweet shook his head and tugged on Vinnie's mask, letting it snap him across the face.

"Come on, Vinnie," he said. "Tell the kids the truth. Vinnie sighed.

"My family owned a flower shop," he explained. "We would sell roses, carnations, baby's breath, you name it. One day, I'm making about three dozen corsages for this prom. You know, the one they put on their wrist. And everybody, they come. 'Where is it?' 'When is it?' 'Does it match my dress?' It's a nightmare. Anyway, I guess there was this leak next door of gas or what. Boom! No more Chinese laundry. Blew me right through the front window." He rolled over, grabbing the match from behind his ear and lit it with his still-gloved thumb. "It was like a sign from God. I found myself in that boom." The group all turned at the sound of earth being shifted and spotted Mole twisting himself into a hole he had dug. The light on his head clicked off and his ever so creepy laughter emerged from the hole.

"What's Mole's story?" Riku asked.

"Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know," Sweet said, a serious expression dominating his facial features. "Audrey, don't tell him. You shouldn't have told me, but you did. And now I'm telling you, you don't wanna know." He grabbed hold of their lantern and extinguished the light, signaling that they should all go to sleep.

"You try touching me in my sleep tonight, and I'll push you off of the bridge," Keila growled as she and Riku crawled into their tent.

"You know, you've threatened me with throwing or pushing me to my doom before," Riku pointed out. "How about you mix it up a little?"

"Okay," Keila said. "Touch me in my sleep and I will cut off your one defining feature as a male and stick it someplace you really don't want it to be. Then I will throw you off the bridge." Riku simply stared at her.

"I will make sure I don't touch you then," he said, trying to block out the mental image of her threat before adding under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear "Not that I'd want to touch you anyways. You're not that good looking." Keila's mouth dropped open in stunned disbelief. Riku grinned teasingly at her.

"You're a lying jerk," Keila said, examining her appearance in a small hand mirror before smirking slyly at him. "What do you really think about my looks?" That caught Riku off guard. He fumbled on Dawn's container, dropping it to the ground by accident.

"Watch it!" Dawn snapped over her speakers. "People are in here you know!"

"Sorry," Riku whispered to her before looking back at Keila. "I'm sorry, what now?"

"What do you really think about my looks?" Keila asked Riku softly, a small blush forming across her cheeks as she slowly moved on all fours towards where Riku kneeled on the ground. Riku swallowed hard, determinedly keeping his eyes fixated on Keila's face as the top of her shirt opened to reveal quite a bit of her womanly features.

"I, uh, I think you, um," he stuttered, mentally regretting staring at her face. He found himself drawn into her cerulean eyes. He swallowed hard. "What I mean to say is, I, um. You are really close." Keila's face was less than half a foot from his and she had a tiny, bemused smirk etched onto her face.

"You're cute when you're flustered," she said, playfully punching him on the arm. "It's going to be a shame when I have to kill you."

"You're still going on about that?" Riku asked as Keila backed away from him and resituated herself on her side of the tent. "Weren't you the one who said you didn't want to kill me?" Keila nodded sadly.

"I don't!" she said quickly. "I'm sorry, Silver, I really am, but Mother hasn't left me with any other choice. I don't know what she'd do to me if I didn't do as she asked and I don't know what Maleficent would do to me if she found out I already lied about leaving you as a vegetable back at that Radiant Garden medical station."

"Wait, you told Maleficent what?" Riku asked.

"I told Maleficent that you were basically a human vegetable with almost no time left in this life to live and that you wouldn't be able to interfere with her plans anymore," Keila admitted. "Honestly, I'm not too worried about what Maleficent might do to me. None of her punishments could possibly be as bad as the ones my Mother makes me and my siblings go through." With that one sentence, Riku suddenly understood where all of the scars he had seen on Keila's back had come from. Keila seemed to realize what she had said at almost the exact same moment. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"Is that how you got all those-" Riku began.

"I said to forget it!" Keila snapped. She threw a blanket over herself and laid down with her back to Riku. "Goodnight!" Riku watched her silently for several moments before lying down himself and allowing sleep to embrace him, unaware of the silent tears running down Keila's face.

_LD_

_Sunday, June 13__th__ 4794 P.C._

A figure dressed in a long, silver cloak slowly emerged from the tunnel behind the convoy several minutes after the last of them had gone to bed. He gazed out carefully at the convoy where he knew the Keyblade Master Riku, the one Maleficent believed to be nearly dead, was sleeping. He sighed.

Despite having no emotions since becoming a Nobody, Naleten still remembered that would have felt bad that he would sentence one of Cynthia's children to death. But fortunately, he didn't have to deal with such hindering emotions anymore. He glanced up at the carved stone lantern's unearthly green glow. His eagle-like eyesight confirmed to him that the glow was being created by exactly what he thought it was. Grinning emotionlessly to himself, he grabbed a flashlight from the crate of the convoy's supplies and shined it on the lantern.

The green glow became golden and glowing insects began to emerge. Naleten shut off the light and tossed it back into the crate before vanishing into a portal of Darkness at his feet, knowing better than to stick around when the Flamelights swarmed.

_So sorry, Keila. But if Cynthia wants something done right…_ He said to himself as he left the world behind him.

_LD_

_Olette's Heart_

_Olette flipped herself up into the air as her armored opponent swung her Oblivion Keyblade down on the platform where she had been standing a split second before. Her breath was coming to her in ragged gasps. She had no idea how long she had been fighting the armored woman, but the fact that her entire body was screaming at her to stop moving and rest told her it had been for a long time. Below her, an orb made from several bolts of lightning was forming in the armored woman's hand. Olette let out a growl. She had had enough. _

_Even though she was falling through the air, she managed to change direction so she was headed straight for the armored woman. The woman seemed surprised by Olette's sudden switch to the offensive and unleashed her Thunder attack a moment too soon, missing Olette by half a foot. Less than two seconds later, Olette slammed into the armored woman's chest, knocking her to the ground where her helmet was knocked loose and rolled to the side. With a kick, Olette sent the Oblivion skittering across the platform and over the edge. Her Aubade pressed against the flesh of the woman's newly exposed throat._

"_Yield," she growled, remembering the term used in Struggle to declare oneself the victor in a mock battle when the opponent would have received a lethal blow. The armored woman grinned and stared up at Olette, who let out a gasp and backed off of the woman. Now that her helmet had gone, Olette could see her long, chocolate brown hair that fell to her waist and her startling emerald-green eyes. The woman stood up, brushing off the shoulder pieces of her armor. _

"_Good job, kiddo," she said with a grin. "You're definitely ready for the Master's training." She clapped Olette on her shoulder with an armored hand. "And don't worry about his methods, there's a point behind it all. Trust me." The woman snapped her fingers and a large, white door appeared behind her. "Go on. Open the door." Olette continued to stare at the woman in utter shock. The woman sighed. "All you have to do to complete Destati is open the door, you know."_

"_You, you're-?" Olette began to ask, still in awe. The woman nodded and spoke before Olette could continue. _

"_Of course. How else could I be here now?"The woman answered. "Now go open the door already. You've got some training to get started." Olette nodded in understanding and approached the door. A Keyhole flashed into existence in the door's center. Olette raised the Aubade and leveled it with the Keyhole. A beam of bright blue light shot from the tip of her Keyblade to the Keyhole. The sounds of a lock being unlocked echoed throughout the darkness surrounding the platform. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then the double doors swung open, revealing a blinding white light that made it impossible for Olette to see anything._

"_**Don't be afraid."**_

_LD_

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Milo's shouts echoed throughout the camp. Riku slowly opened his eyes and heard Keila grumbling next to him as she was awoken as well. In their sleep worn state, it didn't seem to register with either of them that Keila had once again moved over to Riku's side of the tent and was curled up against his side.

Commander Rourke glared at his alarm clock as Milo's shouts roused him from his sleep.

"I'm gonna kill him," he growled as he stepped out his tent. "Thatch, go back to bed!" His eyes widened in shock and his alarm clock clattered to the ground.

"What the hell is he going on about?" Keila mumbled as the pair of them poked their heads out of the tent flaps to find the whole camp ablaze. Thousands of golden, glowing insects poured out of the carved lantern and every time they landed on something, they burst into flame. Riku quickly dove back into the tent and grabbed hold of his bag that still held his clothes, the _Dawn's First Light_'s container and Dawn's storage unit.

"Get some water on that fire!" Helga shouted over the cries of panicking men and women.

"No time!" Rourke said, more than seventy percent of the camp was ablaze. "Get us into those caves. Move it! Move it! Move it!" Everyone immediately abandoned trying to put out the flames and rushed to the vehicles. Riku and Keila spotted their truck a split second before it erupted into flames as a small cloud of the insects landed on it. They changed course and leapt into the back of Rourke's truck alongside Audrey as Rourke began to follow Mole across the bridge to safety.

The truck containing the fuel for the entire convoy quickly caught fire as it brought up the rear. The driver began to panic and lose control. Milo ran as quickly as he could ahead of the flaming fuel truck, jumping at the last possible second to land inside of Rourke's truck before the fuel exploded, weakening the structure of the bridge. A loose piece of debris fired up at the cavern ceiling like a missile, shattering the lantern and bringing it crashing down on the bridge.

Unable to support the weight of the vehicles any longer, combined with several explosions and the sudden impact of the shattered lantern pieces, the back end of the bridge collapsed, forming a steep slide back down into the chasm. The digger attempted to make its way up the newly formed slope, but its bulk and weight combined with the forces of gravity dragged it back down into the chasm, dragging it into the other vehicles. The convoy was sent sliding into one another, down a steep slope of smooth rock and into the deep dark depths of the chasm, which Riku thanked every possible higher power he could think of that the chasm was made of slippery slopes so they didn't fall straight down and come to a sudden, skull shattering stop. Silence filled the chasm for several moments before Rourke lit a match, illuminating his ghostly image in the haunting dark.

"Alright, who's not dead? Sound off." The Commander ordered. The response came in the form of groans and grunts of pain from most, except Cookie.

"Danged lightnin' bugs done bit me on my sit-upon," he complained. "Somebody's gonna have to suck out that poison. Now don't everybody jump up at once." Someone managed to find the headlight controls to a near totaled jeep. Riku blinked from the sudden light and found himself lying on top of something soft. Something soft that had her Keyblade pressed against his throat.

"Move your hand or I will cut it off," Keila growled up at him her cheeks flushed crimson. Riku glanced down and saw his left hand squeezing down on her right breast. Riku scrambled to get off of her.

"Audrey, give me a damage report," Rourke barked. Audrey's reply was almost immediate.

"It's not as bad as it could've been," she said, shining her flashlight around at the vehicles. "We totaled rigs two and seven but the digger looks like it will still run. Lucky for us we landed in something soft."

"Pumice ash," Mole explained, his goggles extended to their maximum magnification to allow him to examine the dirt around them. "We are standing in the base of a dormant volcano." Helga pulled a flare gun out of a holster on her belt and fired a signal flare upwards. The ball of flame kept traveling up and up into the air.

"It just keeps going," Helga noted.

"Maybe that's our ticket outta here," Vinnie suggested. The flare struck something solid and blazed brightly before fading out of existence.

"Maybe not," Keila grumbled, pulling her cloak tighter around her chest while glaring at Riku.

"The magma has solidified in the bowels of the volcano effectively blocking the exit," Mole explained as he stared up at where the flare had struck.

"I got the same problem with sauerkraut," Packard mentioned as she took a puff from her cigarette.

"Hold on. Back up," Sweet said quickly in a concerned tone, "Are you sayin' this whole volcano can blow at anytime?" He glanced around at the ground nervously.

"No, no, no, no," Mole said with a shake of his head. "That would take an explosive force of great magnitude." As if on instinct, the survivors all turned their heads to look over at Vinnie as he tinkered with repairing a time bomb that had been damaged. He stopped as he felt everyone's eyes on him.

"Maybe I should do this later, huh?" He asked.

"That would probably be a good idea," Riku said, his cheeks still flushed red from his encounter with Keila.

"If we could blow the top off of that thing, we'd have a straight shot to the surface," Rourke said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Mr. Thatch, what do you think?"

No response.

"Mr. Thatch?" Rourke called again, only to be greeted by more silence. Flashlights blazed to life and began shining their beams back and forth in the gloom.

"Thatch?" He turned to Mole. "Get the digger started. We need to find Thatch!"

_LD_

Milo groaned as he came to. Around him, he could hear voices speaking, speaking…

_Atlantean? _

Three figures surrounded him, all appearing human except for their massive faces, and glowing eyes and mouths. They each carried long spears with curved blades on the tips. Milo gave a start and attempted to back away from the creatures, letting out a grunt of pain as a jagged wound on his chest throbbed suddenly. He gently touched the wound and examined his bloody fingers.

The smallest built of the three creatures kneeled next to him and lifted its face by the chin, revealing that it was only a mask. Underneath was a young woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. Milo let out a small gasp of surprise. Her hair was white as snow, her eyes like sapphires. A pair of golden earrings hung from her earlobes. Her breasts were covered by a band of blue cloth. A pair of blue crescents where inked into her cheek under her left eye. She looked at him with concern for his pain. Milo's eyes traveled to a glowing blue crystal hanging from her neck, in his opinion as beautiful as the woman before him.

The woman grabbed the crystal and gently touched the tip to Milo's skin above the wound. She pressed her hand over the wound, causing Milo to gasp in pain and shock as he felt the wound mend itself. She removed her hand from him, leaving a faint, glowing blue handprint on his unmarred flesh for a moment before it faded. Milo let out sigh of relief as he stared at the place where the wound had been. The woman smiled at him before lowering her mask.

The three figures took off running as the ground rumbled and shook. Golden light from the digger filled the area as Milo scrambled to his feet in pursuit of the trio, calling out for them to wait for him. They led him through a small cavern before vanishing through a human sized crevice.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Milo called out as he squeezed through the crevice, running out onto a stone outcropping covered in grass and foliage. "Who are you?" Milo came to a complete stop, as his mind registered what was before his eyes. Behind him, the stone crevice was widened as the digger emerged from the caves, twenty or so people running out alongside it. The other survivors ran up to stand next to the linguist, completely forgetting about him for a moment. A faint mist created by a massive waterfall pouring off of a large, perfectly circular island parted for them. The massive cavern encompassing the island was lit with a faint light created by the pool of flowing magma a thousand feet below the outcropping where the survivors stood, giving the impression of daylight. In the center of the island, barely visible through the mist was the faint outline of some sort of architectural structure.

"Sweet mother of Jefferson Davis!" Cookie exclaimed.

"It's beautiful," Audrey and Keila sighed.

"I am never going to let Sora live this one down," Riku said as a massive grin spread across her face. Sweet clapped Milo on the shoulder.

"Milo, I've gotta hand it to you," he said in an awed voice. "You really came through." A shrieking war cry echoed from above and behind them. The group all spun around, Keyblades flashing into existence in Riku's and Keila's hands as five warriors wielding curved spears and wearing giant, intimidating masks with glowing eyes and teeth leapt down. "Uh, I take that back."

The warriors began to advance menacingly on the group, driving them towards the edge of the outcropping.

_LD_

* * *

_I hope you all enjoyed it!_

_Before I forget, I would like to thank **Shire Folk** for helping me come up with Riku's Sunblade. Thanks Shire!  
_

_As usual, reviews are greatly welcomed. _

_Until next time._

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons  
_


	21. The Heart of Atlantis

_Hello all. _

_Anybody go see the Hangover 2 yet? I'm hesitating. I don't think it's going to be as great as the first one honestly. But I did like the trailer. So I don't know._

_Anyway, onto business. In this chapter, I touch on a specific subject that some people are uncomfortable with. No, it's not racism or biggotry or anything homophobic. I can't say what it is here because I don't like to give major spoilers. _

_Disclaimer: I still only own my plot and original characters, weapons and worlds._

_I am a bad man._

* * *

Chapter Twenty One: The Heart of Atlantis

_Sunday, June 13__th__ 4794 P.C._

_Equus Medical Bay_

Olette let out a low groan as she sat up on the slightly less than comfortable hospital bed. All of her muscles throbbed as if they had just been pulled uncomfortably in multiple directions and her head felt like it had been split in two. She raised her hands to rub her weary eyes and gave a start as she realized her right hand seemed heavier than it usually was. Glancing down, she realized that she was tightly gripping the handle of the Aubade. She immediately released her grip, staring with interest as it vanished in a hundred sparkling lights. There was a loud shout from somewhere nearby and the Aubade reappeared in her hand.

"Oh crap! Where are they?"

"Who cares? Just keep running!"

Olette got to her feet and stuck her head out of the entryway to the medical bay. Hayner and Pence, both covered in white powder dashed past as she did so.

"Hi, Olette," Pence said quickly, vanishing around a corner.

"Bye, Olette!" Hayner called, quickly following his friend around the corner.

"Um, hi? Bye?" Olette said, the Aubade vanishing from her grip again. Olette felt a gust of wind strike her as Axel and Jenos ran past, both covered in the same white powder as Hayner and Pence.

"Get back here!" Axel cried out, fire burning in his eyes and across the backs of his palms.

"Come on, you brats!" Jenos shouted. "We promise to make it quick and incredibly painful!" Olette watched them round the corner and disappear, her confusion growing.

"What just happened here?" Olette asked the empty hall in a confused tone.

She exited the medical bay and made her way up into the _Equus_' bridge. Xanthos was slumped over on one of the dozen or so consoles occupying most of the space in the room. Olette walked over to him and sat down in one of the chairs bolted to the floor at a nearby station.

"I don't know who I'm going to kill first; those two morons who decided to open up a pair of flour barrels by cutting them or your friends who decided to hide in said barrels," Xanthos said after several minutes of silence.

"If it was Hayner's idea, then can I kill him?" Olette suggested with a small smile. Xanthos forced himself up and rotated his chair so he was facing his Apprentice.

"I take it the Destati was successful?" He asked. Olette smirked and summoned Aubade to her hand. Xanthos beamed proudly at her.

"Now we can finally start your training," he said. Olette grinned, blinked once and Xanthos was gone. Olette quickly looked around for him but the bridge was empty. Without warning, Olette felt the Aubade kicked from her hand as a bright, glowing blue ethereal blade was pressed against her throat. "And I'm not going to make it easy on you." The blade vanished and Olette spun to face her Master. Xanthos grinned and took a drink from a bottle now clutched in his hand that was filled with an amber liquid. "I think I'm going to enjoy this." Olette stared at the bottle in her Master's hand.

"Are you drunk?" She asked. Xanthos grinned and took another swig.

"Just a tad."

_LD_

_Cliffs Surrounding Atlantis_

The five warriors lowered their spears on the survivors of the convoy. Riku and Keila exchanged a nervous glance. Neither of them had been expecting to fight something that had weapons. Heartless, maybe, but not intelligent creatures.

"Holy cats! Who are these guys?" Rourke said, slowly reaching around for his pistol so as not to startle the warriors.

"They gotta be Atlanteans," Milo said excitedly.

"What?" Keila said with a shake of her head. "That's impossible."

"I seen this back in the Dakota," Cookie said quietly in a serious tone. "They can smell fear just by lookin' at ya. So keep quiet." The centermost warrior straightened up and spoke with a strong, female voice in its strange language.

"I think it's talking to you," Mole said, tugging at Milo's arm. The female spoke again, repeating the final portion of what she had said. Milo nodded and stepped forward, awkwardly trying to speak the language, only succeeding in repeating what she had said. The woman removed her mask and posed what sounded like a question to Milo. Milo massaged his temples as he slowly translated his speech into Atlantean. The woman asked him another question.

"Ita, sum amice viator," Milo said with a smile. Riku immediately recognized the words as Latin, silently being grateful that he had taken Latin courses in middle school. The woman looked taken aback.

"Dices lunguam Romae," she said, clearly impressed.

"Parlez-vous francais?" Milo asked. The woman smiled.

"Oui, monsieur!" She said eagerly. At that, Mole forced his way to the forefront of the group.

"They speak my language!" He said excitedly. "Pardon, mademoiselle?" The woman knelt down next to him. "Ah, voulez-vous…" His voice trailed off as he whispered into the woman's ear. She made an offended expression and punched Mole in his face, knocking him back several feet.

"I like her," Sweet said, giving the woman a round of applause.

"Hmm. 'Bout time someone hit him," Audrey said with a grin. "I'm just sorry it wasn't me." The woman nodded to the other warriors and they all laid down their weapons and removed their masks to greet the adventurers. Each of them had white hair and blue tattoo markings on their bodies as well as a pale blue crystal hanging from their necks.

"Buenos dias."

"Guten tag!"

"How do they know all these languages?" Riku asked as he and Keila dispelled their Keyblades.

"Their language must be based on a root dialect," Milo theorized. "It's just like the Tower of Babel."

"What's the Tower of Babel?" Keila asked, but Milo didn't seem to hear her. Rourke placed a hand on the linguist's shoulder.

"Well," he said thoughtfully, "maybe English is in there somewhere." He shoved his way past Milo and Riku to address the woman Milo had been speaking to in Atlantean. "We are explorers from the surface world. We come in peace." Riku rolled his eyes.

_Take us to your leader and hand over a few herds of cattle for us to experiment on with our laser beams._ He said to himself in a sarcastic tone.

"Welcome to the city of Atlantis," the woman announced with a huge smile. She grabbed Milo by his wrist and dragged him along after her. "Come. You must speak with my father now."

"Squad B, head back to shaft and salvage what you can," Rourke ordered. "We'll rendezvous in twenty-four hours."

The woman led the group over a long, rickety old rope bridge, past the partially submerged ruins of the city's outskirts and through the winding streets to a large temple at the city's highest point. The entire time, Milo felt the need to explain to Rourke and Helga all about how to translate the Atlantean language.

"Someone's having a good time," Helga noted to Rourke, who simply smirked at her.

"Like a kid at Christmas," he agreed.

"Commander, there were not supposed to be people down here," Helga continued, dropping her voice so Milo wouldn't hear her. "This changes everything." Rourke glared at her before turning his attention back on the native woman leading them through the city.

"This changes nothing," he said.

A pair of guards opened a set of intricately carved double doors to the temple's interior. Riku, Keila and Milo all gaped as they entered. Most of the room was filled with a small pond decorated with water lilies and a set of strangely arranged stepping stones that led across the pond to a carved stone throne set in front of a broken statue. Colorful fruits were piled next to the throne and a small, yet breathtaking canopy covered the seat. An old man, dressed in regal blue and white robes sat on the throne. The king of the once proud Atlantis. He had a long white beard and eyes that were completely white with age. His balding head was tattooed with angular blue lines.

The woman approached her father, the king and knelt before him, speaking to him in Atlantean. Milo and Riku did the same while Rourke, Helga and Keila felt content to remain on their feet. The woman and her father exchanged words for a few moments and judging by the man's tone, he was not happy that the woman had led them into the city. Milo stealthily pulled out a journal and began transcribing what the two were saying onto the paper.

"Your Majesty," Rourke said, stepping forward after the woman and the king had finished their conversation, "on behalf of my crew, may I say it is an honor to be welcomed to your city." He bowed to the king. Milo quietly cleared his throat and attempted to stop Rourke as he approached the throne.

"You presume much to think you are welcome here," the King said in his aged and rasped voice.

"Oh, sir," Rourke said in a determinedly calm tone. "We have come a long way looking for-"

"I know what you seek," the king said, abruptly cutting the commander off. "And you will not find it here." Rourke's smile vanished. "Your journey has been in vain."

"But we are peaceful explorers," Rourke said reassuringly. "Men of science." The king chuckled.

"And yet, you bring weapons. Both your own," he stared at Rourke's pistol, "and those that brought about the great war across many worlds." He stared at Riku and Keila. Riku raised his eyebrows in surprise.

_Looks like the Keyblade War found its way here too._

"Our weapons allow us to remove _obstacles_ we may encounter," Rourke explained, placing heavy emphasis on 'obstacles'.

"Some obstacles cannot be removed with a mere show of force," the king said. "Return to your people." He slowly stood up, clutching to a tall walking staff for support as he stared at Riku. "And your own world. You must leave Atlantis at once."

"Your Majesty, be reasonable," Rourke said with a smile. Milo tapped Rourke on the shoulder in an attempt to gain the commander's attention. He brushed him off. "Not now, son."

"Trust me on this," Milo whispered, "We better do as he says." Rourke considered that for a moment before looking up at the king again.

"May I respectfully request that we stay one night, sir?" He asked. "That would give us time to rest, resupply and be ready to travel by morning." The king sighed.

"Very well," he said. "One night. That is all." Rourke and the others bowed to the king.

"Well, thank you, your Majesty," Rourke said with a large smile playing on his face as the group exited the room, leaving the king and his daughter behind.

"So how'd it go?" Sweet asked as Riku and the others exited the temple. Rourke brushed past the doctor without a glance, his face displaying his irritated mood. Milo flipped open his journal to where he had translated the king's conversation with his daughter.

"Well, the king and his daughter don't exactly see eye to eye," Milo explained. "She seems to like us okay, but the king… I don't know. I think he's hiding something."

"Well, if he's hiding something I want to know what it is," Rourke said.

"Someone needs to talk to that girl," Helga suggested.

"I will go!" Mole said eagerly.

"Someone with good people skills," Vinnie agreed.

"I will do it!" Mole insisted.

"Someone who won't scare her away," Sweet continued the train of thought.

"I volunteer!" Mole said.

"Someone who can speak the language," Riku said.

"For the good of the mission, I will go!" Mole proclaimed.

"Good man, Thatch," Rourke said. "Thanks for volunteering." Milo looked up in surprise as Mole burst into a round of comical tears.

"Go get 'em, tiger," Audrey said, nudging Milo on his shoulder as Keila and Riku walked off.

"So what should we do?" Keila asked Riku as the two of them descended a large staircase into the heart of the city.

"I vote for sightseeing," Dawn's voice said suddenly, startling both Riku and Keila. "How often do you get the chance to explore a city known across countless worlds that no one else has been able to find?"

"She's got a point," Keila said, intertwining her arm around Riku's and dragging him after her. "Come on, Silver! Let's go do some sightseeing.

The pair of them spent the next few hours wandering the city like a tourist would. Perhaps not quite the same as normal tourists anyway. They frequently ran into groups of Heartless as the creatures of Darkness appeared and inflicted terror on the citizens of Atlantis. Riku had to admit, he was disappointed with the different 'breeds' of Heartless that kept appearing; just a few Shadows and Hook Bats, nothing more than the weaklings. Whenever they weren't battling the forces of Darkness, Keila insisted on taking countless pictures with Riku's camera, despite his pleading for her to conserve the battery life and the memory card space.

Riku had to admit, despite the fact that the city's true beauty was marred by the crumbling architecture, the mere sight of the artwork partially concealed by the vines, the thriving plants and foliage, and the disturbingly odd looking shellfish, the reverent beauty held by the ancient city was more than enough.

Every now and again, they would run across a few members of the expedition. Milo was being given a grand tour of the city by the King's daughter, who they had learned was named Kida, which was apparently short for Kidagakash. They ran into Audrey and Cookie at a tattoo stand where Cookie showed off his tattoo of all thirty-eight United States and his ability to make Rhode Island dance just by slapping his stomach, a sight Riku, Keila and Audrey could've lived the rest of their lives without seeing. Aside from the brief moments like that, the day ended up being pretty much uneventful until the evening rolled around.

Keila froze in place as she and Riku rounded a corner into a deserted square after leaving from a lavish dinner at the home of one of Kida's friends. A woman who appeared to be in her early twenties with mocha colored skin, raven colored hair and blood-red eyes was glaring at them. Each of her ears were pierced, the earrings shaped like a pair of crossed Kingdom Key Keyblades. She was dressed in the same black cloak that the former members of Organization XIII used to wear. Her heeled boots tapped a steady, impatient beat on the ground.

"Mother," Keila whispered breathlessly, her voice heavy with fear. Riku glanced at her and back up at the woman in shock.

_This is Keila's mother?_ The woman smiled emotionlessly at the pair and bowed slightly to Riku.

"Greetings, Master Riku," she said. "I am Master Cynthia. I do wish we could have met under more… civil circumstances, but oh well." She turned the full intensity of her glare onto Keila, who by now had shifted herself so she was half hidden behind Riku. "Keila! Were you not supposed to kill him? Why does he still breathe?"

"Mother, I-" Keila began, her voice shaking from nervousness. Riku turned his head to stare at her. In the short time that he had known Keila, he had never seen her more terrified than she did at that exact moment.

"I don't want to hear your excuses, you pathetic excuse for a daughter," Cynthia snapped. "You were told to kill Master Riku here, not just by me, but by Maleficent and by my Master as well. Are you really going to defy all three of us?" Riku glared back at the woman.

"That's a bit much, don't you think?" He asked as the Way to Dawn flashed into his hand. He was really getting tired of people wanting him dead, occupational hazard or not. "If you want me dead so badly, then how about you kill me yourself?" With a roar, he charged towards Cynthia. The woman smiled coldly and held out her palm towards Riku. A column of pale red crystal burst from the ground, tossing Riku thirty feet into the air. The silver-haired teen let out a grunt of pain and twisted himself so that he landed on his feet.

"You're nothing compared to me, child," Cynthia said. "I survived the Keyblade War. Do you really think you can stop me?" Riku let out a low growl of irritation. He crouched down low and pounced towards Cynthia. The woman grinned and easily sidestepped his attack. Golden light encompassed Riku's Keyblade, accompanied by the roar of an engine starting to life as Riku activated the Sunblade. Cynthia let out a sigh.

"Kids these days," she said. She snapped her fingers, and a pillar of orange crystal formed around Riku, trapping him in place. Riku struggled as best he could, but he couldn't move in the crystal. Even worse, he could feel his strength and energy slowly being drained.

_What's going on?_ He asked himself. _Why am I getting weaker?_

"Mother, please stop!" Keila pleaded. "Please! He's the only friend I've ever had." Riku glanced over at Keila in surprise.

_She thinks of me as a friend?_ His glare hardened beneath the crystal. _Good. Because I feel the same way. And I'll be damned if I let anything happen to a friend of mine._

"Now, as much as I would like to kill you myself, I can't," Cynthia said as she turned to face Keila. "You see, shortly before I was frozen in time to await the moment fate would release me, my original Master placed a curse on me, sealing away the majority of my powers and making it so I can't kill another living thing, no matter how hard I try. So I guess since Keila isn't willing to kill you, you get to live for now. Enjoy what little bit of your life you have left."

"Riku!" Keila cried out. Her Inverse Kingdom Key appeared in her hand as she dashed towards the prison of crystal containing Riku. Cynthia lashed out at Keila, who let out a scream of pain as Cynthia's fist struck her in the stomach and sent her sprawling across the ground.

"You're coming home, Keila," Cynthia said. She grabbed Keila by her forearm and twisted it behind the teen's back as she was hoisted to her feet. Riku winced as he heard the distinct cracking of a shoulder being dislocated. Cynthia smirked up at Riku.

"You do realize that if you had just died, Keila wouldn't have to be punished, right?" She said snidely as a portal of Darkness formed directly behind her. "It's really your fault. Oh well. It certainly was a pleasure meeting you, little boy." With a sinister laugh, Cynthia dragged Keila into the portal, Riku frozen in place, powerless to do anything but watch as Keila pleaded with her eyes for him to help her.

The instant the portal vanished, the crystal trapping Riku turned to dust and vanished. Riku collapsed to his knees, the Way to Dawn vanishing from his grip as he slammed his fist into the ground out of anger.

"Riku…" Dawn said softly from his side. "I'm sorry."

"I couldn't do anything," Riku said. "I'm weak. All I could do was stand by and watch as my friend was taken right in front of me. I couldn't help her. If I can't help one person, how can I help anyone else?"

_You need my power…_ The voice of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness echoed inside Riku's mind.

_Go to hell. I don't need you. I'll never be that weak._

_Ha ha. Don't be so naïve. You needed me once, and you'll need me again. Just give it time._

_I'll give it forever. I'll never need you again._

_So you say…_

Riku growled.

"We'll find her," Dawn said determinedly. Riku glanced down at his belt in surprise.

"Say what?" He asked, unsure if he had heard her right.

"Hey, just because I've been quiet doesn't mean I haven't been listening to you two for the past few days," Dawn huffed. "It's obvious she suffers a lot of abuse from that Cynthia woman, probably a lot more than she's letting on. One advantage to being a smart AI is that I have a sense of right and wrong. No one should ever have to suffer through abuse. So, when we leave this world, let's go find her and rescue her. Then we can go explore that anomaly we discovered." Riku smirked.

"You didn't forget about that?" He asked the AI as he massaged his now throbbing knuckles.

"Of course not," Dawn said cheerily. There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them. "You're the one that forgot, weren't you?" Riku chuckled nervously.

"Sorry, I just caught up with finding Atlantis," he said guiltily.

"And staring down Keila's shirt every chance you get," Dawn added in slyly.

"How did you know that?" Riku asked as his cheeks turned a shade of red that would put Kairi's hair to shame.

"I just guessed," Dawn said with a laugh. "But thanks for confirming it for me." Riku sighed, trying to ignore the fact that his cheeks were burning red and got to his feet.

"Whatever. We need to find Milo, hopefully he knows where the 'Heart of Atlantis' is by now," Riku said, glancing around just to make sure the Heart wasn't hiding in plain sight. "I'm pretty sure that's where the Keyhole is. Once we get that sealed away, we can high-tail it out of here and go rescue Keila."

"Sounds like a plan," Dawn said. "I think Sweet mentioned something to Vinnie about seeing Milo and Kida down by the waterside when we left dinner earlier, let's go check it out." Riku nodded and headed off.

_LD_

Riku paced back and forth along the tiny edge of the tiny pond where he had managed to catch a glimpse of Milo and Kida diving into it. So far, they had yet to come back up for air which led him to the conclusion that they were stopping whatever they were doing to catch their breath in an air pocket somewhere.

"Milo's been down there a long time," Riku muttered. "It's been what, thirty minutes now?"

"Then it looks like we found the right place," Rourke's voice said from behind Riku. Riku spun around and was greeted with blow to the head from a rifle stock. Riku crumpled to the ground with a groan. "Thanks for helping us find Thatch." Rourke said with a chuckle as he knelt down next to the fallen Keyblade Master. Riku massaged his head, feeling the faint trickle of blood seep down his neck from the blow and looked up to find the survivors of the voyage all standing around the pond's edge wielding guns of varying sizes. Among their ranks stood several Neoshadows accompanied by a pair of Crimson Jazz hovering in the air.

"I'd invite you to join our team but I have a gut feeling that you'll refuse me now that the Heartless are on my side," Rourke continued. Riku spat on his face, which earned him another blow to the head, this time from Rourke's fist. He rolled his head with the punch and spat some blood out of his mouth. "What happened to your lady friend?"

"Is that all you've got old man?" Riku said weakly. Helga struck him on the back of his head with the side of her pistol stunning him.

"Looks like she ran off. Such a shame. She would've made a nice addition to the team." He turned to one of his faceless soldiers wearing a gas mask. "Bind his hands, we don't need him summoning his Keyblade. Our little friend Thatch should be back any minute now. Let's be sure to give him a warm welcome."

Riku stared at the pond as one of the masked soldiers clasped iron cuffs tightly around his wrists, binding his hands behind his back. The group watched the still water for several more minutes before Milo finally burst from the water, gasping for breath as he waded to the stone-hewn shoreline.

"You have a nice swim?" Rourke asked the linguist in a casual tone as he sat down on the water's edge. Milo quickly assessed the situation with a brief glance at the group.

"Hey, guys," he said apprehensively. "What's going on? Why's Riku bleeding? What's- what's with all the guns? Why are there Heartless here? Guys?" Milo let out a sigh and slammed his fist against the stone he supported himself on. "I'm such an idiot. This is just another treasure hunt for you. You're after the crystal."

"Oh, you mean this," Rourke said. He pulled a worn piece of paper from his boot and dangled it in front of Milo, whose eyes widened in shock.

"The Heart of Atlantis," Milo said in quiet realization, staring up at the missing page from the _Shepherd's Journal_.

"Yeah, about that," Rourke began, "I mean, I would've told you sooner but it was strictly on a need-to-know basis and, well, now you know. I had to be sure you were one of us." Rourke slid his pistol back into its holster and extended his hand towards Milo with a grin. "Welcome to the club, son." Milo backed away from Rourke's offered hand.

"I'm no mercenary," he spat with a shake of his head.

"You tell him, Milo," Riku said weakly, wincing in pain as another rifle stock struck him in the head. "Hey now, if I get brain damage because of you morons, I'll tear your hearts out." The Heartless all turned to look at him as he said 'heart'. "Okay, that's a little creepy."

Kida emerged near one of the other edges of the pond and was yanked from the water by her hair in the claws of a Neoshadow. Milo began to move towards her but was stopped by the appearance of three rifle barrels aimed at his face. Kida however, proved to be too much for the Heartless. She grabbed it by its antennae and threw it over her shoulder and into the water. A pair of Rourke's masked soldiers charged her. Kida kneed the first one in the fork of his legs and used his rifle to bash in the mask of his partner, rendering him unconscious. She forced the first one to the ground and drew a slender dagger from her hip and raised it, poised to stab the soldier in his throat.

A single gunshot rang out and the bullet's velocity tore the knife from Kida's hand, knocking it into the foliage and surprising the Atlantean princess. Rourke glared at her, hefting his now smoking pistol as a pair of Neoshadows gripped Kida by her arms and pulled her off of the soldier she had pinned to the ground.

"Mercenary?" Rourke asked as he turned towards Milo waving the page from the _Journal_ at the physically inferior linguist. "I prefer the term 'adventure capitalist'. Besides, you're the one who got us here. You led us right to the treasure chest."

"You don't know what you're tampering with, Rourke," Milo growled as he climbed from the water, revealing him to be dressed in only his underwear.

"What's to know?" The commander asked. "It's big, it's shiny, it's going to make us all rich."

"You think it's some kind of a diamond. I thought it was some kind of a battery," Milo said angrily, glaring up at Rourke. "But we're both wrong. It's their life force. That crystal is the only thing keeping these people alive. You take that away and they'll die!" Rourke turned towards Helga.

"Hmm. Well, that changes things," he murmured as he passed the missing page to his lieutenant. "Helga, what do you think?"

"Knowing that, I'd double the price," she said with a grin as she passed the page back to Rourke.

"I was thinking triple," he said cheerily. Milo attempted to move closer to Rourke but found his way barred by Vinnie and his rifle.

"Rourke, don't do this," he pleaded. Desperation was starting to show on the man's face. Rourke waved his hand dismissively at Milo.

"Academics," he said as he tucked the missing page into his pants and turned to stare at Milo. "You never want to get your hands dirty. Think about it. If you gave back every stolen artifact from a museum you'd be left with an empty building. We're just… providing a necessary service to the archeological community."

"Not interested," Milo insisted. Rourke sighed.

"I gotta admit, I'm disappointed," he said. "You're an idealist, just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favor, Milo. Don't be like him. For once, do the smart thing." He waited for Milo to respond and was only met with the scholar's glare. Rourke let out another sigh. "I really hate it when negotiations go sour." He snapped his fingers and the Neoshadows restraining Kida threw her to the ground. Seven more Neoshadows rose from the ground and surrounded her, long black claws poised for the kill. Rourke dangled the missing page in front of Milo's nose.

"Let's try this again."

_LD_

_Monday, June 14__th__ 4794 P.C._

Dawn had barely begun in the city when an explosion shook the throne room in the city's largest temple as the massive double doors were blown open. Standing in the newly formed entrance were the members of the expedition, several Neoshadows, Riku and Kida. Vinnie casually tossed a stick of dynamite up and down in his hand.

"Knock, knock," he said.

"Room service!" Cookie added, cocking his double-barreled shotgun and staring down its sight into the room. The king's two guards gripped their spears. Both looked as if they would've rushed the outsiders without a second's hesitation had Kida not been held tightly in Helga's grip with the lieutenant's pistol jammed into her back.

"Tell them to drop their weapons," Helga ordered, pressing the pistol's barrel deeper into Kida's bare flesh. "Now!" The king of Atlantis said something in his native tongue and the room echoed with the clatter of spears falling to the ground as the guards disarmed themselves and backed away from the doors.

"Spread out! Search everywhere!" Helga ordered. The members of the expedition and the Heartless ransacked the throne room, tearing cloths, shattering pots and vases. Riku winced with every sound. So much damage to priceless artifacts.

"You're not applying yourself, son," Rourke growled at Milo, smacking the linguist on his chin with the _Shepherd's Journal_ before shoving it into Milo's hands. "There's gotta be something else."

Well, there isn't!" Milo retorted. "It just says 'the Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king.'" Rourke tossed Milo aside and moved swiftly across the room to stand in front of the aged king.

"Well, then maybe Old King Cole here can help us fill in the blanks," Rourke said impatiently. "How about it, chief? Where's the crystal chamber?" A pair of Neoshadows flanked the king, blocking off his only hope for escape.

"You will destroy yourselves," the king said.

"Maybe I'm not being clear," Rourke said. His hand balled into a fist and he struck the king in his stomach as hard as he could. The king collapsed to the ground as Kida cursed at Rourke in Atlantean.

"You're a grade-A cockbite, Rourke. You know that?" Riku shouted from the doorway where he was still bound and guarded by two of Rourke's soldiers.

"Save it for someone who gives a damn, kid," Rourke retorted. "Get used to it."

"Rourke, this was not a part of the plan," Sweet said as he rushed over to attend to the king. He had taken the Hippocratic Oath. He was a doctor first, nothing else.

"Plan's changed, Doc," Rourke said as he set himself down on the throne, kicking aside a bowl of fruit to raise his feet. "I'd suggest you put a bandage on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary. Well, as usual, diplomacy has failed us." He briefly eyed the pistol in his hand before looking back down at the king as the Neoshadows hoisted the aged man to his knees. "Now I'm going to count to ten and you're going to tell me where the crystal is. One." He cocked his gun and the king bowed his head in defeat. "Two." He aimed the gun at the king's head. "Nine. Te-" Rourke's countdown stopped as he stared past the king at the pattern formed by the stepping stones on the pool that filled the majority of the room. They were arranged in the same pattern as the symbol on the front of the _Shepherd's Journal_.

"'The heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king'. This is it," he said excitedly, glancing from the _Journal_ to the pool. "We're in!" Rourke got to his feet and waded into the pool, tossing the _Journal_ to Milo, who waded in after him.

"Rourke, for the last time, you've gotta listen to me," Milo pleaded. "You don't have the slightest idea what this power is capable of."

"True," Helga said as she pushed Kida into the water after Rourke and Milo. "But I can think of a few countries who'd pay anything to find out."

"What is it with bad guys and money?" Riku mumbled as Rourke dragged Milo onto a platform that was slowly lowering itself beneath the pool. The pair of them vanished along with Helga and Kida. An apprehensive silence filled the room for several long minutes as they waited for the four to come back up. When they finally did, something seemed off. Riku felt a great Light rising from the hidden chamber along with the four, a Light that vaguely reminded him of a Princess of Heart's Light. A Light untainted by darkness.

Everyone stared at the four in awe. Rourke and Helga looked triumphant. Milo wore a defeated expression. Kida's entire body had turned into a glowing blue crystal. Rourke and Helga led Kida towards the exit, the others following their lead. All except for Sweet, who chose to remain by the king's side and provide him with medical attention.

"Bring him," Rourke growled to his soldiers as he passed Riku. The soldiers dragged Riku to his feet and led him along with the others to the rope bridge where a trio of trucks awaited them. Kida was marched into an iron container with a small viewport on one side to keep an eye on the contents. Several Atlantean citizens approached the group, curious at what was happening. They were kept at bay by the surface dwellers firearms as Rourke's men stood guard alongside twenty Neoshadows.

"So," Milo said as he and Riku were forced back to stand with the Atlanteans. "I guess this is how it ends, huh? Fine, you win. You're wiping out an entire civilization. But, hey, you'll be rich." Riku gently massaged his throbbing head as one of the soldiers undid his cuffs. "Congratulations, Audrey. Guess you and your dad will be able to open that second garage after all." The chief mechanic refused to turn and look at him as she climbed into the driver's seat of one of the trucks.

"And Vinnie," Milo continued, causing the demolitions expert to pause in his duty of securing the container to the bed of one of the trucks. "You can start a whole chain of flower shops. I'm sure your family's going to be very proud." Vinnie sighed and turned his gaze away. "But that's what it's all about, right? Money."

"Get off your soapbox, Thatch," Rourke said, stepping out of one of the trucks to walk over to the linguist. "You've read Darwin. It's called natural selection. We're just helping it along." Milo and Riku glared up at him.

"Commander, we're ready!" Helga announced.

"Yeah, give me a minute," Rourke called. "I know I'm forgetting something. I got the cargo, the crystal, the crew… oh, yeah." Rourke spun and punched Milo in the face, knocking the scholar on his rear. Milo's glasses flew off of his face and a framed picture of Milo and his grandfather, Thaddeus Thatch, fell out of Milo's bag.

"Look at it this way, son," Rourke said with a sense of superiority. He caught Milo's glasses in his hand and walked over to the linguist, crushing the glass of the photo beneath his foot. "You were the man who discovered Atlantis, and now you're part of the exhibit." He tossed Milo his glasses as the linguist wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth. "Let's move people." Audrey and the others glanced back sadly at Milo as he pulled the photo from the shattered frame.

"That was an order, not a suggestion!" Helga barked. "Let's go!" Audrey let out a sigh and stormed away from the trucks to help Milo to his feet, fully aware of the eyes of her fellow crew members on her as she did so. Vinnie followed her lead, abandoning his post to place his arms around Milo in support of his friend. Cookie, Mole and Mrs. Packard all followed suit. Packard pausing long enough to take one final draft from her cigarette before flicking it to the ground.

"We're all gonna die," she said, following the others.

"Oh, you can't be serious," Rourke said, noticing the group gathering around Milo in his rearview mirror.

"This is wrong and you know it!" Audrey shouted.

"We're this close to our biggest payday ever and you pick now of all times to grow a conscience?" Rourke asked in disbelief.

"We've done a lot of things we're not proud of," Vinnie said as he began to list them off on his fingers. "Robbing graves, plundering tombs, double parking, but nobody got hurt. Well, maybe somebody got hurt, but nobody we knew."

"Well, if that's the way you want it, fine," Rourke growled, waving his hand dismissively at his former crew members. "More for me. P.T. Barnum was right." He climbed into one of the trucks and started it up. The group was forced to stand and watch as Rourke and Helga drove off with Kida. "Hope the Heartless don't give you too much trouble!" The Neoshadows quickly converged on the group, claws bared and ready for a fight, a fight they never got as the Way to Dawn cut them down in an instant.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Riku said with a cold grin. As the trucks drew further away, the water falls on the edge of the city ceased to flow and the light's in the crystals around the necks of every Atlantean grew slowly dimmer.

"We can't let him do this!" Milo shouted as the trucks reached the cliffs on the other side of the bridge. He ran towards the bridge, determined to give chase on foot but was stopped as Vinnie grabbed his arm.

"Wait a second," the demolitions expert said. Across, the bridge, Rourke grinned and hit a switch. Three explosions blasted the bridge apart, isolating Atlantis and sending wood fragments falling into the lava river below. "Okay, now you can go."

"Well, that's just fantastic," Riku grumbled.

"Milo! Riku!" Sweet's voice called out from the king's temple. "You better get up here!" Milo and Riku rushed up to the temple, where Sweet knelt at the injured king's bedside.

"How's he doing?" Milo asked as he crossed the pool. Sweet sighed and removed the earpieces from his stethoscope.

"Not good, I'm afraid," he said sadly. "Internal bleeding. There's nothing more I can do."

"What a nightmare," Milo said, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm. "And I brought it here."

"Nah, don't go beating yourself up," Sweet said in an attempt to console his friend. "He's been after that crystal since Iceland." Milo's eyes wandered to the dimly lit crystal hanging from the king's neck.

"The crystal," He repeated slowly. His eyes lit up with sudden revelation. "Sweet, that's it." Milo's hand darted out and cupped the crystal in his palm. "These- these crystals, they have some sort of healing energy. I've seen it work." The king's hand suddenly clutched onto Milo's startling the man.

"No," the king rasped. "Where is my daughter?"

"Well, she- she…" Milo trailed off, trying to find the right words to tell the man that his daughter had turned into a living crystal being.

"She has been chosen," the king said sadly, "like her mother before her."

"What?"

"In times of danger, the crystal will choose a host, one of Royal blood to protect itself and its people," the king explained. "It will accept no other."

"Wait a minute," Riku said. "Choose? So this thing is alive?"

"In a way," the king said weakly. "The crystal thrives on the collective emotions of all who came before us. In return, it provides power, longevity, protection. As it grew, it developed a consciousness of its own. In my arrogance, I sought to use it as a weapon of war, but its power proved too great to control. It overwhelmed us, and led to our destruction."

"That's why you hid it beneath the city," Milo realized. "To keep history from repeating itself."

"And to prevent Kida from suffering the same fate as my beloved wife," the king admitted as he shifted painfully.

"What do you mean?" Milo asked, watching the old man with worry etched on his face. "What's going to happen to Kida?"

"If she remains bonded to the crystal, she could be lost to it… forever," the king said gravely. "The love of my daughter is all I have left. My burden would have become hers when the time was right. But now, it falls to you." The king removed the crystal from his neck and placed it in Milo's hands.

"Me?" Milo asked for clarification. The king gripped Milo's hand tightly.

"Return the crystal," he said weakly. "Save Atlantis. Save my daughter." His grip slackened and he laid back against his pillows as he was embraced with the arms of eternal rest. Riku bowed his head in honor of the departed. Sweet let out a low sigh and closed his medical bag.

"So, what's it going to be?" He asked Milo as he stood up and turned to face the linguist.

"Excuse me?" Milo asked in confusion.

"I followed you in, and I'll follow you out," Sweet said in elaboration. "It's your decision.

"Count me in on that," Riku added.

"Oh, my decision," Milo said with a hint of sarcasm, his voice steadily rising. "Well I think we have seen how effective my decisions have been. Let's recap. I lead a band of plundering vandals to the greatest archaeological find in recorded history, thus enabling the kidnap and/or murder of the royal family. Not to mention personally delivering the most powerful force known to man into the hands of a mercenary nutcase, who's probably going to sell it to the Kaiser! Have I left anything out?"

"Well, you did set the camp on fire and drop us down that big hole," Sweet pointed out.

"Thank you!" Milo said sarcastically. "Thank you very much." His face fell and he hung his head as he turned away from the throne. Sweet bent down and picked up the dropped copy of the _Shepherd's Journal_, brushing a small amount of dirt off of the aged cover.

"Of course, it's been my experience, when you hit bottom, the only place left to go is up," he said as he passed the _Journal_ to Milo.

"Who told you that?" Milo asked with a snort.

"A fellow by the name of Thaddeus Thatch," Sweet replied. Milo looked up at him for a moment before glancing down at the dimly glowing crystal in his hands. A look of determination crossed his face as he strode out of the throne room with an air of renewed purpose, closely followed by Sweet and Riku. The members of the expedition that had remained behind watched as Milo marched past.

"Where are you going?" Audrey asked.

"I'm going after Rourke," the linguist said in response.

"Milo, that's crazy!" Audrey said.

"I didn't say it was the smart thing," Milo said. "But it is the right thing." He vanished into the early morning mist.

"Come on," Audrey said to the others with a sigh. "We'd better make sure he doesn't hurt himself." They followed Milo to a slightly secluded area away from the prying eyes of the Atlantean citizens. Milo climbed onto the back of what appeared to be the carving of a large fish with an open gaping mouth.

"Milo, what do you think you're you doing?" Riku asked.

"Just follow my lead," Milo replied. He took the crystal in his hand and inserted it into a tiny slot. There was a pulse of blue energy and the fish carving floated off of the ground as its eyes and mouth began to glow blue.

"It's a vehicle?" Riku asked. Milo nodded.

"Wow, I'm impressed," Packard said in her usual monotone voice as she took a drag from her cigarette.

"It's simple," Milo explained as Audrey climbed onto the carving to sit behind him. "All you've got to do is-"

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," Audrey said. "We get it okay?" She placed her hand on the glowing blue pad on top of the carving.

"No, no, wait!" Milo cried out. The fish lurched backwards, striking the stone behind it with a loud crash, attracting the attention of the nearest Atlantean warriors who quickly gathered to see what was going on. "Gently. Just gently!"

"Hey, Milo," Vinnie said as a pair of warriors approached the linguist. "You got something sporty? You know, like a tuna?"

"How is this done?" One of the warriors asked, glancing at the stone carving.

"All you gotta do is use the crystals," Milo explained as he slid off of the fish vehicle. "Kida showed me." He ran over to where a hammer-head shark shaped vehicle rested on the ground and inserted his crystal. "Half-turn right, quarter-turn back, keep your hand on the pad." The vehicle flared to life. The warriors gathered nearby all looked eagerly down at their crystals before rushing to try it for themselves.

"Saddle up, partners!" Cookie shouted as he climbed onto a massive tuna shaped vehicle. "Bring jerky and ammo!" In a matter of minutes, a small group of about twenty or so flying fish vehicles hovered in the middle of the clearing.

"All right, this is it!" Milo called out as Riku joined him on the hammer-head shaped craft. "We're going to rescue the princess! We're going to save Atlantis! Or we're going to die trying. Now let's do it!"

"Great plan," Riku said sarcastically. "I am filled with confidence."

The ancient Atlantean vehicles of war sped out across the lava filled chasm and into opening created by the digger towards the shaft of the volcano as the citizens of Atlantis cheered them on.

_LD_

Rourke stared triumphantly up at the ceiling of the volcano as the Cannon Gun Heartless finished blasting apart the blockage.

"I love it when I win," he said with a smile.

_LD_

"Okay, here's the plan," Milo shouted to his companions, "We're going to come in low and fast and take him by surprise."

"Well, I've got news for you, Milo," Audrey said from her seat beside Sweet in a hammerhead, "Rourke is never surprised and he's got a lot of guns."

"Great," Milo said sarcastically. "Well, do you have any suggestions?"

"Yeah!" Vinnie shouted. "Don't get shot!"

"Shot? Perhaps I should've waited for you back at Atlantis," Dawn's voice said to Riku. "I don't think I could handle being shot. It might damage some of my important systems." Riku chuckled.

"Too late now!" He said with a grin as they entered the shaft. A large red zeppelin comprised of one main pod surrounded by several smaller pods was slowly rising towards the now open ceiling. Secured at the bottom of the zeppelin was the container where Kida was imprisoned.

"There they are!" Milo shouted. Rourke turned around and spotted the craft headed towards them.

"We've got company!" He shouted. Rourke's men scattered and immediately opened fire on the incoming craft. Portals of Darkness opened up and a dozen or so Aeroplane Heartless flew out into the fray. The bright blue, single-winged Heartless aircraft fired their guns, bullets spraying off of the fish shaped vehicles. Riku leapt off of Milo's craft and plunged the Way to Dawn into a passing Aeroplane, splitting it in two as he dropped to the ground to take down the blue Cannon Guns. The Way to Dawn flashed sinisterly in the gloom as Riku hacked and sliced his way through Cannon Guns and Rourke's soldiers alike. Above him, one of the Atlantean craft exploded in a burst of blue energy as one of the remaining Cannon Guns shot it down.

"Holy smokes!" Milo shouted as a Cannon Guns attack narrowly missed him. "You told me he only had guns!"

"What I said was he's never surprised," Audrey retorted as she and Sweet swerved out of the way of an Aeroplane. One of Rourke's soldiers on the ground situated himself behind a machine gun turret and unleashed a burst of hot lead at Vinnie. The demolition's expert swerved to avoid the bullets and his hand pressed down on the glowing blue pad in front of him by accident. A bolt of bright blue energy flew from his fish's mouth and vaporized a pair of trucks and the last of Rourke's soldiers.

"Okay, now things are getting good," he said with a grin. Around him, the Atlanteans had figured out how to activate the energy weapons and were able to fight back against the Heartless. Riku cut down the last Cannon Gun and leapt into the air as an Aeroplane passed by. He grabbed onto the Heartless and hitched a ride further up the shaft. The Aeroplane turned its comically large head (adorned with pilots goggles and a yellow scarf) to look at Riku.

"Hi there," Riku said and he plunged the Way to Dawn into the Heartless' face. He leapt off of the Heartless as it exploded into a cloud of black mist accompanied by a crystalline heart. Riku landed on the back end of Sweet's and Audrey's hammerhead craft.

"Need a lift?" Sweet called back to him. Riku gave him a thumbs up.

"Vinnie! Head's up!" Milo called. "We can't let them reach the top of that shaft!" Vinnie nodded in agreement and joined Milo as the two of them made a beeline for the zeppelin. They were met with heavy resistance however as a fresh wave of Aeroplanes emerged from their portals. Milo let out a cry and spun his craft around to avoid being hit by the Heartless' bullets. A split second later, a beam of golden light cut down his pursuer as Audrey, Sweet and Riku sped by. Cookie wasn't even bothering with using the energy weapons, he was more than happy to fire off his shotgun as he flew past, whooping and hollering as one of the Aeroplanes crashed into the side of the shaft and exploded.

"Vinnie, new plan!" Milo called out to the demolitions expert as the man flew through a cloud of soot. "You and me, we're going to be decoys. Audrey, Sweet, Riku, fly up under that thing and cut her loose!"

"We're on it!" Sweet said, angling their hammerhead into a downwards dive so they could come up directly under the zeppelin without being noticed. Milo and Vinnie dodged the Heartless and drew the attention of Rourke and Helga. Rourke hefted a hand-held machine gun, carefully firing at the pair while attempting to avoid hitting any part of the craft as Helga fired her pistol as fast as she could. Below them and out of sight, Audrey hacked away at the chains with one of Sweet's surgical saws as Riku charged up the Sunblade.

"I thought you said this thing could cut through a femur in twenty-eight seconds!" Audrey shouted at Sweet as the Sunblade made contact with the chains.

"Less talk, more saw!" Sweet retorted. Rourke went to feed another belt of ammo into his machine gun when it was blown from his hand by an energy blast from Vinnie, who smiled and waved at him. Helga's pistol clicked empty and she tossed it over the side of the zeppelin. Rourke watched it fall and spotted Riku, Audrey and Sweet.

"Looks like somebody's working overtime," Rourke commented. Helga glanced down before pushing off a fuel canister from the zeppelins railing, sending it plummeting into an Atlantean as he flew close to the container and exploded. Sweet grabbed hold of Audrey and pulled her onto the hammerhead before flying away to a safe distance as Helga pushed more of the explosive canisters off. Riku shimmied his way up the chain and closer to the walkway that circled the zeppelin. High above them, Milo observed nervously.

"All right, Milo," he said to himself as he rubbed his hands together nervously. "This is it. Any last words? Yeah. I really wish I had a better idea than this!" He angled his craft downwards and kamikaze-ed it into one of the pods on the side of the main zeppelin. He leapt off at the last possible second and clutched onto the netting holding the pods together. Rourke watched as the pod deflated, reversing the zeppelin's ascent.

"We're losing altitude, lighten the load!" He ordered. Helga was already once step ahead of him, having thrown everything but the barrel in her hands off of the platform.

"That's it," she grunted as she tossed it over the edge. "Unless someone wants to jump.

"Ladies first," Rourke said as he grabbed Helga by her upper arms and tossed her over the edge. She let out a cry of shock and managed to grip onto the platform's edge before plummeting to her doom. She swung herself back onto the platform, the flats of her feet striking Rourke in his face and knocking him off balance.

"You said we were in this together!" She said angrily. Her foot lashed out again, striking Rourke twice."You promised me a percentage!" She spun around to kick him off of the zeppelin but was caught off guard as Rourke grabbed hold of her foot.

"Next time, get it in writing!" He snarled as he threw her off of the zeppelin once more. He watched as she missed death from the spinning blades helping to propel the zeppelin up into the air before calling out "Nothing personal!"

Milo took advantage of Rourke's distraction and swung down on a loose rope, knocking them both down to the smaller platform set right above the rotors. Rourke got to his feet and smirked at Milo.

"Well I have to hand it to you, you're a bigger pain in the neck than I would have ever thought possible!" He said with a tone of amused irritation

Milo got to his feet and attempted to punch Rourke, but the bigger man grabbed his fist within his hand, and punched Milo in the face with his own fist before kicking him into the railing. The force of the kick snapped the railing when Milo crashed into it, the pieces falling and jamming the rotor as Milo clung to the platform's edge for dear life.

"I consider myself an even-tempered man," Rourke continued. "It takes a lot to get under my skin, but congratulations. You just won the solid-gold kewpie doll." Milo struggled to reach the sturdy chains that supported the container before Rourke could finish him.

Several hundred feet below them, Helga rolled herself over on the bed of volcanic ash with a groan of pain. It felt as if a few of her ribs were broken, and judging by the blood on the ground around her legs, one of them had broken the skin as it snapped. Weakly, she pulled out her flare gun and aimed it up the shaft at the zeppelin.

"Nothing personal," she said venomously as she squeezed the trigger.

Milo winced in pain from the sounds of the hydrogen in the zeppelin exploded violently, shredding the fabric and bringing the whole thing hurtling back to the ground. He lost his grip and dropped to the top of the container as Rourke lowered himself down, now wielding an axe with a deranged look in his eyes.

"Tired, Mr. Thatch?" Rourke asked as he swung the axe at Milo's head. The scholar dropped down, barely dodging the blade. "Ah, that's a darn shame!" Rourke swung down again, and shattered the glass viewport. "'Cause I'm just getting warmed up!" Milo grabbed a piece of the broken glass, infused with the power of the crystal as Rourke grasped him by the throat and lifted him up. Before Rourke could deal the finishing blow, Milo sliced open the commander's arm with the shard of glass. Rourke cried out from the unexpected pain and dropped Milo, who quickly began to climb up the chains to put distance between him and Rourke.

Rourke glared up at the scholar before looking back down at his wound. To his horror, his entire arm had transformed into blue crystal. In a matter of seconds, his entire body had been transformed into a crystal statue. Milo breathed a sigh of relief

"Thank heaven," he sighed. Rourke's crystallized blue hand grasped the ring where Milo was and hoisted the completely crystallized body of the former human up to glare at Milo with inhuman yellow eyes.

"Yo! Rourke!" Milo and Rourke turned to look over in time to see Riku dive at them, plunging the Way to Dawn into Rourke's face. "That's for punching me!"

Rourke let out a shriek and exploded suddenly and violently into thousands of crystal shards that shredded through the chains holding the container, causing it to fall the few dozen feet to the ground, rolling until it came to a stop. The flaming zeppelin's remains slammed into the base of the volcano a split second later as Milo and Riku rolled out of the way. The earth beneath them began to shake violently.

"The volcano," Mole said, his voice hysterical with panic, "she awakes!"

"Hey," Vinnie said, hefting a lit stick of dynamite, "I had nothing to do with it."

"This here'd be a good place not to be," Cookie said as Vinnie extinguished the lit fuse.

"No wait," Milo said, "we've got to get her back or the whole city will die!" He scooped up some chains from the wrecked zeppelin and ran to the container.

"And if we don't get out of here _we'll_ die!" Audrey said as she helped Milo to secure the chains. Around them, vents of steaming hot gas broke out of glowing orange fissures that were forming in the ground.

"It's the only way to reverse this!" Milo argued. "Just do it." Audrey tossed the chains to Vinnie and Riku, who quickly secured them to their craft.

They took off as quickly as was possible, Vinnie's and Riku's crafts dragging the container behind them with Audrey and Milo on the tail of Vinnie's. They had only managed to travel about hundred feet when the chains snapped. Milo slid down the chain and ran back to the container, dragging the hook of the chain with him while avoiding the spurting bursts of lava that had replaced the gas. He wrapped the chain several times around the container before securing it to itself.

"Go!" He shouted as he gripped onto the container for dear life. The craft all took off at breakneck speed, Vinnie and Riku were barely able to keep Milo and the container ahead of a flowing river of molten rock that chased them through the tunnels. The burst out of the caves a split second before the river of lava burst out after them. The digger, which still remained parked by the cave entrance, was completely covered in the glowing orange river of doom before being knocked off into a bigger river of lava. The craft touched down on a large platform in the city, gently setting the container down.

"The fissure," Mole said pointing at the glowing orange cracks in the walls around Atlantis, "it is about to eject its pyroclastic fury!"

"Milo, Mole says the wall's going to blow!" Sweet rephrased.

"Move," Riku told Milo as the linguist attempted to force open the container. A beam of light shot from the tip of his Keyblade and lit up the container. The light grew stronger until it suddenly vanished, leaving the shattered remains of the container on the ground and the crystal figure of Kida standing on the platform. Beneath her feet, blue light filled the carved designs on the ground before spreading to cover the entire city. For a long moment, Atlantis glowed bright blue. The ground beneath Kida's feet cracked and shattered as ten massive stone masks, each carved in resemblance to the past kings of Atlantis rose. Kida rose with the masks and hovered high above the city. The masks spun around Kida, forming a halo of white and blue light that was almost too bright to look at.

A bolt of bright light shot from the halo and stuck what appeared to be a sunken ruin on the edge of the city. Several more beams of light flew out and struck several more rocks and ruins. At first, nothing happened, then the rocks and ruins shifted and rose from the water, revealing that they were instead statues, each one easily three hundred feet tall. The monoliths moved to stand at the edges of the cliff, unfazed by the projectiles of lava and stone. They clapped their hands together with a deep boom and as their hands pulled apart, bright, glowing blue shields of energy formed in front of each of them. Everyone watched in awe as the shields grew in size until they all joined as one, forming a dome of protective energy over the city.

The stone walls exploded outward and a sea of lava spilled out, completely covering the dome for several minutes. There was a bright flash of light and the lava solidified into black rock. Atlantis remained in near darkness for a few moments, lit only by the light of the crystal and the halo surrounding it. Then the ground shook as an energy pulse shattered the solid magma, sending it tumbling over the edges of the cliffs to the river of lava still flowing below. The shield faded and the waterfalls began to flow again with renewed vigor, breaking down the rocks and leaving the monoliths back at their original positions. Mist from the waterfalls sudden reemergence covered the city in a thin layer of cloud, concealing the crystal and halo of stone masks from view.

A narrow column of blue light broke through the thin cloud layer. Kida, her body returned to its natural form, drifted down inside of it. Milo rushed forwards and caught her in his arms before she could hit the ground. Another light caught Riku's gaze, he turned to see the Keyhole set into the back of one of the monolith's heads. Confident that no one was paying him any attention; Riku raised the Way to Dawn and aimed it at the distant Keyhole. A beam of light shot from the tip of his Keyblade and struck the Keyhole in its center. The Way to Dawn vanished in a thousand twinkling lights as the Keyhole, now sealed, vanished. Over in Milo's arms, Kida's eyes slowly began to open.

"Milo?" She asked weakly. They smiled at each other for moment. Kida glanced down at a silver bracelet in her hand. It was her bracelet she had been wearing the night Atlantis sank into the sea. The same bracelet her mother had accidentally taken from her as the crystal chose her. Kida squeezed the bracelet in her hand, her eyes squinted shut in an attempt to stop the tears from flowing. She threw her arms tightly around Milo's shoulders, embracing him in a hug that he was more than grateful to return. Riku tapped them on their shoulders after a few moments had passed and gestured to where there had once been water pooled on the city. The submerged sections of the city were mostly drained and for the first time in several millennia, the true beauty of Atlantis could be seen. Riku smiled as he saw Milo and Kida's hands intertwine out of the corner of his eye.

"It really is a beautiful city isn't it?" Dawn whispered in awe, as her visual sensors recorded as much of the city as she could see.

"Yeah," Riku said, patting her storage unit. "It is. And Sora's going to be so jealous the next time I see him."

"Oh, brother."

_LD_

_Tuesday, June 15__th__ 4794 P.C._

"Atlantis will honor your names forever," Kida said as she slipped an Atlantean crystal around the necks of everyone from the voyage. "I only wish there was more we could do for you."

"Uh, you know, thanks anyways," Vinnie said, glancing behind him at the massive narwhal shaped vehicle where several warriors were loading it with gold and jewels, "but I think we're good."

"They'll take you as far as the surface," Milo said with a chuckle.]

"We're really gonna miss you, Milo," Audrey said with a grin.

"Now, you're sure you want to stay?" Sweet asked him. "There's a hero's welcome waiting for the man who discovered Atlantis."

"Ah, I don't think the world needs another hero," Milo said, waving off the idea. "Besides, I hear there's an opening down here for an expert in Gibberish."

"You take good care of yourself, Milo Thatch," Sweet said proudly, holding out his hand to Milo.

"Yeah, you too, Sweet," Milo said with a grin as he took Sweets hand, only to be pulled into a bone-popping hug. "Sweet, before you go, could you…" Milo gestured at his neck.

"No problem," the doctor said. He grabbed Milo's head in both hands and twisted it from side to side, cracking the vertebrae in his neck.

"Thanks," Milo said, sounding relieved. Sweet chuckled.

"Oh, you're getting a bill."

"Can we go home now?" Mrs. Packard asked.

"Come on, y'all," Sweet called. "Let's get one last shot in front of the fish." The group all followed his orders and went to stand around the pile of treasure in front of the narwhal craft as one of the Atlantean warriors manned the camera. Dawn even activated the holo-projector built into her storage unit to project herself onto Riku's shoulder, effectively startling everyone until Riku explained all about her.

"Say 'Gochk'!" The cameraman said.

"Gochk!" The group all replied with massive grins.

_LD_

Riku smiled to himself as he set the framed picture on the console next to him alongside the Atlantean crystal he had received.

"Well, where should we start our search for our lost friend?" Dawn asked as Riku sat down in his chair.

"Take us to wherever's closest," he said. Dawn's image nodded and the _Dawn's First Light_ spun around a hundred and eighty degrees above the world before her engines roared to life and she vanished into the starlit horizon.

_Hang on, Keila. Your friend is on his way._

_LD_

_Cynthia's Manor, Unnamed World_

Keila cried out as Cynthia pulled the long, silver knife from her shoulder. Droplets of her blood struck the marble carved floor of Cynthia's personal chambers. The older woman stared down at her adopted daughter with a lack of compassion. Tiny streams of blood ran down Keila's right arm from the cuts Cynthia had dealt her. The word _Slut_ stared up at her from her shoulder, carved deeply into her flesh.

"I'm disappointed in you, Keila," Cynthia said as she wiped the blood off of her knife with a bleached white cloth. "I thought you had learned not to disobey me after the last time I punished you." Keila winced, still remembering the strike of the metal-tipped whip as it struck her back over and over again. "You had been such a good daughter, just like I raised you to be. I was confident that you were ready to serve directly under Master Xehanort. But instead I find you fraternizing with the enemy!" The back of Cynthia's hand struck Keila across her face, the jagged crystal rings on her fingers raking the young girl's skin.

"I wasn't flirting with Riku!" Keila spat. That earned her another slap.

"You weren't flirting with him?" Cynthia asked quietly. She snapped her fingers and the massive, crystal mirror that dominated most of the room glowed slightly as an image took form in the center. Keila stared up weakly and watched her and Riku singing with each other, their faces moving slowly closer until their noses were practically brushing up against each other.

"Looks to me like you were." The image vanished and Keila turned fearfully back to her mother. "And looking at the defiance in your eyes now, you leave me with no choice but to go with an… alternative form of punishment." She strode to the murky, white crystal door and opened it. Keila's eyes widened as one of her three oldest brothers entered.

"Jake," she sighed in relief. Jake turned towards their mother. Cynthia nodded and stepped out of the room, closing the crystal door slowly behind her. Jake turned towards his younger sister, grinning at her with lust burning in his eyes. Fear coursed through Keila as she watched his hands stretch out towards her.

Cynthia sighed as she locked the door. Despite the fact that the door was designed to keep her children from listening in on the room, Keila's screams of terror and pain, and the sounds of her clothing being torn from her body to allow her brother better access could be heard through the crystal.

"Having her brother rape her as a punishment? That's just sick," Naleten said. Cynthia turned to where the silver cloaked Nobody leaned against the black marble wall, doing her best to ignore Keila's pleas for her brother to stop.

"Perhaps," she said softly, "but hopefully Keila will learn not to disobey me anymore. Besides, you're a Nobody now. I thought you and your kind are incapable of having feelings anymore."

"That doesn't mean we can't tell when something is disturbingly sick," Naleten said as he lowered his hood, revealing his pale skin, blood-red shoulder length hair, pointed teeth and amber-colored eyes. "And what if your plan doesn't work?" Both of them winced as Keila shouted out a single name, a plea for help.

"Riku!" Cynthia felt anger course through her. How dare that whore cry out the name of her enemy? How dare she call out for him to help her?

"That's why you're here, Naleten," Cynthia said, taking a deep breath to keep her anger in check as she led Naleten into the grand entrance hall, several of her children were scattered throughout the room, they all immediately stopped whatever they were doing to bow to their mother. Cynthia smiled warmly at her children as she and Naleten descended the staircase. "I need you to place seals on her heart, just as a precaution. Make her forget about Master Riku and any feelings she may have for him."

"You know full well that I cannot permanently dispose of a memory," Naleten said slowly as he followed Cynthia deeper into the heart of the manor. "I can make it inaccessible to her with one of my seals. But it's still possible for the seal to be broken. The same goes for those feelings she has for the Wielder. I can seal them, but they can be released."

"I just need them sealed long enough for her to follow orders and eliminate Master Riku," Cynthia said. She paused outside of a pair of massive double doors sealed shut with hundreds of midnight-black chains and a single, large padlock. "Can you do it, Naleten?" The Nobody nodded.

"Of course I can," he said with an emotionless grin. "Would you like me to also seal her memories of the punishment she is going through at the moment?" Cynthia shook her head.

"No," she said harshly. "She needs to remember the punishment. But you can make her forget the reason behind it. Make it so she can only remember that it was because she disobeyed me." Naleten nodded and bowed away from her.

"Very well," he said as a portal of Darkness formed behind him. "I shall pay her a visit after her punishment is done. But this shall also be the last time I can assist you, Cynthia." The woman raised an eyebrow at him as he vanished. "Maleficent and Jevenan will grow suspicious if I continue to disappear. I must go make my appearances and then I shall return to deal with Keila."

"Thank you for your services, Naleten," Cynthia said. "I wish you luck."

"As do I." The portal closed around him and he was gone.

Cynthia turned towards the door and summoned her Keyblade, an obsidian weapon nearly identical in design to the Oblivion Keyblade, except the teeth were a row of seven razor sharp, curved, jagged teeth and in place of the chain that ran along its blade was a glowing red crystal. The Treason Keyblade. Cynthia raised the Treason and pointed it at the lock. A beam of black light burst from the tip and connected to the lock. In a flash of bright blue light, the lock and chains vanished. The doors opened of their own accord, revealing a poorly lit chamber, the only light source being a single silver flame burning on a candle in the room's center.

The shadows created by the dim light nearly concealed the slumped figure resting on a crystal throne in the back of the room. Several IV tubes ran from the figure's body, pumping its body full of life saving medicines. The figure opened its glowing amber eyes. Cynthia fell to one knee.

"Greetings, my Master," she said, her head so low to the ground she could've kissed it. "I trust you are feeling somewhat better today, Master Xehanort?"

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback Headquarters, The Frozen Fields_

Olette shivered as Xanthos led her away from the hangar where the _Equus _was now docked. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the rough, stone-hewn hallways of the Alliance's new fallback headquarters, lit dimly by magical flames that would burn in their lanterns for all eternity. As they descended into the labyrinth of underground tunnels and rooms, Xanthos shared the history of the world with them.

They had landed on a world appropriately named The Frozen Fields. Back before the Keyblade War, the Chasers were the only residents. Due to the abundance of natural magic in the world, forging Keyblades that possessed magic-enhancing abilities was made easier. Unfortunately, it was for that reason alone that the first battle of the Keyblade War broke out on the snow covered plains of the Frozen Fields.

The Chasers fought back against the invading Servants of Darkness but they were quickly overrun. In three days, all but four of the Chasers had been eliminated. According to Xanthos, those four were some of the greatest warriors on the Chaser's side during the War. They took down the invading forces of Darkness without so much as taking a scratch to themselves. By the time the fighting was over, the War was in full swing and the Frozen Fields were forgotten.

Axel's and Jenos' voices could be heard in the distance both shouting orders to Hayner and Pence as the four of them worked to unload the equipment from the _Equus_ and bring it into the headquarters.

"The resident chambers are down this hall right here," Xanthos said. "I want you to take some time to make yourself feel at home. We're going to be here for awhile." Olette nodded and wheeled her bags down the long hallway lined with stone doors. It took her awhile to decide on which room she wanted, finally settling on a moderately sized room complete with her own personal bathroom set off to the side. Silver flames crackled in a small fireplace, providing ample heat to the room. Olette grinned and threw herself down on the queen-sized bed already in the room, sighing in contentment at how soft the mattress was.

It didn't take her long to unpack. Her clothes were neatly placed into the cherry-wood dresser already provided in the room and her personal possessions were quickly arranged on the shelves carved into the stone wall. To her surprise and relief, she found an electrical outlet for her to plug in her radio and laptop charger. On her walls hung a poster of her favorite movie actress, Echidna Parass, and the red and gold flag emblazoned with the words 'Remember Twilight Town'. She nodded happily to her room and proceeded to throw herself down on the mattress where she quickly succumbed to the urge to take a nap, despite her growing nerves about the training Xanthos had in store for her.

Deeper within the bowels of the fallback headquarters, Xanthos stepped into a room lined with dozens of suits of segmented pieces of armor, all an identical shade of bluish-gray and shining in the silver fire light despite their age. Xanthos grinned.

_This is going to be fun._

_LD_

_Thursday, June 17th __4794 P.C._

_Cynthia's Manor, Unnamed World, _

_Keila's Room_

Keila clutched the sheets of her bed tightly around her naked body. The memory of her older brother violating her, ruining what innocence she had held onto was still burned fresh into her mind. Silent tears flowed down her face. She had spent what felt like hours scrubbing her body until her flesh was pink and raw. She felt wrong. Nothing felt right. And above all else, she remembered praying for Riku to save her.

"Why did I cry out for him?" She asked herself. "Why did I want Riku to come save me?"

"Because you started to develop feelings for him," a male voice said from nearby. Keila leapt out of her bed and threw herself across the room in terror, dragging the bed sheets with her. Her heart pounded against her chest as she stared in terror at the man. Naleten stepped into the dim moonlight streaming into the room from the tiny window.

"It is only natural to cry out for someone you care about to help you when you're enduring such tortures," he continued, slowly striding towards the terrified girl. "Don't worry; I'm not here to punish you further. I'm here to attend to an important matter." Faster than Keila could react, Naleten leapt across the room and pressed his palms to the sides of her head. Keila tried to escape the Nobody's grasp, but he held her head perfectly still and forced her to look into his glowing red eyes.

For the briefest of moments, Keila's entire body was engulfed in a faint, ruby-red light. Then, the light retracted and became solid, forming a necklace made from a chain around her neckline, decorated with a single, ruby heart with a tiny keyhole carved into the center. Keila slumped into unconsciousness and Naleten allowed her to fall to the ground as he stepped into a portal of Darkness. Cynthia stepped out of the shadows and knelt next to Keila as the teen slowly came to her senses.

"Are you alright, Keila?" Cynthia whispered in mock worry, gently cradling Keila's head in her arms.

"Yes, Mother," Keila replied. "Please, forgive me for disobeying you. I don't remember what I did. But I promise to not go against your word again." Cynthia smiled sinisterly, hidden in the shadows of the night.

"Of course I forgive you, my child," Cynthia said, hugging Keila tightly. "I'll let you get back to bed. You have to prepare to execute a Keyblade Master, remember?" Keila nodded.

"And then you want me to go back to spying on Maleficent, correct?" Keila asked as she climbed back into her bed.

"Yes, child," Cynthia said as she slipped out of the room. "Good luck."

"Thank you, Mother," Keila sighed as she slumped against her pillows. "I promise I won't fail you."

"You're welcome," Cynthia said, silently chuckling softly to herself. "I know you'll do me proud." She gently closed Keila's door and slipped a tiny, ruby key that glowed faintly into her pocket before whispering under her breath, "It's not like you have a choice anyways."

_LD_

_Monday, June 21__st__ 4794 P.C._

_Onboard the Dawn's First Light Mk. II_

_In Orbit over the Frozen Fields._

Riku slowly zipped up his black cloak. According to Dawn, the world they were about to warp down onto was covered in snow and ice with minimal life signs scattered here and there. Over the course of the past week, he had traveled to nine different worlds. To his disappointment, the only life he had found on each one was the occasional animal. He found ruins of what appeared to be grand cities and townships, but what interested both him and Dawn the most was that each world possessed a field where thousands of Keyblades were driven into the ground. At every stop, he had tried to find any trace of Keila's Light. At every stop, he had come up empty.

Now they were in orbit above a world of snow and ice, two of Riku's least favorite things in the universe next to Maleficent and watermelon flavored candy. Riku let out a sigh and slipped the warp system's activation remote into his pocket as he stepped into one of the warp pods.

A bright flash of light later, Riku found himself standing ankle deep in snow on the edge of a very high cliff. At least a thousand feet below him was a field of snow and ice, decorated with a couple thousand ice covered Keyblades that had been driven point first into the ground. The bitter wind whipped against Riku's face, the snow striking his face repeatedly and turning his cheeks red with cold. Shivering, he quickly pulled up hood to provide himself with a little relief.

"I hate snow," Riku grumbled, kicking the white powder away from his feet.

"Well, let's make this quick then," Dawn suggested. Riku nodded in agreement and closed his eyes. Within the darkness behind his eyelids, he began to feel around for any form of Light from a living creature. He could feel the steady beating of the hearts from a pack of arctic wolves several miles away. Underground, he could sense the Light in the hearts of at least six humans with several more approaching those six from multiple directions. And directly behind him, slowly walking towards him was the light in _her_ heart.

Riku's eyes snapped open and he spun to face Keila. She was dressed in heavy winter gear. The faux fur trimming of her parka shifting in the bitter wind. Her hand was clenched tightly around her Keyblade as she slowly strode towards him. Riku sighed in relief and grinned at her. Keila glared as she continued her advance. Riku's grin faded as he stared at Keila's cerulean eyes. They weren't the normal shade of blue Riku had been used to seeing; they were broken with veins of faint, glowing red light.

"Hello, Master Riku," Keila said, bowing slightly to him. "I believe a proper introduction is in order. My name is Keila, Keyblade Wielder of Shadows. Nothing personal, but I've been ordered to kill you." She hefted her Keyblade and charged a Riku with battle cry. Riku stared in mild surprise as Keila's Keyblade flashed towards his exposed throat, Darkness taking form along its edge.

_LD_

* * *

_And that draws a close to Atlantis and now we are left with the fight that started off the Riku segment and the answers on whether he lives or dies by Keila's hand._

_So, how many of you fans of Keila hate me now? I'm assuming a lot. I told you that I'm a bad man._

_My beta actually hit me repeatedly after she finished reading this chapter. She almost considered having me change it actually._

_Anyways, because this chapter demonstrated some of why I rated this story as M, I feel the need to let you all know that I will not be including Lemons in this story. Limes, maybe. Lemons no. _

_I hope I didn't lose any readers because of what I did to Keila. I hope you all stick around to find out to learn all about her fate._

_Rape is a serious issue, but in modern society it isn't taken as seriously as it should be. You should not ever joke about it or take it lightly. If you or someone you know was raped, then you know just how serious it is._

_I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the next one. As always, reviews are welcome and appreciated. But please don't focus solely on what a terrible person I am. I have much worse things in store for our main heroes in the near future._

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons_


	22. And a Bottle of Rum

_That's right! I'm still alive!_

_ Hard to believe that it's been four weeks since my last update. Geez. I haven't done that since the early chapters. Sorry about the wait, everyone._

_Here we are, the fight scene between Riku and Keila that I established back at the beginning of Chapter Fourteen is finally here. And writing it royally kicked my ass. I have been fighting with this chapter daily for nearly a month on top of dealing with the passing of my grandfather and my great aunt. I dedicate this chapter to them.  
_

_Thanks go out to the reviewers from last time! You guys rock!_

_I've been a Halo ever since Combat Evolved was released ten years ago. So please allow me one brief moment to celebrate the excitement still coursing through my veins from Microsoft's E3 conference. Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary gets released this year (called it) but more importantly Halo 4 comes out in 2012! I can't wait. _

_Disclaimer: Insert generic disclaimer statement here along with witty comment._

_That should about cover it. Enjoy!  
_

* * *

Chapter Twenty Two: And a Bottle of Rum

_Monday, June 21__st__ 4794 P.C._

_The Frozen Fields_

Riku's combative instincts kicked in a split second before Keila's Darkness covered Keyblade would've slit his throat. The Way to Dawn appeared in his hand in a flash and parried Keila's strike, throwing her off balance.

"Keila, what the hell is the matter with you?" Riku asked as he leapt backwards, placing several feet between himself and her. Keila straightened up and glared at him.

"What's the matter with me?" She repeated. "What's the matter with you? Don't go acting like we're friends so you can get me to lower my guard. I'm not stupid, you know." She leapt at him with lightning fast speed and brought her Keyblade down over her head in a wide arc.

"What are you talking about?" Riku asked as he rolled to the side to avoid her attack as it shattered the ice on the ground beneath the snow. "I thought we were friends!" Keila let out a snort of laughter and slashed at Riku's chest. The silver-haired Keyblade Master ducked under the attack and continued to back away from her.

"Friends?" Keila said. "I don't need friends. Mother always said friends will only betray you and stab you in the back to suit their own needs." She raised her hand and sent a swirling orb of Darkness streaking towards Riku's head. The Way to Dawn became covered in a faint orange light as Riku raised it up to deflect the attack. "Besides, I've never met you before in my life. How could you possibly be under the impression we were friends?" Riku stared at her in stunned disbelief. It had only been a week. How could she have completely forgotten about him so quickly?

A barrage of Darkness orbs flew towards Riku. The Keyblade Master growled in frustration and leapt out of the way, only to be greeted by the edge of Keila's Keyblade as it narrowly missed slicing off his ear. Riku ducked under her blade and stepped behind her. Keila spun on her heel and to Riku's surprise, kicked him square in the chest, knocking the breath from his lungs and sending him stumbling back into one of the snow covered rocks that were scattered on the top of the cliff. He shook his head to clear it and raised his eyes in time to see Keila's Keyblade come spinning towards his head. He tilted his head to the side and the blade passed him harmlessly. Keila let out a growl of frustration as it reappeared in her hand.

"I know that you don't want to hurt her because she's your friend and all, but don't you think you could at least go on the offensive rather than running around?" Dawn asked from Riku's waist. Keila ran towards Riku and stabbed at his shoulder. The Way to Dawn flashed up and deflected the attack.

"Come on, Keila," Riku said desperately. He didn't want to hurt her, but this was starting to get a little ridiculous. Keila raised her Keyblade above her head. "I know you know we're friends, just try to remember. I don't want to have to fight you for no reason." Keila froze mid-strike. Inside her mind's eye, she was assaulted with a rush of fragmented images. A vision of her waking up next to Riku in a tent. Driving a truck through cave with him as a part of a convoy. Writing a message in a get-well card for him. She shook her head to clear it and let out an angry battle cry.

"Stay out of my head!" She shouted. Riku's feet were knocked out from beneath him as a column made from shadows burst from the ground underneath and threw him into the air. "Keep your lies to yourself!" The column transformed into a pair of massive, black-clawed hands attached to Keila's arms by thin wisps of shadow. The hands grabbed hold of Riku's waist and slammed him headfirst into the ground.

Riku let out a gasp of pain as the hands tossed him high into the air. For a moment, his vision was filled with the dizzying swirl of shades of white and blue as he spun head over heel before he leveled out and his eyes locked onto to the golden 'teeth' of Keila's Keyblade as she dropped towards him from above.

He thrust his palm out towards her and threads of golden light shot from his finger tips, wrapping around Keila and binding her hands to her sides. Riku flipped backwards and landed gracefully on his feet, the Way to Dawn poised and ready to deflect anything Keila had to throw at him. Keila landed on the ground and slipped on the frozen ground beneath the snow, unable to keep her balance due to the binds around her arms. Darkness pulsed from within Keila's body, destroying the threads of light.

"Surely you can do better than that," she taunted, her free hand gently rubbing the back of her head as she got to her feet. She lunged at Riku and their Keyblades met as Riku easily parried her attack. Keila spun a full circle; swinging her Inverse Kingdom Key around in an attempt to strike Riku's exposed side. Riku twisted his upper body in an uncomfortable fashion as he stabbed the Way to Dawn down in time to block her strike. Keila lost her balance again on the ice, her arms jarred from Riku's block. Her Keyblade went spinning out of her hands and fell into the snow several yards away, vanishing from sight in the white powder.

She flipped herself back onto her feet and fell back into a fighting stance. Riku let out a sigh and raised the Way to Dawn as he readied himself. Keila stabbed her blade at Riku's exposed chest. Riku twisted out of the way and shifted himself so he stood behind her. Keila spun around, her Inverse Kingdom Key swinging slightly behind her as she aimed for his head. Riku half-heartedly parried her blow. Keila let out a growl of frustration and quickly performed a series of jabbing attacks focused on Riku's chest and stomach. Riku effortlessly blocked them with a few quick strikes. Keila stumbled providing Riku with an opening to finish her then and there.

Reacting on instinct, Riku swung the Way to Dawn down towards her. Keila cringed, expecting the worst. Riku realized what he was about to do a split second before his blade would have struck her and changed the direction of his attack. The Way to Dawn struck the Inverse Kingdom Key, sending it spiraling out of Keila's hands to land in the snow several feet away. Keila looked from her now empty hand over to Riku in confusion.

"What the hell?" She practically shouted at him. "You had me finished and instead you just knock my Keyblade out of my hand? What's wrong with you?"

"You're my friend," Riku stated as if it were obvious. "I don't want to hurt you." Keila let out snort of contempt.

"Seriously? You're gonna keep spouting that 'we're friends' crap?" Keila said, glaring up at Riku. "When are you going to get it through your thick skull that we aren't friends? You're just my target." She leapt back away from Riku and snatched her Keyblade up from the snow.

_Damn it. _Riku thought. _Why can't I get through to her?_

"Riku, look at her neck," Dawn said. Riku snapped out of his reverie and his eyes darted to the visible part of Keila's neckline under her parka as she spun to face him again. A heart-shaped, ruby pendant with a keyhole carved into it hung from a blood red chain around her neck. The necklace glowed dimly, the same color as the unnatural light in Keila's eyes. "I think that thing's responsible for why she doesn't remember you." Riku nodded in agreement.

"Then I've either got to destroy that thing or knock her out," Riku muttered as he straightened up. "Time to end this." He flourished the Way to Dawn in his hand and charged at Keila. He swung his Keyblade in a wide, horizontal arc as he neared her. Keila smirked and flipped backwards so Riku's attack passed harmlessly beneath her. Riku grinned. He continued his swing, spinning around a full three hundred sixty degrees before hurling his Keyblade at the still airborne Keila.

The Way to Dawn struck home, its rotation allowing it to spin right past the hasty guard Keila had thrown up to strike her across her chest. She hit the ground with a whimper of pain and rolled into a crouch, powder-like snow settling around her in a small cloud. Riku's Keyblade spun back and he caught it nonchalantly as he strode towards her. Keila reached for her Keyblade and grasped it as Riku's boot stomped down on the blade.

"I'm going to help your remember, Keila," he said. "Just trust me." Keila glared up at him from where she knelt on the cold ground. She winced, expecting the worse as he bent down next to her. To her surprise, Riku clutched the pendant on her necklace, resting it in his palm as he swung the Way to Dawn down onto it.

A split second before the blade made contact, a loud howl echoed painfully in Riku's ears. He leapt back as a bright red light flared out from the pendant on Keila's necklace. Something solid collided with his chest and sent him stumbling backwards towards the cliff edge. Fortunately, he managed to recover his balance and save himself from a long drop to the field of ice and snow covered Keyblades below. He swallowed hard as he peered over the edge. A thousand feet was a long way to fall. He turned his head and looked back over at Keila as the red light faded from around her body and his mouth dropped open.

With the exception of her head, Keila's entire body had become encased in a crystalline red armor. The heart-shaped pendant on her necklace accented the armor around her throat. Jagged, ruby spikes jutted from the pauldron on her right shoulder. A large pentagonal-shaped shield was attached to the armor on her left forearm and her Keyblade was covered in the red crystal, extending its length and taking on a triangular shape. The hilt of her crystal covered Keyblade and the crystal armor covering her hand had fused together, preventing Keila from being able to drop her blade. Keila examined her body for a brief moment with a surprised expression before grinning sinisterly at Riku.

"Now we're talking," she said. She hefted her blade as though it weighed nothing and charged at Riku. Riku shifted his stance and stood his ground, raising the Way to Dawn in front of him to act as a guard. Keila swung her blade down as she neared him. The sharp edges of the crystal glinted brightly. Riku leapt out of the way at the last possible second and landed behind Keila. Keila's crystal blade slammed into the ground, leaving behind a small crater in the snow and ice. Keila let out a growl of frustration and pulled her blade out of the ground. She spun swiftly despite her armor and managed to graze Riku's thigh as the silver-haired Keyblade Master rolled away. Blood splattered against the snow, ruining the pure white powder.

Riku let out a hiss of pain and pressed his hand firmly against the wound on his thigh as he fell to one knee several yards away from Keila. Keila was practically on top of him in a matter of seconds, her crystal covered blade raised high above her head for the finishing blow. Riku closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to raise a defense that could possible save him at such close quarters. He heard Keila let out a gasp of surprise and he opened his eyes.

The crystal armored teen was being hoisted into the air by a large, jet-black hand that pinned her arms to her side. Riku glanced behind him to see the hulking form of the Guardian. For a brief moment, the humanoid creature of Darkness retained its usual appearance before a golden light filled it from within, causing the black in its skin to become mostly gold, broken only by black veins. Its normally yellow eyes became a dull red. Riku slowly stood up as Keila struggled against the Guardian's grip.

"Sorry, Keila," Riku said as the Guardian's grip tightened, "it's for your own good." Keila winced in pain as the crystal armor protecting her began to crack in multiple places from the Guardian's brute strength. Then the pressure was gone as the Guardian threw her high into the air before detaching its tail from Riku's body and diving into the ground. Keila flipped head over heel for a brief moment before plummeting back to the ground.

Her descent was cut short as the Guardian burst out of the ground and flew into Keila, knocking her even higher into the air. Its powerful arms wrapped around her before she had time to react and dragged her with it back into the ground. Keila let out a cry of pain as sections of her armor shattered, some of the sharper pieces piercing her flesh underneath. The Guardian refused to give her reprieve. It rose from the ground again, creating a gold and black shockwave of energy that slammed into her as she attempted to stand back up, forcing her back to her knees and cracking the breastplate of her armor.

Keila raised her crystal covered Keyblade and unleashed a volley of Darkness orbs at the Guardian. The Guardian became transparent and the orbs of Darkness passed harmlessly through it. A pair of swirling orange and black discs took form in the Guardian's hands as it became solid again. Realizing what was coming, Keila hastily raised her shield in front of her. The twin discs slammed hard against the shield and Keila felt her arm bruise from the impact. Relentless as ever, the Guardian moved quickly over to Keila, swinging its massive arms repeatedly against her shield. Keila let out a growl of frustration as the Guardian pounded away. She was starting to get frustrated and she wanted nothing more than to finish the battle.

Without warning, her shield gave out under the Guardian's blows and shattered. Keila's eyes widened in shock as the ruby-red shards of crystal fell to the ground. She looked up from her shattered shield and was greeted with a swift blow to the chest by the Guardian's fist. She cried out in pain as she was sent flying towards the edge of the cliff, stopped only by a large boulder that broke more of her armor off as she collided with it. The Guardian hovered closely over her, raising its arms above its head for the finishing blow.

Reacting on instinct, Keila quickly swung her crystal covered blade up and drove it into the Guardian's chest, burying it in the creature up to the hilt. The Guardian let out a roar as it floated backwards, away from Keila. Faint wisps of golden smoke rose from its wound for a few moments before it exploded violently. The force of the blast shattered the remaining segments of Keila's crystal armor and threw the snow on the ground around it into the air, creating a white cloud that was nearly impossible to see through.

Keila panted heavily as the snow began to settle back onto the ground. Her body ached in multiple places from the blows the Guardian had dealt her. She blinked, trying to clear the blurriness in her vision, but it was clearing slowly, which told her she had hit her head, and hard. She could feel the faint trickle of blood running down the side of her face from some place hidden by her hair. From what she could see, her armor lay in shards around her body, some of the pieces reduced to dust from the explosion. Her Keyblade lay in the snow several yards out of her reach, now free of its crystal addition. Riku strode towards her through the settling snow, the Way to Dawn vanishing from his hand as he went to kneel beside her.

"Are you okay?" He asked in a concerned tone. His eyes were fixated nervously on the heart-shaped pendant dangling around her throat so he didn't see her hand slowly tighten around a sharp-edged piece of crystal. Keila grinned up at him. She knew how to win this fight.

"Never better," she said in a low voice. Her hand darted up and grabbed Riku by the front of his cloak. Riku gave a shout of surprise that was quickly silenced as Keila pulled his lips onto hers in a tender kiss. For a moment, Riku's mind went completely blank. After a brief moment when it finally clicked with him that he was receiving his first kiss, he closed his eyes and deepened the physical contact. They remained locked together by the lips for several moments before he felt Keila's mouth tighten into a smirk. He opened his eyes, looking at her questioningly.

Her right hand lashed out at him, slicing through his cloak and digging the crystal she had grabbed deep into his flesh on his left side. She twisted the crystal in the wound before jerking it to the side, tearing it from Riku's side and leaving a deep gash in its wake. Riku's eyes widened as he stumbled backwards, dark splotches of red dropping to stain the snow. He looked from the gash in his side to Keila and back again.

Keila leapt to her feet before Riku could react and summoned her Keyblade back to her hands. Riku watched in dull shock as the flat side of her Keyblade struck him in the side of his head and sent him stumbling towards the edge of the cliff. He managed to regain his balance, teetering on the verge of falling off as stars danced in his vision. Keila grinned and leapt high into the air. A massive fist comprised of mist-like shadow rose from behind her, mimicking the movements of her left hand as she swung it back.

"See you in hell," she said cheerily. She swung her fist forward and the shadow hand responded, crashing into the ground at Riku's feet and shattering the section of the cliff he had been standing on. Staring silently at her in shock, Riku plummeted towards the field of frozen Keyblades more than a thousand feet below him.

The icy wind and snow whipped around Riku as he plummeted down the side of the cliff face, stinging his exposed skin. Specks of his own blood flew behind him from the gash created by the crystal Keila had slashed him with and the wounds on his head and thigh. He pressed his left hand firmly against the gash in his side, mentally regretting never taking the time to learn how to use Cure. Riku winced as he took a deep breath in an attempt to slow his heart rate. Each breath caused him immense pain and the icy air wasn't helping much.

His eyes opened and had a sudden idea. This had worked once before, so why not now? The Way to Dawn flashed in his hand as he swung it back and stabbed into the side of the cliff. His speed significantly slowed as he left a scar in the stone. He let out a wild laugh. That had worked out better than he had hoped, right up until a thicker section of stone wrenched the Way to Dawn from Riku's hands, causing his fall to continue. Riku stared hopelessly up at his Keyblade as he continued down towards the field of Keyblades below.

"Come on, Riku!" Dawn shouted desperately from his side. "Do something or you're going to die!"

_She's right. But what can I do?_ An image of the Guardian emerging from his back to stop the fall entered Riku's mind. _Is that the answer? Well, it wouldn't hurt to try._

"Come, Guardian!" He shouted. There was a flash of golden light behind him and the Guardian emerged from his back. Riku grinned triumphantly, but it was short-lived. With a shudder the Guardian faded, the pain Riku was in combined with his quickly draining energy prevented it from maintaining its physical form. Riku's grin vanished, replaced by a look of pure shock.

"Any time now!" Dawn asked. "Wait, I've got it! Quick, beam us back onto the Gummi ship!" Riku smacked himself on the forehead, wondering why he hadn't thought of that before. His hand darted into his pocket and produced a handful of broken pieces of the warp remote. Riku stared blankly at his hand.

"Bad news, Dawn," he said dejectedly, "the remote is busted."

"Well, that's just great," Dawn spat. "Can you come up with some other way out of this?"

"Nope. Sorry."

"Fantastic. Talk about a short life. It's been nice knowing you, Riku."

"You too, Dawn," Riku said. He sighed and closed his eyes. If he was going to die, he wasn't going to have his eyes open.

_Is this how I die?_ Riku asked himself. _Without being able to see my friends again? Alone?_ _ Sora. Kairi. I'm sorry that I don't get to see you guys again._ He thought sadly. _Good luck, you two. You'll probably need it._

And that was his final conscious thought before he slammed into the ground. He experienced blinding pain for a fraction of a second as he felt his bones shatter and his neck snap before his world went black.

_LD_

"You did a good job, Keila," Cynthia said as she crouched next to Riku's crumpled, broken body. The impact had broken several of Riku's bones. Jagged edges of the blood covered bone shards jutted out in several places from Riku's black cloak. The snow around him was dyed red as his blood flowed out of him. His Keyblade had fallen from the Cliffside above them, embedding itself tip first in the ground amongst the other Keyblades that stood in the field.

Cynthia's fingers were pressed against the fallen Keyblade Master's jugular where no pulse could be felt. Her mouth was pulled into a wicked grin. Keila stood several yards away, doing her best to avoid looking at the body. Her skin had a greenish tint to it as she swayed in place. She looked like she was about to be sick. Satisfied, Cynthia rose to her feet and placed a comforting hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"You'll be fine, Keila," she said sweetly. "Your first kill is always the hardest." Keila nodded silently, her mind barely registering what her mother said as it was assaulted by a rush of images of her and Riku spending time together, laughing, teasing, singing, just like two friends would. "You'd best hurry along. You don't want Maleficent to grow suspicious of your constant disappearances, do you?" Keila shook her head and a portal of Darkness took form next to her.

"Farewell, Mother," she whispered weakly as she stepped into the portal. Cynthia smiled warmly at her as she vanished into the portal. Cynthia straightened up and smirked down at the crumpled form of Riku's body.

_One down._ She told herself as her own portal of Darkness surrounded her. _One to go._

As the portal closed behind her, a pair of figures dressed in black cloaks identical to the ones worn by Organization XIII moved swiftly through the field of Keyblades towards Riku's body.

_LD_

_Corridors of Darkness_

"Why am I crying?" Keila muttered to herself as she trudged through the swirling colors of the Corridor she was traveling through. She wiped the tears from her cheeks on the back of her hands. "What's wrong with me?"

_LD_

"Are you sure, Master?"

The pair of figures dressed in the black cloaks knelt over Riku's maimed and crumpled body. Both were feminine in build and kept their faces concealed. The taller of the two nodded slowly under her hood.

"I'm positive," she said. She knelt down next to Riku's body and grabbed hold to the Way to Dawn's hilt. "This is the original Way to Dawn, one of the first five Keys to come into existence. You should know this by now, child. According to the Declarations of the Thirteenth Observer, only one of the Three will ever wield the true Way to Dawn." The woman stood up straighter and stared down at Riku's body from under her hood. "There is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the Three. This can only mean that the Keyblade's Chosen One has finally inherited their blade." She tossed the Way to Dawn to her apprentice, who caught it lazily with one hand, before placing her fingers to Riku's throat.

"His pulse is faint," she announced. "He'll live if we can get him out of this god forsaken snow." With seemingly little effort, the woman scooped Riku's body up into her arms and spun on her heel to stride into the Valley of Fallen Keys.

"Come on," she said as her apprentice fell into step behind her. "The Forge is very close by. We have no time to waste and he's fading fast."

_LD_

_Mysterious Tower_

Yen Sid let out a sad sigh as he stared up at the star filled sky. Ever since he had retired from being a Keyblade Master, he had sat in this tower day after day, observing the heavens. He was the one who kept an eye on the balance between the worlds. He was usually the first to know when something dreadful was about to unfold. Even as he watched, one of the stars grew slowly fainter.

Yen Sid was one of the few people left in the universe who knew that not every star was a world. Several stars represented the hearts and lives of Keyblade wielders. As he watched, the star representing Riku's heart was growing fainter, as if his life was draining from him.

"Be strong, Riku," Yen Sid said to the empty room around him. "There is a war coming. The stars can feel it. And so can I. The fate of the worlds rests in the hands of Sora and yourself."

_LD_

_Onboard the Kingdom, _

_Somewhere in Space_

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Kairi shouted nervously to Sora. It had only been a few hours since the they had left El Dorado behind and so far, they had all only managed to accomplish taking long showers to make up for the two and a half weeks they went without hot running water to bathe in and already Sora had them training. She and Naminé stood on the edge of a very high cliff in the _Kingdom_'s training simulator with Sora and the spiritual projection of Roxas standing on the opposite side of the chasm, both grinning expectantly at the two girls.

"I'm positive," Sora said confidently. "It's like I told you, just think any happy thought and hold on tight to it."

"I don't really see how sprinkling us with dust is going to make us fly," Naminé said as she peered over the edge of the cliff. "It's a long drop you know."

"Just trust me," Sora said with a sigh. They were stalling and he knew it. "Here, watch." He closed his eyes and concentrated on his happy thought. After a couple seconds, he slowly floated into the air and drifted so he was hovering well over the edge. He opened his eyes in satisfaction as he heard Kairi gasp. Roxas floated along on his back next to Sora, casually examining his nails as he did so.

"Come on, you two!" Roxas called out. Naminé grinned eagerly as she watched Sora float in the sky and scrunched up her face in concentration. At first, nothing happened. Then her grin only broadened as she felt her feet leave the ground as she floated up into the simulated sky.

"Okay, this is pretty cool," she said eagerly as she opened her eyes and stared down at the ground below. She spun in midair to look down at her auburn-haired sister. "Come on, Kairi! You're the odd-man-out! Or is it odd-woman-out? Does the phrase change based on if the person you're talking about is male or female?" She turned in the air to look at Roxas and Sora, both of whom shrugged.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Kairi said exasperatedly. "Geez." She closed her eyes and concentrated. In her mind's eye, she replayed the moment she and Sora had reunited in the Castle That Never Was and she relived the overwhelming feeling of joy that had coursed through her as she had rushed up to embrace him. Slowly but steadily her feet lifted off the ground. She opened her eyes and let out a gasp of excitement as she stared down at the ground several feet below her.

"I'm doing it!" She said excitedly. "Oh my god! I'm actually flying!"

"I told you so," Sora said, flashing her his trademark grin. "And the best part is; it's just like riding a bike. Once you know how to do it, you'll never for-" Without warning, the simulation suddenly shut down, causing the three teens with physical bodies to lose their concentration and fall seven feet to the floor.

Sora let out a grumble and stepped out of the simulator through a concealed door and into the small control booth. All of the simulation control monitors were flashing the same message in orange informing him that they would arrive at their destination in less than a minute. He turned around as Kairi and Naminé followed him into the booth.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked. Sora grinned at her and Naminé.

"We're here," he said cheerily. "Come on. You two are gonna have a blast."

"What's got you all excited?" Naminé asked as she and Kairi followed Sora to the bridge. "Is there something special about this world?" Sora's grin only broadened.

"Pirates," he said excitedly.

"Ninjas are better," Roxas added.

"Pirates beat ninjas," Sora, Kairi and Naminé all said at once. Roxas hung his head. He didn't want to get dragged into a three-on-one argument about whether or not ninjas or pirates were better than the other. He had a feeling he'd lose.

"So, are these pirates like the pirates that rescue the innocent maiden from the bad guys like in the stories and bury their treasure under an X?" Naminé asked. "Or the pirates that pin the maiden down to the docks while they have their fun with her and spend their treasure on drinks and women?"

"I guess it really depends," Sora said with a shrug. "But if I had to choose, I would say that most of them are the second type."

"That does not instill confidence in me," Naminé said. "I suddenly have doubts about going down there."

"Naminé, everything will be fine," Kairi said as she placed a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder. "What can a bunch of thugs do to us? We have Keyblades and we can use magic." To emphasize her point, Kairi summoned up a tiny bit of Thunder magic and made sparks dance between her fingers. "Besides, in the worst case scenario, Sora busts in and saves us."

"Exactly," Sora said as he flashed Naminé a confidence filled grin. "Besides, I'm friends with a few pirates, remember? You'll be fine."

"Unless the ninjas come and-"

"There are no ninjas on this world, Roxas," Sora said with a sigh as the four of them emerged onto the bridge, allowing them their first look at Port Royal. "I think."

_LD_

"Come in Command, we have a visual on the asset."

As the _Kingdom_ approached Port Royal, another small Gummi ship followed its flight path from a distance just beyond the range of its radar. Three men dressed in identical black and white suites and dark sunglasses sat in the cockpit of their ship, watching as the _Kingdom_ slowed to a stop in orbit above the world.

"Roger that, Specter Three," a feminine voice said over the COMM system. "Recovery Two and Seven are leaving Mt. Kathleines Station for your coordinates now. Do not lose sight of the asset's ship. As soon as the Recovery teams arrive, you may return to Headquarters. Confirm orders, Specter."

"Roger that, Command," the pilot said. "Specter Three out." He pressed a button on the console in front of him, which cut off their connection to Command.

"Tell me again why we've been tracking a trio of Keyblade Wielders for the past week," one of the other men said in a bored tone. "Most of the citizens back home support the fact that they are out here saving the worlds. So why are we trying to bring them back to Radiant Garden against their will?"

"It's a request from Adrian Canstella," the third man said.

"The Head of the Monarchist Party?" Asked the second man. "What the hell does he want with the Keyblade Wielders?"

"I haven't a clue. But he doesn't want all of the Wielders," the pilot said. "Just the one."

"And this girl is important to Canstella?" the second man asked. "Any idea why, Derrick?" The pilot shrugged.

"I haven't a clue, Anderson" he said plainly. "But he wants the girl for something, so she must be worth it. Canstella doesn't take risks unless he is more than ninety percent sure the odds are in his favor. The simple fact that he'd risk the wrath of some important (and powerful mind you) people for her is proof enough for me that he knows what he's doing." He glanced at a photograph of a young girl with auburn colored hair fending off Heartless with a Keyblade that was displayed on one of the consoles. Three beams of light shot from the underside of the _Kingdom_ and headed for the world that loomed large and dark in front of them.

"They've surfaced," the third man confirmed. "Let's drop the homing beacon off and get out of here. I really don't want to be around when the Recovery force arrives."

"You're not scared, are you?" Anderson asked with a teasing tone. The third man turned to glare at him.

"Not of the Recovery force, no," he said. "I'm scared of the Keyblade Master on that ship." An image of a spiky-caramel-color-haired teen with a wide grin on his face appeared on several screens. "I read his file. When the Recovery force takes her, I don't want to be around to witness his reaction."

"Anything for the Crown," Derrick muttered sourly, just quiet enough so Anderson and their other companion didn't hear him speak as he turned his attention back to the controls to guide them closer to the _Kingdom_.

_LD_

_Port Royal_

Kairi shivered as the light faded around her. Immediately, she noticed two things about Port Royal. First of all, it seemed different from the few other worlds she had been to. Something about it seemed more real to her. Secondly, it was very wet. Rain descended from the heavens at in a near downpour. Thankful she had grabbed her jacket before they had left, she quickly put her hood up to keep her head dry.

"Get back," Sora hissed suddenly from next to her. She felt him grab hold of her wrist as he pulled her closer to him. A squad of soldiers dressed in white pants and red coats marched past, leading a man dressed in a blue jacket who had his wrists bound in iron cuffs.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know," Sora whispered as another squadron of redcoats marched past. "But that guy in blue looked a lot like Will."

"That guy that helped you out the last time you were here?" Kairi whispered as yet another squad of soldiers marched past. "Why does he look like he was just arrested?"

"I don't know," Sora said. "But I say we find out. Follow me." He began to creep along after the soldiers, doing his best to avoid being seen.

"Come on, Naminé," Kairi whispered. She turned around to glance at her sister but there was no sign of the blonde anywhere. "Naminé?" Kairi's head turned back and forth. Sure enough, still no Naminé. A nervous feeling began to settle in the pit of her stomach. After spending so much time over the past month or so with her, not having Naminé around seemed off. But she was more concerned about why she wasn't with her and Sora.

Kairi quickly darted along after Sora. She quickly caught up to him and the soldiers as the redcoats marched William Turner under the stone archway of a building where several dozen people were taking shelter from the rain. The building wasn't much; it was mostly comprised of similar stone arches that led out to a small pavilion that overlooked the sea. The pavilion was decorated for what appeared to be an important event of some sort.

The people taking shelter under the arches were all dressed in what could be assumed to be their best attire, and were being held back by the redcoats as Will was marched into the building. A woman with braided, brown hair that was dressed in an off-yellow dress got up from her kneeling place in the rain-soaked pavilion, crying out Will's name as she ran up to embrace him.

"Sora," Kairi hissed as she tapped her boyfriend on the shoulder. "Naminé's not with us." Sora spun around to look at her in surprise.

"What?" He asked quietly. "Are you sure?" Kairi nodded.

"I don't think she ended up in the same place as us," she said in a worried tone. "What if she gets caught by a bunch of men who only want to use her as a-" Sora placed his finger to Kairi's lips to get her to calm down.

"Naminé's strong," Sora said. "You should know that better than anyone. I don't think any number of men would be able to take on Naminé. She can use magic and she has a Keyblade. They've got nothing on her." Kairi nodded in agreement. Even though she knew Sora was right, she couldn't help but worry about her.

"I think it's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding," the woman in the off-yellow dress was saying. Sora nearly did a double take as he realized the woman was Elizabeth.

_They were getting married?_

"Make way, let me through!" An older, male voice demanded. A man dressed in a pale blue jacket and a curled, gray wig forced his way through the crowd towards Will and Elizabeth. Sora recognized him from his last trip to Port Royal. A pair of pike wielding redcoats crossed their weapons as he reached the crowd's edge, barring his path. Governor Swann looked up at the two men in indignation. "How dare you!" He turned to glare at a man who dressed in a black overcoat with a powder white wig and a black cap that stood with his back to everyone else. "Stand your men down at once! Do you hear me?" The man in black turned to face the man shouting at him. He removed his overcoat and handed it to one of his captains that was dressed in blue rather than red.

"Governor Weatherby Swann. It's been too long," he said in a drawling voice. Governor Swann looked at the man in surprise.

"Cutler Beckett?" He asked.

"It's Lord now, actually," Beckett said smugly. He gave the slightest tip of his head to the two soldiers holding Governor Swann back and they raised their pikes, allowing him to pass.

"Lord or not," he said authoritatively as he stepped forward. "You have no reason and no authority to arrest this man." He stabbed his finger in Will's direction.

"In fact I do," Beckett said, still wearing a smug smile. "Mister Mercer!" A man dressed in all black, with a face that was sinisterly wrinkled and scarred stepped forward with a box of documents that he held for Beckett as the shorter man selected the topmost one. "A warrant for the arrest of one William Turner." Governor Swann took the document from Beckett, glaring at him before glancing down at it. He gave a start.

"This warrant is for Elizabeth Swann," he said in disbelief. Sora turned to look at Elizabeth and Will, both of whom looked shocked.

"Oh, is it?" Beckett asked, clearly faking his surprise. "That's annoying. My mistake, arrest her." He motioned to a pair of redcoats who stepped forward and grabbed hold of Elizabeth's arms while a third one clapped the iron handcuffs around her wrists.

"No!" Will and Sora cried out.

"On what charges?" Elizabeth cried in confusion. Beckett ignored her and rifled through the box until he found the document he was searching for.

"Ah-ha," he said, handing it to Governor Swann. "Here's the one for William Turner. And I also have warrants for a Mister James Norrington and a Mister Sora Arashi and his companions." Kairi gave a gasp of surprise and turned to look at Sora. "Are any of them present?"

"What did you do?" She asked him. Before Sora could respond he felt his arms grabbed and his wrists bound by cuffs. He glanced behind him and saw Ian Mercer smirking down at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched hopelessly as a trio of redcoats secured cuffs to Kairi's wrists.

"Well, that's one of them," Beckett said as he smirked at Sora and Kairi. "Once again. Is James Norrington present?"

"Commodore Norrington resigned his commission some months ago," Governor Swann informed Beckett.

"I don't believe that's the answer to the question I asked," Beckett pointed out in a sinister tone.

"Lord Beckett," Will spat as he struggled against his restraints. "In the category of questions not answered…" He left the sentence hanging.

"We are under the jurisdiction of the King's Governor of Port Royal and you will tell us what we're charged with," Elizabeth demanded. Governor Swann glanced down at the documents in his hand.

"The charge," he said, reciting directly from the warrant, "is conspiring to set free a man convicted of crimes against the crown and empire and condemned to death. For which the…" Governor Swann paused in shock as he read the next part of the document.

"For which the punishment, regrettably, is also death," Beckett finished for him with a lack of emotion. "Perhaps you remember a certain pirate named Jack Sparrow."

"_Captain!_" Will, Elizabeth and Sora all said forcefully. Beckett's eyes turned to Elizabeth.

"_Captain_ Jack Sparrow," Elizabeth stated. Beckett smirked.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," he corrected himself. "Yes, I thought you might. Take them away." He gestured to Mercer and the soldiers and the redcoats moved in to escort the four prisoners to the prison.

"I guess it's a good thing Naminé didn't end up with us," Sora whispered to Kairi who nodded in agreement.

"But I still can't help but wonder, where is she?" Kairi whispered back.

_LD_

_Onboard the Black Pearl_

Naminé let out a groan as she came to. Her head throbbed violently and the ground beneath her seemed to be rocking back and forth. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself lying under a piece of canvas that had been thrown on top of a pair of barrels. She slowly sat up and took in her surroundings. She was on a ship, which explained why she had initially felt like the ground was rocking beneath her feet. The wood of the ship looked as though it had been made to be black by lighting it on fire. A light fog drifted around them, not too thick, but eerie enough in the dim moonlight.

"Sora? Kairi?" She mumbled softly. There was no response from either of them. Looking around the deck of the ship, Naminé realized that she was very much alone except for the sleeping forms of several crew members.

She heard footsteps coming from somewhere nearby, joined by the sound of a male voice singing slightly off-key. Her mind instantly went into a panic. She didn't want people thinking she was a stowaway. She quickly looked for a place to hide but couldn't see anything close to her and the footsteps were only drawing nearer.

_What wouldn't I give to be able to turn invisible right now!_ Naminé screamed inside her head. Then it hit her. She could turn herself invisible! She had spent hours working on it until she had it down, how could she have forgotten? Concentrating, Naminé manipulated the way the light cast down on her by the moon reflected off of her and in a fraction of a second, was completely invisible to the naked eye. A trapdoor opened up nearby her and a man dressed in a slightly tattered blue coat stepped out. He had a portly build, ruddy complexion and white muttonchops. Naminé's connection to Sora's memory instantly told her that the man's name was Joshamee Gibbs. Gibbs sung softly as he strode across the deck, taking the occasional swig from the bottle in his hand.

Naminé breathed a sigh of relief as he passed by her and followed Gibbs closely. Now that she knew she was onboard the _Black Pearl_ (also courtesy of Sora's memories) she needed to find a way to get to wherever Sora and Kairi were. She had a hunch that if she stayed onboard, she'd run into them sooner or later. Sora was bound to want to see his friends and Naminé knew they wouldn't leave her behind.

"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest," Gibbs sung softly as he stumbled across the deck with a satisfied grin on his face. "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum. Drink and the devil had done for the rest. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum." He let out a chuckle and took a swig from the bottle in his hand. He and Naminé both gave a start as a bell rang loudly in the distance, accompanied by the cawing of crows. Naminé watched carefully for several minutes as Gibbs roused the sleeping crew and set them to prepare to cast off.

Gibbs stooped next to a ladder built into the side of the ship's hull, extending his hand towards some unseen person to help them up onto the deck. Instead of a hand, he was greeted by a dismembered leg. Gibbs pulled the leg up and examined it as a man climbed up the remainder of the ladder. He was dressed in a faded blue waistcoat and wore a red bandanna under a dark brown, tricorne hat. His goatee was twisted into two braids and was decorated with several beads. His dark brown hair had been styled into dreadlocks and had even more beads and bits of other objects tied into it. Naminé didn't need her powers over memory to figure out who this man was.

"Not quite according to plan," Gibbs commented as another man by the name of Cotton, and his faithful parrot, came up and placed a coat around the man's shoulders.

"Complications arose, ensued, were overcome," Captain Jack Sparrow said as he walked away from the railing with Gibbs close behind him, pausing long enough to push the decaying leg into Cotton's hands. Naminé fought back the urge to wretch. These men clearly had no sense of personal hygiene.

"You got what you went in for, then?" Gibbs inquired. In response, Jack reached into his waistcoat and produced a piece of cloth which he proudly waved around. He turned around, clearly heading for the captain's cabin at the stern of the ship only to find his way blocked by the majority of the crew, most of whom looked irritated. Thankful that she could keep her invisibility going as long as she remained mostly still, Naminé watched in anticipation as the crew stared down its captain. Gibbs quickly stepped forward.

"Captain, I think the crew, meaning me as well, were expecting something a bit more… shiny," he explained. "What with the Isla de Muerta going all pear-shaped, reclaimed by the sea, and the treasure with it."

"And the Royal Navy chasing us all around the Atlantic," a man wearing a red turban said irritably.

"And the hurricane," Marty, the shortest member of the crew chimed in.

"Aye," many other members of the crew said in agreement. Naminé swallowed hard. Was she about to witness a mutiny?

"All in all," Gibbs continued, "it seems some time since we did a speck of honest pirating."

"Shiny?" Jack asked after he had considered what his crew had had to say. Gibbs nodded.

"Aye, shiny," he said. Jack turned back to look at the crew.

"Is that how you're all feeling then?" He asked. "That perhaps dear old Jack is not serving your best interests as captain?" The crew all looked nervously around at one another. Cotton's parrot let out a loud squawk.

"Walk the plank!" It said loudly. Jack drew a pistol from his belt and aimed it at the parrot as he pulled back the firing hammer.

"What did the bird say?" He demanded angrily. The older gentleman, Cotton, clasped his hand over the parrot's mouth.

"Do not blame the bird," the man in the turban said. "Show us what is on that piece of cloth there." Naminé crept closer as Jack went to unfold the cloth, taking extra care to avoid bumping into any of the crew as she did so. A monkey that looked as if it had been decaying from death for months dropped down in front of Jack and let out a loud screech, startling everyone. Jack attempted to shoot the monkey but only created sparks. The undead creature grabbed the cloth and ran off across the deck. Jack grabbed the pistol from Gibbs' belt and fired the monkey was sent sprawling and it dropped the cloth. With a shake of its head, the monkey vanished into the shadows cast by the ship itself, its decaying features vanishing as its appearance changed back to that of a normal looking monkey.

"You know that don't do no good," Gibbs said exasperatedly.

"It does me," Jack said in an irritated tone. Marty leapt down from his stoop and ran over to where Jack the Monkey had dropped the cloth. He stared at the cloth in confusion for a moment before looking up at the rest of the crew.

"It's a key," he said. The crew exchanged confused looks.

"No. Much more better," Jack said eagerly as he strode over to Marty and took the cloth from him, holding it up for all to see. "It is a drawing of a key." Naminé and the rest of the crew leaned in to have a better look. Drawn in what appeared to be charcoal, was a picture of a key. It had a rounded end from which two parallel prongs emerged, ending with their teeth facing away from each other. The crew all looked from the picture to Jack, waiting for him to elaborate. "Gentlemen, what do keys do?"

_They defeat Heartless and Nobodies and make surprisingly effective swords._ Naminé said sarcastically in her mind. She smirked at her own cleverness and reminded herself to tell that joke to Kairi when she had the chance.

"Keys… unlock things?" The man in the turban said hesitantly. Naminé rolled her eyes. The men on this world certainly had a way with words, or lack thereof.

"And whatever this key unlocks, inside there's something valuable," Gibbs said with sudden realization. A greedy grin spread across his face and across the faces of many of the other pirates as their brains were brought up to speed. "So we're setting out to find whatever this key unlocks."

"No," Jack said. The crew's faces all fell in confusion. Naminé sighed silently. Somehow, she had seen that coming. "If we don't have the key, we can't open whatever it is we don't have that it unlocks. So, what purpose would be served in finding whatever need be unlocked, which we don't have, without first having found the key what unlocks it?"

"So we're going after this key," Gibbs said happily.

"You're not making any sense at all," Jack said. Gibbs' face fell again.

_You're the one who isn't making sense!_ Naminé wanted to shout. _How on earth did Sora put up with this sort of thing?_

"Anymore questions?" Jack asked. Several crew members raised their hands but Marty spoke up first.

"So… do we have a heading?"

"Ah! A heading," Jack said cheerfully. He produced from his belt a small black compass lined with a faded bronze inlay and flipped it open. "Set sail in a… uh…" He paused, the finger on his free hand spinning around as he studied the compass. "General… that-way direction." The crew followed his finger with the movement of their heads as Jacks finger began to point to the _Pearl_'s starboard side before darting back to the port side.

"Captain?' Gibbs asked in confusion. Jack snapped his compass shut and turned to face his first mate.

"Come on," he said, waving Gibbs aside. "Snap to and make sail. You know how this works. Go on." He made his way towards his cabin, shooing his crew aside to make himself a path. The crew dispersed, murmuring to themselves as they set about their daily tasks. Naminé followed Marty and Gibbs over to the _Pearl_'s starboard rail.

"Have you noticed lately," Marty began slowly, "the captain seems to be acting a bit strange… er?" Gibbs glanced down at him.

"Settin' sail without knowing his own heading? Something's got Jack vexed," Gibbs said. "And mark my words, what bodes ill for Jack Sparrow bodes ill for us all."

As silently as she could Naminé slipped away from the two men and went below deck to find a place to hide in the _Pearl_'s cargo hold while she waited for Sora and Kairi to find their way to her or vice-versa. Off in the distance, thunder rumbled menacingly.

_LD_

_Tuesday, June 22__nd__ 4794 P.C._

_The Black Pearl_

Jack Sparrow sat at his table, carefully charting out his course with a pair of calipers in the early hours of the morning as dawn approached. Next to him rested his compass and a bottle of rum. Jack tapped the compass to make sure he had his heading right and the compass shifted the direction it was pointing. Jack tossed the calipers down and slumped in his seat, exasperated. He lifted the bottle of rum and turned it upside down. A few drops of his favorite beverage dripped from the empty bottle.

"Why is the rum always gone?" He muttered to himself. The only way he knew he was going to make it through the night as a sane man was to acquire more rum. He got to his feet and stumbled, nearly falling over from a something other than the rocking of the ship. "Oh, that's why." He grabbed his tricorne hat from its perch on a globe and draped his coat around his shoulders as he stepped out of his cabin. He descended into the lower levels of the _Pearl_, pausing long enough to grab hold of a lantern to light his way.

"As you were, gents," he muttered sarcastically as he passed the entirety of the crew in their hammocks. He made his way down another staircase into the ships' hold where several crates of food, gunpowder, rum and livestock were stored. Naminé gave a start and awoke as Jack walked right past her hiding place behind a trio of gunpowder barrels. She peered around blearily as Jack selected an iron key from the ring of keys in his hands. Her curiosity getting the better of her, Naminé rose to her feet and quickly cast an invisibility spell on herself before slipping into the room after Jack before the door had time to close.

Jack placed the ring of keys on a nail that jutted out from a nearby support beam. Naminé followed him closely as he shone his light into the slots of large wall to wall wine rack. He paused once to stare in confusion at something he saw in one but seemed to immediately forget about it as he spotted a lone bottle stem sticking out of the bottommost row. Eagerly, Jack bent down to pick it up but as he did so, sand poured out of the bottle. Jack straightened up and emptied the sand onto the floor with a puzzled look on his face. Naminé almost jumped out of her skin as a deep voice spoke up without warning from the shadows.

"Time's run out, Jack."

Jack gave a start and dropped the bottle, shattering it in the sand. He raised his lantern and slowly advanced towards the source of the voice. The lantern's light fell upon a water-soaked man. He was dressed in a seaweed covered overcoat and wore a black cap over the loose strands of jet-black hair that were visible. His skin was pale and entire sections of it were as gray as lifeless flesh. The right side of his face was covered in barnacles and he had a starfish shaped growth next to his right eye.

"Bootstrap," Jack said in mild surprise. "Bill Turner." The man looked up at Jack.

"You look good, Jack," he said, water flowing from his mouth and steadily dripping from his skin. Jack stared at the man in slight shock for a long moment before he straightened up, nervously eyeing 'Bootstrap' Bill.

"Is this a dream?" he asked. 'Bootstrap' glanced around.

"No," he said truthfully.

"I thought not," Jack mused. With a heavy sigh he leaned against a nearby support beam. "If it were, there'd be rum." In response, 'Bootstrap' extended his hand towards Jack, clutching a bottle of rum tightly in his gray fingers. Jack stared at the rum for a second before grabbing it. The bottle seemed to be stuck to 'Bootstrap's hand for a moment as Jack fought to pull it off. He finally managed it. He rubbed off some of the barnacles from the bottle stem to make it easier to take a drink. Naminé carefully moved closer to the pair of them, taking extra care to avoid breathing too heavily or making a noise that didn't sound like the creaking of ship as it gently rocked back and forth on the sea.

"You got the _Pearl_ back, I see," 'Bootstrap commented as he stared around at their surroundings.

"I had some help retrieving the _Pearl_ by the way," Jack said, blowing the barnacle dust off of the bottle. "Your son."

"William?" 'Bootstrap asked. Jack nodded and took a swig from the bottle. "He ended up a pirate after all…" Jack lowered the bottle and leaned back against the post.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of your carbuncle?" He inquired. 'Bootstrap looked up a Jack with a solemn expression.

"_He_ sent me," he said. Jack looked questioningly at him. "Davy Jones." Naminé's eyes widened in shock. Davy Jones was real? Jack barely seemed surprised, almost as if he had been expecting that to be the answer.

"Oh, so it's you then," he said as he sat down next to 'Bootstrap'. "He shanghaied you into service, eh?"

"I chose it," 'Bootstrap' explained. "I'm sorry for the part I played in the mutiny against you, Jack. I stood up for you. Everything went wrong after that." His hand slapped down on a hermit crab that was walking across the barrel next to him and popped it in his mouth. Naminé and Jack both watched in mild disgust. "They strapped me to a cannon. I ended up on the bottom of the ocean, the weight of the water crushing down on me. Unable to move. Unable to die, Jack. I thought even the tiniest hope of escaping this fate, I would take it. I would trade anything for it." Jack offered 'Bootstrap' the bottle and the water-soaked man took it. He took a long swig from the bottle.

"It's funny what a man will do to forestall his final judgment," Jack said as he got to his feet and began to walk away. 'Bootstrap' set the bottle down and swiftly moved to block Jack's path.

"You made a deal with him too, Jack," 'Bootstrap said darkly. "He raised the _Pearl_ from the depths for you. Thirteen years you've been her captain."

"Technically, I-" Jack began but was quickly cut off.

"Jack," he sighed with a shake of his head, "you won't be able to talk yourself out of this. The terms what applied to me apply to you as well. One soul, bound to crew a hundred years upon his ship."

"Yes, but the _Flying Dutchman_ already has a captain," Jack said as he stepped around 'Bootstrap', nearly stepping into Naminé as he passed. "So there's really no-"

"Then it's the locker for you!" 'Bootstrap said forcibly. "Jones' terrible leviathan will find you and drag the _Pearl_ back to the depths and you along with it." Jack was silent for a moment as he quickly processed that tidbit of information.

"Any idea when Jones might release said terrible beastie?" He asked with a nervous grin.

"I already told you, Jack. Your time is up," 'Bootstrap' said as he placed his fist against Jack's left palm. Jack let out a gasp, feeling as if his hand had been plunged into ice water. 'Bootstrap' turned and walked away from Jack towards the ship's hull. He paused to look back at Jack and instead his eyes focused on Naminé. The blonde-teen froze. Even though she was still invisible, 'Bootstrap' could still see her somehow

"It comes now, drawn with ravenous hunger to the man what bears the Black Spot." Naminé peered over Jack's shoulder and stifled a gasp as a black, bulbous lesion formed on Jack's palm. Naminé and Jack both looked up from his palm only to find that 'Bootstrap' Bill had vanished seemingly into thin air. Jack paused for one brief moment with a terrified look on his face before rushing out of the room, shouting to rouse the crew. Naminé quickly followed him, thankful her invisibility spell was still working.

"On deck all hands!" Jack was shouting as he ran up the staircase. The crew were all scrambling out of their hammocks and shouting as they rushed to get dressed. "Make fast the bunt gasket! On deck! Scurry! Scurry! I want movement! Movement! I want movement!" He continued his shouting as he rushed up the stairs, snatching a cloth from one of the crew to cover his hand and thus hide the Black Spot as he did so. "Haul those sheets! Run them! Run! Keep running! Run as if the devil himself and itself is upon us!"

"Do we have a heading?" A very disgruntled and confused Gibbs asked. Jack let out a small shout and spun around to face Gibbs. "Run! Land." Jack darted around one of the masts as the rest of the crew piled onto deck, all of them quickly attending to their assigned duties. Naminé and Gibbs peered around the mast to find Jack attempting to hide behind it. Jack gave out a small cry when he saw Gibbs. It was almost as if he'd be scared by his own shadow.

"Which port?" Gibbs asked.

"I didn't say 'port'!" Jack said nervously. "I said 'land'. Any land!" Jack the Monkey dropped down from the lashings overhead and grabbed Jack's tricorne hat. The monkey let out a screech to which Jack responded with a hiss. Jack the Monkey turned and threw Jack's hat overboard. The crew who had seen rushed to peer over the railing in shock.

"Jack's hat!" Gibbs exclaimed. "Bring her about!"

"No, no!" Jack shouted suddenly. "Leave it!" Everyone looked at their captain in shock. Jack was willing to abandon his precious hat? Something was definitely wrong with him. "Run." He dashed away from the mast he had been hiding behind. Gibbs turned around to the crew as they stared at their captain's retreating figure.

"Back to your stations, the lot of you!" The crew obeyed. Gibbs turned back and spotted Jack hiding under one of the twin staircases that led to the upper deck of the _Pearl_. "Jack?" Jack made a hushing noise and returned to his attempt to remain perfectly still. "For the love of mother and child, Jack, what's coming after us?" Jack looked fearfully at Gibbs.

"Nothing," he whispered, but his eyes said otherwise. Naminé looked out at the calm sea nervously. So far, she absolutely hated this world.

_Sora, Kairi, where are you guys?_

_LD_

_Port Royal_

A trio of redcoats marched Sora and Will into Lord Cutler Beckets personal office. Despite the uncomfortable conditions of the cell they had been forced to share, Sora and Will had both agreed it could have been worse for them. After all, they had had the chance to catch up. Will had apologized that he hadn't invited Sora, Donald or Goofy to the wedding, but he wasn't sure how since none of them had ever really explained how he could've let them know. Sora had told Will all about his adventures up to this point, forgetting as he often did to protect the world order. Will was happy to hear that Sora had finally found his friends, and most importantly, was officially together with the girl of his dreams.

The redcoats brought them to a halt in the office. Beckett looked up from a piece of parchment that he and Ian Mercer had been discussing in hushed voices.

"Lord Beckett, the prisoners as ordered, sir," the captain of the redcoats announced. Beckett's eyes traveled to the shackles around Will's and Sora's wrists. He gestured at them.

"Those won't be necessary," he said. The captain nodded and swiftly removed the shackles. Sora decided to take it one step further and massaged his wrists with a dramatic sigh of relief, earning a small chuckle from Will. Beckett passed the parchment to Mercer and strode away to pour an amber liquid into a trio of crystalline wine goblets decorated with gold.

"The East India Trading Company has need of your services," he informed Will and Sora as the redcoats and Mercer exited the room. Beckett offered a glass to each of them. Will simply stared him down and Sora pointed out that he was three years below the legal drinking age back home. Beckett set the goblets down and picked his up as he strode towards a fireplace set into the nearby wall. "We wish for the two of you to act as our agents in a business transaction with our mutual friend Captain Sparrow."

"More acquaintance than friend," Will stated. "How do you know him?"

"We've had dealings in the past," Beckett explained as he pulled a metal rod from the fire. A reverse P shaped brand glowed red hot as Beckett examined it. "And we've each left our mark on the other."

"What mark did he leave on you?" Will asked smugly.

"Probably drank all of their rum," Sora chuckled under his breath. Beckett ignored both of them.

"By your efforts," he continued as he slid the rod back into the fire, "Jack Sparrow was set free. I would like you to go to him and recover a certain property in his possession."

"Recover," Will repeated as Beckett drained his goblet. "At the point of a sword?"

"I don't think Jack is the type of guy who would willingly give up anything he owns," Sora said thoughtfully. "I think it's like an unspoken pirate rule or something, right? Take what you can, give nothing back and all that?" Beckett ignored him as easily as he would've ignored a fly.

"Bargain," he said simply, placing his goblet down on the table and walked over to his desk where he opened up a small box emblazoned with the East India Trading Company's logo. He produced a small, leather bound set of documents and held them up for Soar and Will to see. "Letters of Marque. You will offer what amounts to a full pardon. Jack will be free, a privateer in the employ of England."

"Somehow I doubt Jack will consider employment the same as being free," Will pointed out.

"Freedom," Beckett scoffed quietly. He placed the letters of Marque back into the box and made his way to an outside balcony while gesturing for Sora and Will to follow. A giant clock face was being hoisted up in front of the balcony as several platoons of soldiers marched along the docks in the early morning light. "Jack Sparrow is a dying breed. The world is shrinking, the blank edges of the map filled in. Jack must find his place in the New World or perish. Not unlike yourselves." He turned to face the pair of them. "You and your fiancées face the hangman's noose." Will raised his eyebrow at Sora.

"You and Kairi are engaged?" He asked. Sora's face turned red.

"What? Of course not!" He stammered. "We've only been going out for just over a month." Sora's voice trailed off as he realized what he had said. He had completely forgotten about his one month anniversary with Kairi. His mood was suddenly crushed. Will nodded in understanding and turned his gaze back on the harbor.

"So," he addressed Beckett, "You get Jack and the _Black Pearl_?" Beckett looked at him in confusion.

"The _Black Pearl_?" He inquired.

"The property you want that he possesses," Will stated. Becket let out a small chuckle.

"A ship? Hardly," he said as though it should've been obvious. "The item in question is considerably smaller and far more valuable, something Sparrow keeps on his person at all times. A compass?" Sora was pulled from his minor guilt-caused depression at the mention of the compass Jack owned that never pointed north. What would Beckett want with a broken compass? Will's expression clearly showed that he hadn't forgotten about it, an expression that did not go unnoticed by Beckett's watchful gaze. "Ah, you know it. Bring back that compass or there's no deal." His meaning couldn't have been plainer. If Sora and Will didn't bring back Jack's compass the two of them along with Kairi and Elizabeth would be put to death. Will and Sora exchanged a nervous glance.

"In one hour, a ship will depart from the harbor to any destination of your choosing," Beckett announced as he poured himself another goblet of the amber liquid. "After that, you're on your own." He motioned for the two of them to leave. They complied, both preferring to spend as little time as possible around that man. They opened the door to exit the office and almost immediately ran into Governor Swann, who immediately began to pretend that he wasn't eavesdropping.

"Oh! William, Sora! What are you two doing here?" He asked guiltily.

"Leaving," Will said. "Do you know where they're keeping Elizabeth? I need to see her." Governor Swann nodded.

"Of course, my dear boy," he said, clearly under the impression that neither Will nor Sora knew he had listened in on their conversation with Beckett. He spun on his heel and gestured for the two of them to follow. "Come, come. We'd best make this quick."

_LD_

_RGLC Hang 'Em High,_

_Nearing Port Royal_

"There it is," Recovery Two said, her finger pointing to a tiny blip on the monitor.

"Only life support is functional," Recovery Seven noted. He leaned back in his chair and carefully examined the schematics displayed on his helmets HUD. "It's not capable of housing a smart AI and scans show that it doesn't even have a dumb AI. It's all manual so we shouldn't have to worry about alarms."

"You remember the plan?" Two asked. Seven nodded.

"I go over and I secure the asset," he stated plain as day. "Then I return using our pre-designated warp frequency after priming the short range EMP generator. Once I'm back, I activate the device and plunge their ship into darkness. In and out in less than a minute, then we make our escape back to Radiant Garden and the rest of the Monarchist party sings our praise.

"And if the boy gives you trouble?" Two asked. Seven smirked and casually examined his fingernails as a flurry of red sparks danced between them.

"Let's see him try."

_LD_

_Fort Charles Prison_

_Port Royal_

"Here, now, you can't be here!" A prison guard said as Sora and Will rushed past him towards the cells where Kairi and Elizabeth were held.

"I think you'll find they can," Governor Swann said.

"Mister Swann-"

"_Governor_ Swann, still. Do you think I wear this wig to keep my head warm?"

"Jack's compass?" Kairi whispered as she and Sora leaned closely to the bars of her cell. "I don't understand. Didn't you tell me that it doesn't point north? What good does the compass do him?" Sora shrugged.

"I don't know," he said. "But Will and I are going to find Jack and we'll get him to give us the compass so we can come back here and then Beckett's going to drop all of the charges against us."

"No," Governor Swann said. Sora, Kairi, Will and Elizabeth all turned to look at him in confusion. "We must find our own avenue to secure your freedom."

"Is that a lack of faith in Jack, or in me and Sora?" Will asked.

"That you would risk your lives to save Sparrow's does not mean he would do the same for anyone else," Governor Swann said forcibly. "Now, where's that dog with the keys?" He began whistling for the dog and looking around for it as the two couples turned back to each other.

"I have faith in you," Elizabeth whispered to Will. "All three of you."

"Can't you just unlock our cells with your Keyblade?" Kairi whispered as Sora stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. "I already tried but apparently the Keyblade really does act like a key in the fact that it has to face the front of the lock to work. And I can't get my Keyblade to angle right from in here."

"And add jailbreak to our list of charges?" Sora asked with a smirk. "Besides, I need you to do me a favor. Can you keep an eye on Elizabeth? You know, keep her safe in case the Heartless or Nobodies show up?" Kairi nodded slowly.

"Does that mean you don't want me to come with you?" Kairi asked quietly. Sora shook his head.

"Of course I want you to come," he whispered. "But Will and I can handle this I think. I'll be back for you before you know it." Kairi smiled softly at him.

"Okay, I'll wait here with Elizabeth," she said. "But this had better be the last time you leave me behind for anything. Got it, mister?" She poked Sora gently on his forehead.

"I promise," Sora said, giving her a quick kiss through the bars of her cell.

"Where will you two find him?" Elizabeth asked, drawing Sora's attention away from Kairi. He and Will shared a glance, both thinking the same thing.

"Tortuga," Will said simply. "We'll start there and we won't stop searching 'till we find him. And then I plan to return here to marry you."

"Properly?" Elizabeth asked.

"Eagerly, if you'll still have me," Will whispered.

"If it weren't for these bars I'd have you already," Elizabeth whispered sweetly to him. "I'll wait for you."

"Keep a weather eye on the horizon," Will said gently before he pulled away and made his way to the stairs. Sora gave Kairi one last kiss and vanished after him.

_LD_

* * *

_That's all for this week. Some brief facts about this chapter:_

_1. Yes, I know the PotC scenes aren't in the same order they are in the film. I did that on purpose. _

_2. I wanted Riku's and Keila's fight to be more grandiose but I could only do so much with Riku not wanting to hurt her. If he lives, they will have a rematch. If he doesn't, Sora will avenge his death._

_3. My beta kept drinking my rum._

_4. After the fight, I had about twenty-nine or so different versions of the chapter. This one was the one I was most satisfied with and I will be including the abandoned scenes at some point or in some altered form due to the importance they all play._

_5. Twilight isn't literature._

_6. It is two in the morning here and this cheesecake I found in the freezer is delicious.  
_

_As always, reviews are welcome and appreciated. Give me your opinions people!_

_Until next time my friends! (I promise I won't make you wait a month to find out Riku's final fate)_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons  
_


	23. Do You Fear Death?

_I have returned from the dead once more!_

_I'm not being very consistent with my updates anymore, am I? My bad. I've just been really busy with work and remodeling a bathroom. Take my advice, the whole DIY thing is not worth the effort._

_But enough about that. Anyone go and see the final Harry Potter film? It was fantastic. I got to go with my beta and her fiancé to the midnight premiere, which was totally worth the five hours in line. I'm sad to see it finally come to a complete end, but it was well worth the ride. _

_ Disclaimer: I still only own my plot, ideas and original characters/ideas/places. I don't own anything else._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter Twenty Three: Do You Fear Death?

_Tuesday, June 22__nd__, 4794 P.C._

_Island Jungle in the Caribbean_

Naminé reveled in her triumph as she plunged the Rejection of Fate through the abdomen of the last of a group of Neoshadows. The _Black Pearl_ had made landfall on a large island covered with a vast expanse of jungle less than an hour before and shortly after Jack had ordered his crew to moor the ship to the shore he had vanished into the jungle, shouting something about getting as far inland as quickly as possible. The crew had rushed to follow their captain's orders before chasing after him into the jungle.

It wasn't long after that when the Heartless decided to make an appearance. The majority of Jack's crew hadn't been around during Sora's previous venture to this world and had therefore never seen denizens of Darkness before. Even the simple appearance of the Shadows caused many of the hardened sailors to panic. It was at that point that Naminé decided she had no choice but to intervene.

Grinning to herself, Naminé turned to glance back at the crew to make sure they were all still okay. To her surprise, they were staring, open-mouthed and wide-eyed back at her. Naminé glanced down at herself and realized that her invisibility spell had worn off. She looked back up nervously at the pirates. Some of them began to have the hungry look of men who had gone months without fulfilling certain needs as they stared at her.

"Umm… Hi?" Naminé managed to say through a nervous chuckle. Gibbs stepped forward, his eyes fixated on the Rejection of Fate.

"Sora?" Gibbs asked, glancing up at her face from her Keyblade. "My god. What the devil happened to you?" Naminé raised an eyebrow at him.

"Excuse me, but my name is Naminé," she said, "Not 'Sora'. Sora's my friend." Gibbs' foolishness immediately dawned on him and he bowed his head slightly in embarrassment.

"Beg pardon, Miss," he said apologetically. "I've only ever seen Sora use a weapon such as that."

"It's alright," Naminé said.

"But if you're here, then where is Sora?" Marty asked.

"I don't know," Naminé said as she dispelled her Keyblade. "I got separated from my sister and him when we arrived." Gibbs and Marty shared a glance. Gibbs opened his mouth, undoubtedly to ask Naminé another question, but he never got the chance. Without warning, he collapsed to the ground suddenly unconscious. Before anyone had time to react, the rest of the crew also collapsed, a few of them letting out startled cries. Naminé looked around wildly in surprise. The Rejection of Fate appeared back in her hand as she looked around for a hidden assailant.

She felt a sharp prick in her neck. Her free hand darted up and came away with a tiny, plumed dart. Almost instantly, her vision blurred and she felt herself fall towards the ground. The Rejection of Fate slipped out of her hand and vanished in a thousand twinkling lights as Naminé's head hit the soft jungle floor. As her vision slowly began to darken, Naminé watched as several figures emerged from the trees and slowly approached her and the fallen crew.

_LD_

_Tortuga, the Caribbean_

"Captain Jack Sparrow? Owes me four doubloons. Heard he was dead." One sailor told Will and Sora as the two walked around the docks of Tortuga in an attempt to learn of Jack's whereabouts.

"Singapore, that's what I heard," a fisherman on the beach had told them. "Drunk, with a smile on his face. Sure as the tide, Jack Sparrow will turn up in Singapore."

"Jack Sparrow?" Giselle, a blonde woman in a yellow dress had said casually after Will had tracked them down, recalling that she and her friend knew Jack.

"I haven't seen him in a month," her friend, a woman in red by the name of Scarlett said in a tone of recognition.

"When you find him will you give him a message?" Sora's head whipped around as Giselle slapped him across the face as hard as she could. From there on, it looked as if they wouldn't find any helpful clues as to where in the world Jack Sparrow was. They had spent nearly all day looking and finally, their fortunes changed when they decided to try the docks again.

"Cannot say about Jack Sparrow," a dark-skinned shrimper with long dreadlocks and a Jamaican accent told them as he repaired one of his nets, "but there's an island just south of the straights where I trade spice for… delicious long pork. Cannot say about Jack. But you'll find a ship there. A ship with black sails."

_LD_

_Friday, June 25__th__, 4794 P.C._

_Offshore of an Island Jungle in the Caribbean_

Sora's spyglass carefully traveled the shoreline until it rested upon none other than the _Black Pearl_ herself. Her infamous black sails were furled up and several ropes moored her to the shore. All in all, she looked abandoned.

"That's definitely the _Black Pearl_," Sora informed will as he closed his spyglass and tucked it away in one of his pockets.

"My brother will take you ashore," the shrimper informed them. He led them to a longboat where his brother was waiting for them. The brother rowed them towards the shore for several minutes in silence. He stopped several hundred yards from shore, well away from the shallows, and turned to stare at Sora and Will.

"What's wrong?" Will asked. "The beach is right there."

"Ne bourgeois pas, c'est trop dangereux," the brother said.

"What?" Sora asked in confusion.

"Je ne peux, c'est trop dangereux, j'avais le dit." Will rose to his feet. It was obvious this man wasn't going to take them any further. "Bon voyage, monsieurs." Sora scrambled to his feet and he and Will leapt into the ocean. They swam quickly to shore, both shivering slightly as they stepped from the water onto the beach where the wind chilled them.

"It doesn't look like anyone's home," Sora pointed out as he and Will walked up alongside the _Pearl_. Will, determined to not give up hope just yet, cupped his hands around his mouth and started calling out for the crew.

"Jack! Jack Sparrow!" Will called out. Sora shrugged and quickly joined in.

"Gibbs! Naminé!"

_Naminé__?_ Roxas asked.

_Of course._ Sora replied. _What if she ended up with Jack's crew? We might just find her._

_That's a good point._

"Marty!" Will shouted. "Cotton! Anybody? Where could they have gone?" He and Sora glanced around the beach.

"There!" Sora exclaimed. He pointed at a small section of the jungle that looked as if a path had recently been cut through into the trees. "Think they went this way?"

"It's possible," Will said thoughtfully. "We'd best check just to make sure." The two of them nodded and strode towards the trees. They had barely entered the jungle when a bright blue and yellow parrot fluttered up to them and landed on a tree stump.

"Isn't that Cotton's parrot?" Sora asked. Will let out a sigh of relief.

"Ah, a familiar face," he said. "I guess we're on the right track." Cotton's parrot let out a loud squawk and flapped its wings.

"Don't eat me!" It said. Will and Sora exchanged looks of confusion.

"We're not going to eat you," Will said. "Come on, Sora. Let's keep moving."

"Don't eat me!" Cotton's parrot continued. "No! Don't eat me!" It let out another loud squawk as Sora and Will traveled further away from it. As the pair ventured deeper into the jungle, Sora couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. More than once he could've sworn that he saw humanoid shapes darting around in the underbrush. Will reassured him, repeatedly, that he was just seeing things. They spent several minutes wandering into the tress before Will held up a hand to stop them. Hanging from a thin string draped along some of the shrubbery was a leather flask that was all too familiar to Sora and Will. The pair of them exchanged a glance.

"Gibbs," they said in unison. Will plucked the flask from the string and began to follow it along. The string guided them into a small clearing, no larger than five feet in diameter when they reached the end of the string. Sora and Will stared at the frayed edges of the string's end in confusion. A pair of eyes opened up on the large tree next to them and a man covered in camouflage that made him blend in perfectly from the tree leapt towards them with a cry. Both Will and Sora stumbled back in surprise and right into a trap. A rope had been concealed by the foliage underneath their feet and without warning, tightened around Sora's and Will's ankles, hoisting the pair of them high into the air and leaving them hanging upside-down.

A dozen spear bearing savages, all painted in forest camouflage emerged from the shrubbery, their weapons aimed at Sora and Will. Without hesitation, Will drew his sword and Sora called the Oblivion to his hand.

"Come on, then!" Sora shouted at the savages, knocking the tips of their spears away with his blade. "Who wants it?"

"Let's go!" Will challenged, swinging his blade in an attempt to reach the natives. "I could do this all day!" Several of the savages looked over to one of their companions with a bone piercing through the bridge of his nose. He raised a blow-dart gun and fired a needle into Will's neck. Will's body went limp almost instantly. His sword fell from his limp hand and clattered to the soft earth below. Before Sora could react, the savage with the blow-dart gun fired a second needle into Sora's neck. The Oblivion fell to the jungle floor, vanishing in a thousand sparkles of light.

_LD_

_Savage Village, Jungle Island in the Caribbean_

Sora gave a groan as the venom that had been in the needle wore off and his senses returned to him. His hands and feet were bound to a bamboo pole and he was being carried into the savage's village by two of the men who had captured them. Craning his neck to glance around at his surroundings, Sora spotted Will being transported into the heart of the village in the same fashion he was. Around thirty or so more savages lined up to watch their prisoners being brought in.

"Kali kali ten daga!" The savage leading the procession declared to a man sitting on a throne of bones and dried animal hide. Sora and Will craned their necks to get a better look at the man. Eyes had been painted onto his face and he wore a tall, feathered headdress in place of his usual tricorne hat, but there was no doubt in their minds that the man on the throne was none other than Jack Sparrow.

_That's Captain Jack Sparrow?_ Roxas asked. _He really is as eccentric as you made him out to be. Just look at the makeup on his face!_

"Jack?" Will asked groggily, clearly still fighting his way out of the haze created by the toxins in his system. "Jack Sparrow! I can honestly say I'm glad to see you!" Jack rose from his throne and strode over to the two captives. He poked Sora in the shoulder and stomach before moving onto Will.

"Umm, Jack?" Sora said nervously. Why wasn't he letting them go?

"Jack, it's us!" Will pleaded. "It's Will and Sora! Don't you remember us?" Jack stopped poking will and looked up at the savage that had led the procession into the village.

"Way-say kohn," he said.

"Ein dala," the savage said as he bowed his head. "Eesippi." The entire village around them repeated the final word.

"Could you get them to let us down?" Sora asked. "My neck is killing me!"

"Kay lay lohm," Jack continued, completely ignoring Sora. "Lum piki-piki. Lum eensie weensie." He knelt next to Will and examined him. "Lum say say eunuchy. Snip-snip." He made a motion with his fingers to simulate scissors cutting through him. The savages all made knowing sounds and disgusted expressions. As Jack straightened up, both Sora and Will spotted the compass.

"Jack! The compass!" Will exclaimed. Jack paused as he strode away, showing that he was listening "That's all we need! Elizabeth and Sora's girlfriend are in danger!"

"We were arrested for trying to help you!" Sora shouted desperately. "They face the gallows!" Jack turned around and addressed the entire village, apparently choosing to ignore Sora and Will.

"Snay say lum," he said authoritatively. "Shoop-shoop sma. Smommy sama lam shuku. Savvy?" The savages all glanced around at one another in confusion. "Bah liki-liki."

"Bah liki-liki!" The leader of the procession shouted. The savages cheered and began to chant.

"Save me!" Jack hissed to the pair of them as the savages began to take Sora and Will back out of the village.

"Jack, what did you tell them?" Will shouted. "No! What about Elizabeth? Jack!"

"Well this sucks," Sora grumbled.

_LD_

_Offshore of the Savage Island _

A pair of men drifted along at sea in a simple rowboat. One was short and rather round with a balding head of hair, a dark black and gray beard and yellowed eyes. His companion was much taller, with wiry blonde hair, and a wooden right eye. The man with the wooden eye lowered the leather-bound book in his hands and stared briefly at the other man before starting up the same debate they had had for the better part of the past few hours.

"Well, I say it was Divine Providence what escaped us from jail," Ragetti said. Pintel rolled his eyes.

"And I say it was me being clever," he glanced behind him. "Ain't that right, poochie?" A dog with a ring of keys in its mouth looked up from its resting place.

"Well, how do you know it weren't Divine providence what inspired you to be clever?" Ragetti asked before glancing back down at his book. "Anyways I ain't stealing no ship."

"It ain't stealing, it's salvaging," Pintel explained for what felt to him to be the millionth time. "Since when did you care?"

"Since we're not immortal no more," Ragetti explained as though it should've been obvious as he tapped his book. "We gotta take care of our immortal souls."

"You know you can't read."

"It's the Bible. You get credit for trying."

"Pretending to read the Bible's a lie! That's a mark against…" Pintel left the sentence to hang as he gestured up at the sky. He and Ragetti both looked around as the dog with the keys let out a couple of barks. "Look! There it is!" On the shore of a nearby island was none other than the ship they had been searching for, the _Black Pearl_. The dog let out a whimper and leapt from the boat into the water. Pintel and Ragetti watched as he paddled his way towards the shore.

"What's got into him?" Ragetti asked.

"Musta seen a catfish," Pintel suggested. They both let out guffaws of laughter as the dog reached the shore and shook the water from its fur.

"Stupid mongrel!" Ragetti mocked. The dog stood on the shore and watched as a tidal wave rose up and capsized the rowboat. A minute later, Pintel and Ragetti stumbled out of the surf, soaked from head to toe.

"Come on!"Pintel shouted back to Ragetti with a laugh as he ran up alongside the _Pearl_. "It's ours for the taking!"

"Tide's coming in. That should help," Ragetti pointed out eagerly. Pintel gave him a slightly confused look at the man's sudden change of heart. "Well, salvaging is saving, in a manner of speaking."

"There's the truth of it!" Pintel said with a grin. Somewhere of in the distance the steady beating of drums could be heard. The two men paused next to a mooring line and stared nervously out at the jungle.

"Suppose we'd better save it as soon as we can, what with our souls in such a vulnerable state and all," Ragetti said. Pintel crossed himself several times.

"Amen to that."

_LD_

_Hanging Cages, Savage Island, _

The savages had taken Sora and Will to a steep cliff near the village, where they were unceremoniously thrown into a round cage comprised of wood and some sturdy material Sora couldn't quite name before being lowered over the cliff edge. Once the cage had stopped swinging back and forth in a dizzying manner. Sora took a look around at the cage's other occupants. To his surprise, he realized Gibbs, Marty, Cotton and Naminé were all in the cage with them.

"Sora!" Naminé exclaimed, kneeling next to him to the best of her ability in the cage.

"Naminé?" Sora asked. "How'd you get here?"

"I ended up on the _Black Pearl_ when we beamed down," Naminé explained. "And I got captured by the Pelegostos along with the crew."

"Who are the Pelegostos?" Will asked.

"Those natives what threw you in here with us," Gibbs explained. "It's good to see you two again. Although, it could be under better circumstances."

"Why did Jack have us thrown in here?" Sora asked as Naminé helped him stand up in the cage. "He was acting like he didn't even remember us."

"Aye, the Pelegostos made Jack their chief," Gibbs explained. "But he only remains chief so long as he acts like a chief."

"So he had no choice," Will realized. "He's a captive then as much as the rest of us."

"It gets worse," Naminé said with a slightly nauseous look on her face.

"See, the Pelegostos believe that Jack is a god in human form," Gibbs explained. "And they intend to do him the honor of releasing him from his fleshy prison." Cotton grabbed hold of Gibbs' hand and bit down on his fingers to emphasize his point. Gibbs let out a cry of pain and wrenched his hand away from Cotton, shooting the tongue-less man a glare as he leaned against the cage. "They'll roast him and eat him." Looks of mild horror crossed Sora's and Will's faces. Will glanced around their cage and over to another identical cage hanging about thirty feet away.

"Where's the rest of the crew?" He asked. Gibbs looked around the cage.

"These cages we're in weren't built 'till after we got here," he replied. Will and Sora both immediately backed away from the 'bars'. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of drumbeats became more audible. "The feast is about to begin. Jack's life will end when the drums stop."

"I told you it got worse," Naminé chimed in.

"Well, we can't just sit here and wait then," Will said thoughtfully. "Can we?"

The prisoners all threw themselves against the 'bars' of their bone cages with loud cries, forcing them to swing back and forth across the chasm they were dangling over. Each time they gained more momentum, pushing them closer and closer to the cliff-face where their fingertips were able to brush up against stones and vines. Roxas seemed to find their situation hilarious and appropriately played circus-style music inside Sora's head as the pair of cages swung back and forth.

_Will you cut it out?_ Sora shouted inside his head as he finally managed to grab hold of a vine.

_Alright. Killjoy._

"Put your legs through!"Gibbs shouted. "Start to climb!"

"Come on, men!" Will called out. "It'll take all of us to crew the _Black Pearl_!"

"Actually, you wouldn't need everyone," a man wearing a turban in the other cage shouted back. "About six would do." The two cages halted in their ascent as the occupants of each glanced at one another. Sora did a quick head count. There were six in their cage, and six in the other. Off in the distance, the drums stopped beating, a silence that didn't go unnoticed by the twelve prisoners. "Oh, dear." Will glanced down at Gibbs, who nodded nervously.

"Hurry!" Will shouted. Both cages began moving up the cliff-face once again, this time with a renewed sense of urgency and panic. They climbed for several minutes as Marty, cheered them on. About halfway up, Sora and Naminé both released their vines and floated up to the top of the cage, helping to make the climbing a little easier on the others.

"Stop!" Will hissed suddenly. Sora and Naminé did as they were told and floated down away from the top of the cage. Everyone else paused and followed his worried gaze to watch as a lone cannibal crossed a narrow, wooden bridge that spanned the chasm. The man with the turban in the other cage gestured to his fellows and they resumed their climb as silently as possible.

"Stop!" Sora hissed. The other men just laughed silently until the man with the turban grabbed hold of a snake instead of a vine. Panic broke loose in the cage and the men lost their grip on the vines. The cannibal heard their cries and turned to watch as the sudden drop proved to be too much for the ropes suspending the cage. With a snap, the men plummeted into the depths of the chasm, vanishing into a thick fog below. The cannibal's eyes traveled from where the men had vanished up to where the remaining cage was still being held to the cliff-face by its occupants.

"Move!" Will shouted.

"Give it all you've got!" Sora shouted as he and Naminé slammed their backs against the top of the cage. Two agonizingly long minutes of climbing later, they pulled themselves up onto the cliff-top.

"Cut it loose!" Will ordered. "Find a rock!"

"No need!" Sora said. With a flash of light, the Oblivion appeared in his hand. He stuck his arm out of the cage and effortlessly sliced through the rope. They all looked around as shouts and battle cries reached their ears. What seemed to be all of the Pelegostos tribe was hot on their trail as they ran towards the cage from across the bridge. "Roll the cage!" They all threw their weight against the side of the cage furthest from the cannibals and promptly sent it rolling down the steep slope of the mountain.

Almost immediately, Sora regretted the idea of rolling the cage. All he could hear was the rushing of wind, the sickening crunch as some of the bones fractured in the cage and the terrified screams of his companions. They rolled for several long minutes, over uneven terrain, bouncing off of trees and even rolling off of a small cliff only to land on the other side. Their ride came to an abrupt halt as the cage rolled up the side of a curved coconut tree before crashing back down to a flat surface, surprisingly still intact. Sora sat straight up feeling slightly nauseous and more than a little bit dizzy.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Naminé said in a queasy voice as she held a hand over her mouth. She gave a small squeak of fright as an arrow flew right in front of her, miraculously missing everyone. They all turned to look behind them. Somehow, the Pelegostos had managed to keep pace with the cage as it had rolled down the mountain side.

"Lift the cage!" Will shouted.

"Come on, lads!" Gibbs cried out urgently. "Lift it like a lady's skirt!" Naminé cleared her throat loudly and glared at Gibbs. He raised his eyebrows at her and she gestured at the off white skirt she was wearing. The others quickly scrambled to their feet and lifted the cage so it was up around waist level on most of them, except for Marty, whose legs were a few inches too short to reach the ground.

"Naminé, worry about it later!" Sora shouted. "Just run!" They ran as quickly as they could while still hoisting the bone cage around them. Unfortunately, their lack of mobility worked in favor for the Pelegostos, who quickly gained ground on them, still hollering and shouting in their native speak. Every time Sora glanced behind him, their pursuers only seemed that much closer.

Without warning, the ground vanished from beneath their feet and the six escapees plummeted down a small ravine into a lightly flowing river. The cage finally snapped, splitting into two shells of bone. Sora and Will heaved one of the shells off of them as the Pelegostos began to line up on the ridge above them, carefully aiming spears and arrows.

"Reflega!" Sora shouted. A domed honeycomb barrier of light formed over himself and his companions as the cannibals wooden projectiles rained down on them.

"This way, lads!" Gibbs shouted gesturing for them to follow him to a rocky outcropping that provided cover. The Pelegostos suddenly appeared on the ridge directly opposite of them, effectively rendering their cover pointless. Sora raised his hands, prepared to cast another Reflect spell if necessary.

"Malietoto!" A young boy shouted. Malietoto!" The Pelegostos lowered their weapons and vanished from sight. The six of them waited for several moments to see if the cannibals were going to pop out and surprise them before starting to swim down river where it led straight to the beach. The instant they all were out of the river and on the damp sandy beach, they broke into a flat out sprint for where the _Black Pearl_ was moored in the distance. From what Sora could tell as they ran closer and closer to it, the _Pearl_ was already halfway in the water as the tide came in with a balding man on the beach holding tightly to one of the lines.

"Haul loose the mooring line!" Pintel shouted as a wave washed up and nearly dragged him out into the sea. "The mooring line!"

"He's got me eye!" Ragetti shouted, peering over the railing a Pintel as he pointed angrily at Jack the monkey. "He won't give it back!"

"Well, how'd you get it back last time?" Pintel shouted as the recently freed captives ran up to them.

"Excellent," Gibbs said excitedly, clapping Pintel on the shoulder as he ran past, "Our work's half done!"

"We done it for you, knowin' you'd be commin' back for it!" Pintel said, clearly trying to suck up to Gibbs.

"Make ready to sail, boys!" Gibbs shouted. He paused, catching Naminé's raised eyebrow. "And lady."

"What about Jack?" Will asked in a demanding tone. He and Sora shared a brief glance. "We won't leave without him."

"Oi!"

Everyone turned to look as none other than Jack Sparrow himself ran out of the jungle and towards the _Pearl_.

"There he is," Sora said. "Problem solved." His grin faded as the entirety of the Pelegostos village emerged from the trees closely behind Jack.

"Time to go," Will said, turning back to the ship.

"Cast off those lines!" Gibbs shouted in a panicked tone. By some miracle, Jack managed to outrun the Pelegostos as the _Pearl_ moved too far into the sea for them to follow. He paused halfway up a climbing net on the Pearl's side to look back at the cannibals as they stood on the shoreline.

"Alas, my children," he called out to them. "This is the day that you shall always remember as the day you almost-" His words were cut off as a large wave washed over, soaking him even more than he already was before he finished in a slightly dejected tone "Captain Jack Sparrow." He shook his head and proceeded to climb the rest of the way up. Pintel and Ragetti, both obviously wanting to be in Jack's good graces, ran up to the thoroughly soaked captain and draped his coat over his shoulders. Gibbs, Sora and Naminé strode up to Jack.

"Zola!" Jack exclaimed, quickly shaking Sora's hand. "Good to see you again." He glanced at Naminé. "You are most certainly not Donald nor Goofy. Who are you?"

"Naminé," the blonde responded. "Sora's friend." Jack nodded in understanding and turned his attention to Gibbs.

"Ah, I see then," Jack said. "Well a friend of Soka's is a friend of mine."

"Are you ever going to get my name right?" Sora asked in slight exasperation. Jack considered it for a moment.

"Maybe someday, but it is quite a hard name to remember, you see," he replied.

"It's only two syllables!" Sora groaned. "How hard could it be?" Gibbs cleared his throat loudly, drawing Jack and Sora out of what was sure to be a confusing round of banter.

"Let's put some distance between us and this island and head out to open sea," Gibbs suggested.

"Yes to the first. Yes to the second, but only insofar as we keep to the shallows as much as possible," Jack said.

"That seems a bit contradictory, Captain," Gibbs pointed out.

"I have every faith in your reconciliatory navigational skills, Master Gibbs," Jack said in an irritated tone. "Now, where is that monkey? I want to shoot something." With a screech, Jack the monkey dropped Ragetti's wooden eye to the deck from his perch in the _Pearl_'s rigging. Pintel handed his pistol off to Jack as the captain prepared to shoot said primate before Will strode up and took the captain's attention once more.

"Jack. Elizabeth is in danger," the blacksmith said.

"Have you considered keeping a more watchful eye on her; maybe just lock her up somewhere?" Jack asked as he strode towards the helm.

"She is locked up, in a prison along with Sora's girlfriend," Will said angrily, "bound to hang for helping you."

"There comes a time when one must take responsibility for one's mistakes," Jack said plainly. Will glanced at Sora and the teen summoned the Oblivion, placing it by Jack's throat.

"So, helping you defeat Barbossa, get the _Pearl_ back, and freeing you from the Grim Reaper's curse was a mistake?" Sora asked. "Funny, I thought you were grateful." Jack glanced warily down at the Keyblade.

"We need that compass of yours, Jack," Will said. "We must trade it for their freedom." Jack stared thoughtfully at Will for a few moments before shoving the Oblivion's tip away from him as Naminé spun Sora around to give him a mixed look of shock and anger.

"Kairi's in jail?" She whispered angrily. "And you just left her there?"

"Kairi can handle herself," Sora pointed out. "Will and I had to find Jack. I only left Kairi behind so she could protect Elizabeth from the Heartless and Nobodies should they show up."

"If anything happens to her because you left her behind," Naminé said in a threatening tone, leaving her sentence unfinished as she turned away from him to watch as Jack strode to stand behind Gibbs.

_Have you noticed that Naminé's attitude has changed a lot since she became her own person?_

_Yeah. It probably has something to do with having her own heart._

_Guess that means you'll change once you get your own heart too, huh?_

_I guess so._

"Mister Gibbs," Jack said.

"Captain," Gibbs replied from his place behind the wheel.

"We have a need to travel upriver," Jack said in a hushed tone. Gibbs eyes widened nervously.

"By need, do you mean a trifling need?" Gibbs asked, his voice shaking slightly. "Fleeting? As in, say, a passing fancy?"

"No," Jack said in a firm tone. "A resolute and unyielding need."

"What we need to do is make sail for Port Royal with all haste," Will said irritably.

"William, Sora, I shall trade you the compass if you will help me to find this," Jack said. He reached into his waistcoat and produced a tattered, aged piece of cloth and unfolded it. Sora, Will and Naminé all stepped closer to Jack to see that there was a drawing a key on it.

"Still don't have a way to wield one of these?" Sora said with a smirk, brandishing the Oblivion in Jack's face. The pirate captain shook his head.

"You want us to find this?" Will asked.

"No," Jack said with a sly grin. "You want you to find this… because the finding of this finds you incapacitorially finding and/or locating in your discovering the detecting of a way to save your dolly belle, ol' what's-her-face. Savvy?" Will and Sora both gave Jack confused looks before Will snatched the cloth from Jack's hand.

"This is going to save Elizabeth and Kairi?" He asked. Jack glanced down at the cloth.

"How much do you know about Davy Jones?" He asked in a quiet voice. Will glanced at Sora and Naminé, both of whom shrugged.

"Not much," he replied.

"Yeah, it's going to save Elizabeth and Cali," Jack said, turning his attention once more to the open sea.

"Her name's Kairi," Sora and Naminé said in unison.

"Nuance," Jack replied. Sora and Naminé both let out exasperated sighs.

_LD_

_The Frozen Fields_

_Outside of the Forge's Main Entrance_

"Damn it all," a woman in a black cloak growled as she kicked the massive, steel double doors set into the side of a steep cliff face that were supposed to lead directly into the grand entrance hall of the Forge. "Why won't you open?" She glanced behind her to where her black cloaked Apprentice held the body of the silver-haired teen they had found in the Valley of Fallen Keys. Tendrils of green light flowed from her hands as she did her best to prevent the boy's blood loss. His wounds were too severe to risk a speedy attempt at healing him with a Curagun out in the elements. What was worse, the Frozen Fields had unleashed a terrible blizzard on them before they were even halfway to the Forge so they had been forced to wait for three days while they waited for the terrible weather to die down enough for them to reach their destination, and now they were locked out.

"Master, I can't keep this up much longer," the Apprentice said as the green light faded. "We're out of elixirs and I don't have the energy for even a basic Cure spell at this point." The older woman let out a groan. They needed inside, _now_.

"Take shelter behind those boulders over there," the Master ordered. The Apprentice nodded and carried the boy's body with her so they were crouched behind the stone. The Master faced the iron doors. Bright purple orbs of energy formed in her hands as she raised them, aiming her palms at the doors. Back before the War, her brother had always told her 'When a door is being stubborn and won't open, you beat it into submission and force it to.'

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback Headquarters_

"What is the name of the metal used by Chasers to forge Keyblades?" Xanthos said into a microphone. He was sitting inside the control booth to the massive simulation chamber while occasionally making small adjustments to the difficulty of the simulated obstacle course he was putting Olette through. The brunette ducked under a large rotating blade as it threatened to slice her in two.

"Lightsteel!" Olette shouted in response. She rolled to the side as a section of the course fell away into a pit filled with a sickly purple acid.

"Very good," Xanthos said. He pressed a button on the control panel in front of him and a series of ruby-red, crisscrossing beams of energy flared to life in front of Olette. The girl gave a frustrated sigh and weaved her way swiftly through the beams. "Where was the first Keyblade forged?"

"The Temple of Balance!" Olette practically screamed. A large section of the ceiling collapsed, nearly crushing her underneath a large section of stone and steel.

"Correct," Xanthos said in a nonchalant tone as he examined his fingernails. He pressed another button, triggering the next obstacle for Olette. "One more question and we're done for this morning." Olette breathed a sigh of relief that was short lived as lava began to cascade into the small room she had just stepped into. "What is the mantra of the Chasers?" The teen grinned.

"Out of the Darkness, these Blades will light our way," Olette replied happily. The brunette jumped high into the air, clutching onto a dangling chain that provided her sanctuary from the molten rock. Xanthos grinned. His Apprentice had already exceeded his expectations. Not only had she answered all three hundred of his questions perfectly, she had done so all while avoiding the countless traps and obstacles he had spent the past two days programming into the simulator. Olette didn't even have a scratch on her.

"Good job," Xanthos said proudly. "Go rest up for this afternoon. I'm going to have you focusing on Thunder magic today." Xanthos flicked a switch to power down the simulation and rose to his feet with a groan. The control booth shuddered around him as a concussive blast echoed throughout the complex. Xanthos steadied himself against a large piece of computing equipment, his silver eyes locked on the ceiling.

"What the hell was that?"

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback Headquarters_

_Entrance Hall_

Axel had the misfortune of not only being in the entrance hall as the massive double doors were blown open, but also of walking right next to them as they did so. The former Nobody let out a groan as he pulled himself out of a small pile of shattered stone from the wall he had been slammed into and wiped away some of the blood dripping from a gash above his eye.

"Ever heard of knocking?" He grumbled. He straightened up and did his best to ignore the searing pain in his back as he stared at the snow covered fields on the outside.

"Like every civilized human being? Yes, I have," a female in a black cloak said. "However, since the last people I knew who lived here died in a war almost five-thousand years ago and since no one answered when I knocked, I forced my way in."

"By blowing the doors off of their hinges?" Axel grumbled. The woman in the black cloak glanced at the doors.

"They're still on their hinges," she pointed out. Axel raised an eyebrow at her and pointed at the trio of massive dents on each door. "Just a little worse for wear. Look, I don't have time to be standing around arguing with you about the conditions of the doors." She gestured for another black cloaked woman to follow her and she stepped quickly into the building. Axel glanced at the other woman and the object in her arms. He did a double-take as he realized that the object in question was a bloodied and broken Riku.

"We need to get him to the medical center," the first woman explained. "He's barely hanging on by a thread and if we don't hurry we might not have the chance to save him. If you don't let us in, he won't make it." Axel nodded in understanding.

"You're timing couldn't be better," he said. "Follow me. We just finished bringing the med ward online."

They traveled quickly through the maze of corridors that formed the Alliance Fallback Headquarters as it led them deeper and deeper into the mountain. It took them several agonizingly long minutes of practically sprinting before they reached a pair of sliding glass doors that led into a large room lined with twenty or so hospital-grade beds. The women quickly placed Riku's body on the nearest bed and began to work on him

"We're going to need you to step back," the shorter of the two women said as she pushed Axel away from Riku's bed. "You can wait right here." She spun on her heel and rushed back to stand on the opposite side of the bed as her master. Tendrils of green and silver light flowed from the taller woman's gloved palms into Riku's battered and broken body. The taller woman gestured for her apprentice to join her. The shorter woman complied, raising her hands so her fingertips were level with her Master's.

"Revoco, amicus," the women said in unison as an emerald green circle of light surrounded them and the bed. "Sic vos can ago vestri vita ut suus plenus. Orior oriri ortus, frater. Ut una nos can debello Atrum copiae copie ut loco vos huic civitas." They endlessly repeated the chant for fifteen minutes straight as Riku's bones slowly slid back into his skin and began to set themselves properly with sickening cracks. Axel couldn't help but wince with each crack. Suddenly, the green and silver lights to bright red, forcing Axel to shield his eyes from its intensity.

"Son of bitch!" The shorter of the two women swore as Riku's body began to convulse violently. The taller of the two quickly produced a bag from within her cloak, rifling through it until she produced a large red blanket comprised of hundreds of red and gold feathers woven together.

"What's happening?" Axel asked as the two women draped the blanket across Riku's body. The feathers all began to glow a brilliant red as its outer edges slowly began to vanish.

"His body's rejecting the Restoration," the taller one growled in frustration. "We're losing him!"

_LD_

_Deep within an Island Swamp_

_Somewhere in the Caribbean_

"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" Will whispered to Gibbs. Upon arriving at an island not far from where the Pelegostos island rested, Jack had ordered the crew into the longboats and so, they had slowly sailed, upriver. Naminé, having recently discovered that she easily succumbed to seasickness, had volunteered to stay behind and guard the _Pearl_. Jack had been hesitant at first, but quickly agreed after Naminé showed him the Rejection of Fate.

"Well, if you believe such things, there's a beast does the bidding of Davy Jones," Gibbs explained. "A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that'll suction your face clean off and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness. The kraken." Sora, Pintel and Ragetti all swallowed hard. "They say the stench of its breath is like…" He shuddered violently. "Imagine, the last thing you know on God's green earth is the roar of the kraken and the reeking odor of a thousand rotting corpses. If you believe such things."

"And the key will spare him that?" Will asked, clearly not believing a word of it. Gibbs shrugged.

"Well, that's the very question Jack wants answered," he said. "Bad enough even to go visit… _her_."

"Her?' Sora asked. Gibbs nodded nervously.

"Aye."

They continued to sail deeper into the bayou until the sun had set beyond the tree covered horizon and they finally came to a shack built above the water and supported by several trees.

"No worries, mates," Jack said as the crewed lashed the boats to a small dock. "Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable, we are. Were. Have been. Before."

"I'll watch your back," Gibbs assured him.

"It's me front I'm worried about," Jack said.

"Mind the boat," Gibbs said to Will.

"Mind the boat," Will said to Sora.

"Mind the boat," Sora said to Ragetti.

"Mind the boat," Ragetti said to Pintel.

"Mind the boat," Pintel said to Marty.

"Mind the boat," Marty said to Cotton.

"Rawk! Mind the boat," Cotton's parrot said to Cotton before flying off and following the others into the shack. With a defeated and dejected expression, Cotton settled back into his seat. Sora gaped as he stepped into Tia Dalma's shack. Numerous glass bottles hung from the ceiling, each filled with an odd variety of body parts and strange liquids. Tia Dalma herself, a woman with frizzed dreadlocks, chocolate colored skin, and black dots tattooed under her eyes and lips smiled up at them from a pile of crab claws with grime covered teeth. Numerous beads and bangles hung from her neck and her dress seemed to be worn out as if she wore it on a regular basis.

"Jack Sparrow," she said in a heavily accented voice.

"Tia Dalma," Jack said in a tone of forced eagerness.

"I always knew the wind was going to blow you back to me one day," Tia Dalma said as she approached Jack. She paused with a small gasp as she caught sight of Will. "You." Will looked around. Tia Dalma stepped past Jack and slowly drew nearer to Will. "You have a touch of destiny about you, William Turner." Will gave her a confused look.

"You know me?" He asked. Tia Dalma smiled.

"You want to know me?" She said slyly. Jack quickly stepped between the two of them.

"There'll be no knowing here," he said forcibly. "We've come for help and we're not leaving without it." He led her back to her table before adding in a hushed tone, "I thought I knew you."

"Not so well as I had hoped," Tia Dalma said. "Come."

"Come," Jack repeated awkwardly, gesturing for the others to follow him and Tia Dalma back to the table.

"What service may I do you?" The woman inquired. "You know I demand payment."

"I brought payment," Jack said. Pintel stepped forward, carrying a cage containing Jack the monkey. Jack Sparrow drew his pistol and pointed it at the caged primate. "Look." he said, shooting the monkey at point-blank range. "And undead monkey. Top that." Tia Dalma examined the monkey for a moment before releasing it from the cage.

"Don't!" Sora exclaimed as the monkey retreated into another room in the shack.

"You've no idea how long it took us to catch that," Gibbs said with a sigh.

"The payment is fair," Tia Dalma said.

"We're looking for this," Will said, as he laid the cloth with the key image on the table. Tia Dalma stared at the key, a look of recognition in her eyes. "And what it goes to." Tia Dalma looked up at Jack.

"The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?" She asked. Jack looked up from a wide brimmed, black hat with a large feather in it that he was examining.

"Maybe," he admitted reluctantly. "Why?"

"Ah, Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants," Tia Dalma said with a grin. "Or, do you know, but are loath to claim it as your own? Your key go to a chest. And it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"

"What is inside?" Gibbs asked eagerly.

"Gold?" Sora suggested.

"Jewels?" Pintel asked eagerly. "Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?"

"Nothing bad, I hope," Ragetti said nervously as he looked away from a jar of human eyes.

"You know of Davy Jones, yes?" Tia Dalma asked. "A man of the sea. A great sailor, until he run afoul of that which vex all men."

"What vexes all men?" Will asked, earning him a chuckle from Tia Dalma.

"What indeed?" She said with a smirk as she ran her fingers across Will's hand.

"The sea?" Gibbs asked.

"Sums," Pintel suggested.

"Why Maleficent just won't stay dead?" Sora muttered under his breath.

"The dichotomy of good and evil," Ragetti stated. Sora, Gibbs and Pintel all gave him quizzical looks.

"A woman," Jack explained.

_Makes sense._ Roxas pointed out.

"A woman," Tia Dalma repeated. "He fell in love."

"No, no, no, no," Gibbs said. "I heard it was the sea he fell in love with."

"Same story, different versions and all are true," Tia Dalma said with a wave of her hand. "See, it was a woman as changing and harsh and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it cause him was too much to live with but not enough to cause him to die."

"What exactly did he put into the chest?" Sora asked eagerly.

"Him heart," Tia Dalma said.

"Literally or figuratively?" Ragetti asked.

"He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest," Pintel pointed out. He paused, feeling Tia Dalma's eyes on him. "Could he?"

"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings," she explained. "And so, him carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest and hide the chest from the world. The key, he keep with him at all times."

"Couldn't we just unlock the chest with this?" Sora asked, summoning the Oblivion to his hand. Tia Dalma stared gravely at him.

"There are some locks, that even the all-powerful Keyblade cannot unlock, Sora Arashi," she said solemnly. "The Chasers what made the Keys were powerful, but not that powerful." The Oblivion vanished from Sora's hand. He wasn't sure why, but just the knowledge that the Keyblade wasn't able to undo all locks made him feel less significant. Will rose to his feet and turned to face Jack.

"You knew this," he breathed in an accusatory tone.

"I did not," Jack said plainly. "I didn't know where the key was or that Sora's blade wouldn't suffice. But now we do. All that's left is to climb aboard the _Flying Dutchman_, grab the key, you and Sora go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lasses." He snapped his fingers and turned to leave. Tia Dalma rose to her feet.

"Let me see your hand," she ordered, stopping Jack in his tracks. Jack turned and gave her his left hand which was wrapped in a faded white cloth. Tia Dalma undid the wrappings and let them fall to the ground. Gibbs gave a gasp as he saw the black protrusion on Jack's palm.

"The Black Spot!" He exclaimed fearfully. He wiped his hands on his vest three times, spun around in a circle and spat at his feet.

"The Black Spot!" Sora, Pintel and Ragetti all repeated, mimicking Gibbs's actions.

"My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know," Jack pointed out.

"I have just the thing," Tia Dalma said as she quickly went into the other room and began rifling through whatever she had stored in there. "Now where did I put it? My little beauty where are you? Such a long time in such a mess." She finally emerged after a few moments, carrying a jar of dirt. "Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you." She gave the jar to Jack who stared at it.

"Dirt," he said. "This is a jar of dirt."

"Yes."

"Is the jar of dirt going to help?"

"If you don't want it, give it back," Tia Dalma said. Jack clutched tightly to the jar of dirt.

"No," he said, carefully watching her.

"Then it helps."

It seems we have a need to find the _Flying Dutchman_," Sora pointed out. Tia Dalma smiled at him and retook her seat. She scooped up the crab claws and scattered them on the table again.

"A touch of destiny."

_LD_

_Fort Charles Prison,_

_Port Royal_

Elizabeth and Kairi looked up from their seats on the stone bench in their cell as a guard unlocked the door. Governor Swann, dressed in a travelling cloak, emerged from the shadows.

"Come quickly," he ordered. Ignoring the protests of their male neighbors, Kairi and Elizabeth did as they were told and followed Governor Swann from the cell.

"You've got to tell us what's happening," Elizabeth whispered in a hushed tone, determined not to disturb any guards or sleeping prisoners.

" Our name still has some standing with the King," Governor Swann explained. "I've arranged passage to England. The captain is a friend of mine." Kairi and Elizabeth both stopped in unison, shocked at what they were hearing.

"No!" Kairi said defiantly.

"Will and Sora have gone to find Jack!" Elizabeth reminded her father.

"We cannot count on William or Sora," he said in a hurried tone of voice as he grabbed the pair of them by their upper arms. "Come!"

"They're better than you give them credit for," Elizabeth hissed.

"Oh, please. This is no time for innocence," he said as he led them to where a horse drawn coach waited for them. "Beckett has offered one pardon only. One. And that is promised to Jack Sparrow. Even if they succeed, do not ask me to endure the sight of my daughter walking to the gallows. Do not. "Perhaps I can ensure a fair trial for them if they return." Kairi and Elizabeth climbed into the coach.

"A fair trial for them ends in a hanging," Elizabeth pointed out.

"Then there is nothing left for you here," Governor Swann said gravely before slamming the door shut. The trip to the docks was short and uneventful, something Governor Swann was grateful for. As an added bonus, there wasn't even a trace of the East India Trading Company's soldiers anywhere. The captain stood on a dock with his back to the Governor Swann, who ordered Kairi and Elizabeth to wait inside the coach as he went to greet his old friend.

"Captain?" He called out. The captain's body shifted as Ian Mercer stepped into view, quickly removing his bloodstained dagger from the captain's chest and allowing the body to fall to the ground. Governor Swann watched in shock.

"Evening, Governor," Mercer said in a cheerful tone as he wiped the blood from his dagger off on a cloth. "Shame, that. He was carrying this." He held up a letter in one gloved hand. "It's a letter to the King. It's from you." Behind the Governor, a squadron of rifle bearing soldiers surrounded the coach.

"No," Governor Swann whispered. He spun on his heel and rushed back to the coach, stopped only by a soldier's cutlass. "Elizabeth. What are you doing?" Mercer strode past him and flung open the coach's door. It was empty.

_LD_

_Darkness. Endless Darkness. _

_Riku's eyes slowly opened. Surrounding him on all sides was an endless darkness, broken only by a thick amount of gray fog that rested on the invisible ground. With a groan he sat upright. _

_Where was he? How did he get here?_

_Then he remembered the blinding pain of his body breaking as he hit the ground. He remembered feeling his bones shatter and tear through his skin. He glanced down at himself. To his surprise, he was clothed in a simple white cloak. Briefly wondering when his clothes had changed, or who might have changed them, Riku lifted the hem of the cloak up high enough to examine his side where Keila had slashed him with the crystal shard. _

_There was no wound, only a jagged red scar in its place. Confused, Riku rose to his feet and stretched. To his surprise, he didn't feel any soreness from the injuries he knew he should still have. He glanced around at his surroundings again._

"_What is this place?" He asked aloud. His voice echoed loudly, almost as if he were standing in a cave. To his surprise, a female voice replied._

"_Not what, but where." The fog parted, creating a narrow path that revealed a crumbling, raised stone dais covered in pale green vines. The vines from all sides of the dais met in the center and twisted around one another until they formed a twisted stem that towered seven feet in the air. On the tip of the stem grew a single, golden flower with closed petals that seemed to glow from within. _

_A woman emerged from the fog behind the flower. She was dressed in a form hugging, golden dress that ended just above her ankles. Her blonde hair fell in curls around her shoulders and down her back. Her alabaster skin seemed to shine with a light of its own and her golden eyes held Riku's gaze. She seemed to glide smoothly across the ground as she approached the dais. _

"_Who are you?" Riku asked, his eyes never leaving the woman's gaze as she climbed the short stone staircase that led to the top of the dais._

"_I have been called many things," she said, her voice ringing like a thousand chiming bells. "Sister. Daughter. Mother. Master. Princess. Queen. Empress. Angel. Goddess. But you can call me Hope."_

"_Hope," Riku repeated softly. He wasn't sure why, but he suddenly felt at ease. "Where am I?"_

"_Here and there," Hope said in a sing-song voice as she cupped the flower gently in one hand. "There and here. Everywhere and nowhere. I between"_

"_I don't understand," Riku said in confusion. "Am I dead?"_

"_I don't know. Are you?" Hope asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Riku glanced down at his body. "If you were dead, then Death would be greeting you now instead of me. Then again, that can always change. He does like to make a habit of being unpredictable. He always tells me about how 'it keeps things interesting'." She turned to face him. "I know everything about you Lord of the Dawn. Yes, everything. The only reason I'm allowing you to meet me here is because I've realized that without a tiny bit of intervention, you would never unlock your full power and therefore would eventually be consumed by Darkness."_

"_What are you-" Riku began but was cut off as Hope suddenly disappeared from the dais only to reappear less than a foot from him. She bent down and planted a kiss in the exact center of Riku's forehead. An aura of golden light surrounded Riku for a moment before fading._

"_I'll ask you again, are you dead?" Hope said as she turned away from him to head back to the dais._

"_I don't feel dead."_

"_Then don't you think you should be waking up?"_

_LD_

_The Private Office of Lord Cutler Beckett,_

_Port Royal_

Lord Cutler Beckett strode into his office, reading a letter by the light of the lantern in his hand as he did so. As he passed by his deck, he noticed the corner of a document sticking out of the box where he had kept the Letters of Marque. With a sigh, he closed the lid and placed his letter down on his desk. Listening carefully, he could barely make out the sounds of two other people drawing breath in the room, concealed by the shadows of night.

"No doubt you've discovered that loyalty is no longer the currency of the realm, as your father believes," he said aloud. Elizabeth emerged from her hiding place by the door, keeping her hands hidden behind her back as she made herself visible.

"I'm afraid currency is the currency of the realm," Beckett replied as he turned to face her.

"I expect, then, that we can come to some sort of understanding," Elizabeth said as the two of them approached one another. "I'm here to negotiate."

"I'm listening," Beckett said with a smile. A bright flash of light lit up the room as Kairi stepped out from behind Beckett, summoning Destiny's Embrace and pressing it to Beckett's throat as she did so. "I'm listening intently." Elizabeth revealed the leather-bound Letters of Marque and held them to her chest.

"These Letters of Marque, they are signed by the king?" She asked.

"Yes," Beckett answered with a smirk. "And they're not valid until they bear my signature and my seal."

"Or else we would not still be here," Kairi pointed out.

"You sent Will and Sora to get you the compass owned by Jack Sparrow," Elizabeth said. "It will do you no good."

"Do explain," Beckett said.

"I have been to the Isla de Muerta," Elizabeth said. "I have seen the treasure myself. There is something you need to know."

"Ah, I see," Beckett said. "You think the compass leads only to the Isla de Muerta and so you hope to save me from an evil fate. But you mustn't worry." He stepped away from Kairi and Elizabeth, taking care to not cut himself on Kairi's blade as he did so, and strode to the map of the globe being painted on his wall. "I care not for cursed Aztec gold. My desires are not so provincial."

"Well I should hope so," Kairi said. "Cause that chest is at the bottom of the ocean now and you don't look like you're part fish, so I doubt you could get to it." Beckett turned and raised an eyebrow at her.

"There's more than one chest of value in these waters," he pointed out. "So perhaps you may wish to enhance your offer." Elizabeth cocked a pistol and shoved it under Beckett's jaw as she led him to his desk.

"Consider into your calculations that you robbed me of my wedding night," she said threateningly as she shoved the Letters of Marque into Beckett's shoulder.

"So I did," he said as he signed the Letters and added his seal. "A marriage interrupted, or fate intervenes? You're making great efforts to ensure Jack Sparrow's freedom."

"These aren't going to Jack," Elizabeth said. She tried to take the Letters from Beckett, but for a moment he didn't let go.

"Oh, really? To ensure Mister Turner's freedom, then?" He asked. "I'll still want that compass. Consider that in your calculations." He released the Letters and without another word, Elizabeth and Kairi slipped out of Beckett's office, their weapons never once leaving him. After they had gone, Beckett turned and sat down in a nearby chair.

"Our offer still stands, you know," a voice said from the shadows. Dressed in his usual outfit consisting of a black overcoat, white gloves, sunglasses and a tall, top hat, Charden Flamberg stepped into Beckett's office. "Just say the word and the Heartless are yours to command. All you have to do is agree to an alliance with Maleficent and the Apostles of the Star." Beckett glanced over at him with a smirk.

"Perhaps, you're right," he said. "After all, I can't really place my faith in my enemies, can I?"

_LD_

_Coral Reef, Somewhere in the Caribbean_

Thunder rolled in sky, lightning flashed, the wind howled and rain poured onto the _Black Pearl_ as the crew stared out at the wreckage of a ship that had split in two and rested on the visible portion of the rocky reef.

"That's the _Flying Dutchman_?" Will asked in disbelief. Gibbs nodded his head fearfully as Sora wiped water from his face. Naminé leaned over the railing and dry heaved, her seasickness getting the better of her. Will shrugged. "She doesn't look like much."

"Neither do you. Do not underestimate her," Jack said knowingly. He elbowed Gibbs in the gut.

"Must've run afoul of the reef," Gibbs replied instantly, breaking his fear-induced silence.

"So, what's your plan then?" Jack asked Sora and Will.

"We row over and search the ship until we find your bloody key," Will said.

"And if there are crewmen?" Jack asked.

"We cut down anyone in our path," Will said grimly before turning away.

"I like it," Jack said. "Simple, easy to remember." He turned to follow Will.

"Naminé, why don't you go wait below deck?" Sora suggested, patting the blondes back. "You look terrible."

"I really don't like sailing," Naminé said in a sickly tone. "Flying, yes. Sailing, no."

"Then go lie down," Sora said as he guided her away from the rails and towards the stairs leading below deck. "I'll be back before you know it." Naminé nodded in agreement and gave Sora a thankful hug before heading down below deck. Once she was out of sight, Sora followed Will down a ladder built into the side of the _Pearl_ that led down to a longboat.

"Your chariot awaits you, sires!" Ragetti called out with a laugh as Will and Sora got themselves situated.

"Oi!" Jack called down to them. "If you do happen to get captured, just say Jack Sparrow sent you to settle his debt. It might save your life."

"Bon voyage!" Ragetti shouted with a laugh as Sora and Will rowed away from the _Pearl_ and towards the wreckage. When they were nearly out of sight, Jack turned to Gibbs.

"Douse the lamps."

One by one, the _Pearl_'s lamps were extinguished, and the ship seemed to vanish into the storm. Several minutes later, Sora and Will stepped onto the ship. They explored for a few minutes finding only wreckage and bloodied bodies. There were hardly any survivors. One man, covered in his blood and the blood of others pulled endlessly on a rope, muttering about his captain's orders to hoist the jib. He snapped at Will and Sora when they tried to tell him that the ship had run aground.

"No," he said with a look of pure terror. "Beneath us. Foul breath." A body fell from the remains of the main mast and the man tried to climb onto the deck. Will and Sora ran to the man's aid and turned him over so he could have some air, both almost regretting doing so. His face looked as if it had been suctioned clean off. The pair of them let out cries of shock and stumbled back as a ship emerged from beneath the waves nearby. From bow to stern, it was covered in what appeared to be driftwood and the bones of sea creatures. Water poured from its decks and cannon ports as it sailed up alongside the wrecked ship. The real _Flying Dutchman_ had arrived.

All over the wreckage, men who looked to be a mix of man and fish, as well as men who were more sea-life than men emerged from the wood, searching the ship for survivors and laughing at the terrified noises some of them made. One fish-man, who was covered in barnacles and creatures that thrived on the seabed approached Sora.

"Down on your marrowbones and pray," he ordered. Sora raised his hand and sent a bolt of lightning into the fish-man's chest. The fish-man let out a cry of pain and stumbled back, fish and all other forms of sea-life pouring out of his wound instead of blood. Something heavy struck the back of Sora's head, and his world went black.

When he came to, he found that he, Will, and four survivors of the wreckage had all been lined up along a relatively level section of the deck. The fish-men stood guard, their weapons drawn. To his minor relief, the rain had stopped.

A muffled thump grabbed his attention. A man emerged from the sea. He was tall and carried himself proudly. His right leg was that of a crab's, and his left arm was a crab law. His overcoat was covered in barnacles as was his tricorne hat. His skin was slimy and leathery in appearance, like a squid's flesh. His beard made up of several tentacles of varying lengths.

"Six men still alive," a fish-man with the head of a hammerhead shark said to the newcomer. "The rest have moved on." The newcomer knelt in front of the survivor Sora and Will had found trying to still follow his captain's orders. He lit a pipe and stared the survivor in his eyes.

"Do you fear death?" Davy Jones asked. The survivor nodded. "Do you fear that dark abyss? All your deeds laid bare. All your sins punished. I can offer you an escape."

"Don't listen to him!" One of the other survivors said as he clutched his rosary tightly. Jones rose to his feet and grabbed the man who had spoken by the throat with his claw.

"Do you not fear death?" He asked the man as he took a drag on his pipe.

"I'll take my chances, sir," he said. Jones released him and glanced at one of his crewmen.

"To the depths," he ordered. The crewman nodded and sliced the survivor's throat with a dagger before throwing him into the surf.

"Cruel blackguard!" One of the other men said. Jones glared at him.

"Life is cruel. Why should the afterlife be any different?" He turned back to the man he had been speaking to originally. "I offer you a choice. Join my crew and postpone the judgment. One hundred years before the mast. Will ye serve?"

"I will serve," the survivor said eagerly. Jones grinned.

"There," he said. He straightened up and caught sight of Will and Sora.

"The two of you are neither dead nor dying," he said. "What is your purpose here?"

"Jack Sparrow sent us to settle his debt," Will offered as an explanation. Jones looked taken aback. Whatever he had been expecting, that wasn't it.

"What is your purpose here?" He repeated.

"Jack Sparrow," Sora repeated, "sent us to settle his debt."

"Did he, now?" Jones said with a smirk. "I'm sorely tempted to accept that offer.

Over on the _Black Pearl_, Jack watched through his spyglass as Davy Jones turned away from Sora and Will to look right at him. He lowered his spyglass and found himself face to face with Davy Jones, who stood on the deck of the _Pearl_ less than three feet from Jack. Jones' crew emerged onto the deck and captured the Jack's crew before any of them could react.

"Oh," Jack said weakly as Jones glared at him.

"You have a debt to pay," he reminded Jack as he slowly advanced towards him. "You've been captain of the _Black Pearl_ for thirteen years. That was our agreement."

"Technically, I was only captain for two years, then I viciously mutinied upon," Jack pointed out.

"Then you were a poor captain, but a captain nonetheless," Jones growled. "Have you not introduced yourself all these years as 'Captain Jack Sparrow'?" Jones' crew all laughed.

"You have my payment," Jack said, gesturing at the wrecked ship. "One soul to serve on your ship is already over there."

"One soul is not equal to another," Jones barked.

"Aha!" Jack exclaimed. "So we've established my proposal is sound in principle. Now we're just haggling over price." Jones gave him a quizzical look.

"Price?"

"Just how many souls do you think my soul is worth?" Jack asked. Jones pondered it for a moment.

"One hundred souls," he decided. "Three days."

"You're a diamond, mate," Jack said cheerfully as he turned to walk away. "Send me back the boys. I'll get started right off." The hammerhead fish-man quickly blocked Jack's path.

"I keep the boys," Jones declared. "A good-faith payment. That leaves you only ninety-eight more to go."

"Do you not know of Sora?" Jack inquired. "Young, courageous, overdeveloped sense of justice, wields a rather unique blade that is annoyingly picky about who can hold it? His must he worth at least five souls, even six." Jones stared blankly at Jack. "How about Will Turner? He's noble, heroic, a terrific soprano. Worth at least four. Maybe three and a half. And did I happen to mention, he's in love?" That seemed to catch Jones' attention and Jack knew it. "With a girl. Due to be married. Betrothed. Dividing him from her and her from him would only be half as cruel as allowing them to be joined in holy matrimony. Eh?" A sad expression ruled Jones' face for a moment. He seemed lost in a certain memory. He quickly snapped out of it.

"I keep the boys," he repeated. "Ninety-eight souls. But I wonder, Sparrow, can you live with this? Can you condemn innocent men, your friends, to a lifetime of servitude in your name while you roam free? Jack considered it for a moment.

"Yep," he said with a smile. "I'm good with it. Shall we seal it in blood, I mean… err, ink?" Jones grasped Jack's hand tightly.

"Three days," he reminded Jack as he wrenched their hands apart. As Jones and his crew vanished from the deck of the _Pearl_, Jack watched the Black Spot vanish from his hand.

"Uh, Mister Gibbs," Jack said oddly. "I feel sullied and unusual."

"And how do you intend to harvest these ninety-eight souls in three days?" Gibbs asked. Jack smirked slyly.

"Fortunately, he was mum as to the condition in which these souls need be," he pointed out.

"Ah, Tortuga," Gibbs realized. Jack wiped his slime covered hand off on Gibbs' waistcoat.

"Tortuga."

Below deck, Naminé heaved and nearly lost the remaining contents of her stomach as the ship rocked.

"And now I'm smelling fish," she grumbled. "I hate this world."

_LD_

_RGLAC Hunter's Mark_

_En Route to Radiant Garden from Port Royal_

"Are you positive?" A distorted voice said over the communicator clutched in Derrick's hand. He carefully peered around the corner that led into the bridge. Anderson was piloting them away from Port Royal now that the homing beacon had been placed on the Keyblade Wielders' ship. The rest of the mission was now in the hands of a team of Recovery Agents. Positive that neither Anderson nor Johnston was paying any attention to anything other than their conversation about some girl, Derrick turned his attention back to the communicator he clutched in his hand.

"I'm sure of it," he said. "There is no doubt in my mind that Canstella's figured out who she is." The man on the other end swore.

"And he's hired the Recovery force to retrieve her?" The man asked. Derrick nodded. "That's not good. That sort of thing usually doesn't go unnoticed. Canstella really doesn't want anyone to know he's found the Princess, does he?"

"Most likely not," Derrick said. "He's probably going to try to use her as a trump card in the elections next month. He's not dumb enough to risk the Anti-Monarchists putting a price on her head."

"You have to stop those Recovery agents, Derrick," the man said urgently. Derrick grinned and waved his standard-issue pistol in front of the communicator's view screen.

"Don't worry, Atticus," he said with a confident grin. "They won't see me coming." The man on the screen nodded and vanished, only to be replaced by a message reading _Secure Connection Terminated_. Derrick slid the communicator into the pouch on his belt and turned towards the bridge as he flicked the safety on his pistol off.

"Hey, Derrick," Johnston said as Derrick entered the bridge. "Anderson and I are both in agreement, that red-haired chick Canstella wants is pretty cute, huh? I wouldn't mind getting to-" Derrick never gave him a chance to finish his sentence. He raised his pistol and fired three shots into Johnston. Two rounds tore through his heart while the third snapped his head back as it went through his right eye. Dark red blood splattered against the walls and floor paneling.

"What the hell?" Anderson cried out as he scrambled out of the pilot's chair. "Derrick, what the hell's your problem?" Derrick stared coldly back at him.

"You talk too much," he said simply. Five shots rang out and Anderson fell to the floor, twitching as he drowned in a pool of his own blood. Derrick ejected the empty clip from his pistol and fed a fresh one in as he made his way to the pilot's chair, kicking Anderson's body as he passed. He quickly typed in the adjusted coordinates and braced himself as the _Hunter's Mark_ spun around and began to head back towards Port Royal.

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback Headquarters_

_Medical Ward _

The two women in black cloaks both stumbled back from Riku's bedside as his body lit up with a golden light. His body stopped jerking and twitching and seemed to relax against the bed. As the light faded, the taller of the two women stepped forward.

"By the Nine," she whispered. "He's healed and completely stable!" She turned to her companion. "I've never seen anything like this before." She muttered softly. "Everything I've ever learned about the Healing arts tells me that wounds like his shouldn't just heal over like that, even when using two Ultimate Curagun spells and a Phoenix Down. At the very least there should be heavy scarring. This is… astounding."

"What are you talking about?" Axel asked. "Is he okay or not?"

"He's perfectly fine," the taller woman said. "I'm not sure how, but he is. However, it looks like he'll be comatose for a few days. The stress put on his body by those injuries must've been excruciating. How he even survived long enough to heal is beyond me." The three of them turned around as the door to the medical bay slid open.

"What was with that light?" Hayner asked as he and Pence strode into the room. They both froze as they spotted the two black cloaked women and Axel all looking over at them. "Umm… Axel? Who are these two?" Axel glanced over at the two women.

"You know, I'm not actually sure," Axel said thoughtfully. "My bad."

"You let them inside the building without figuring out who they were first?" Pence asked. "That doesn't seem like it was very good judgment on your part."

"Well, I had a good reason," Axel said defiantly.

"Which I would love to hear," Xanthos said as he entered the room, closely followed by Olette. "And I'd also love to know why the main doors are busted open. But first, why don't you two take off your hoods and introduce yourselves and tell me what you're doing here before I throw you both out into the blizzard to freeze to death?"

"First of all, that's a rude way to say 'hello'," the taller woman said. "You didn't even offer us tea. Secondly, we're here because of Silver over here." She gestured at Riku's unconscious body with her thumb. Xanthos' eyes widened in recognition at the sound of her voice. He glanced down and nearly did a double-take as he finally noticed the formerly injured teen. "We found him beat all to hell at the base of the cliffs over by the Valley of Fallen Keys and because of the blizzards we needed to get him somewhere warm so we could heal him. And here happens to be the only place on this godforsaken world that has any buildings with indoor heating." Xanthos stared opened mouthed at the taller woman with a look of recognition on his face.

"Your name is Jenna? Right?" He said, his voice slightly higher from his shocked tone. "Is that you?" The taller woman nodded her head and went to lower her hood.

"Master, you know her?" Olette asked from the doorway where she, Hayner and Pence watched what was going on in the room.

"Well I should hope he knows me," the woman, Jenna, said with a smile as her bronze hair fell down past her shoulders, freed from the confines of her hood. The mouths of the three teens and Axel all dropped in unison. Jenna's silver eyes shone brightly even in the dimmed lighting of the medical ward as she smiled up at Xanthos. "He's my twin brother."

_LD_

* * *

_Well, I guess that's it for this week._

_Fun facts about this chapter:_

_1. The fun facts may appear from update to update._

_2. Long pork is just another way of saying human meat. Never order something with long pork in it unless you feel like eating human._

_3. I betcha didn't see that coming. You know what I'm talking about._

_4. Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans really do have every flavor. I had one that tasted of defeat._

_5. During the two and a half weeks it took to write this chapter, I only drank water and tea. My caffeine withdrawls are killing me._

_I hope you all enjoy your weekend and have a fantastic next week. As always, reviews, while not necessary, are welcome. I'm going to go catch some much needed sleep._

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons  
_


	24. The Dead Man's Chest

_I have returned from the dead once more! And not as a zombie this time. I think I'm getting the hang of this self-ressurection thing._

_I hope everyone out there's had a good summer so far. I know I have. Except for the lack of internet access of course, but I digress. _

_Thanks to all who reviewed last time! You guys make my day!_

_Disclaimer: You know what? You all should've figured out by now that I only own my plot and OC's at this point._

_Hopefully this was worth the wait. Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter Twenty Four: The Dead Man's Chest

_Saturday, June 26__th__, 4794 P.C._

_The Edinburgh Trader_

_Port Royal Harbor_

Captain Bellamy prided himself in many things. He made an honest living in the world regardless of how difficult it was starting to become and he slept well every night because of it, thank you. He worked hard and rarely drank himself into a stupor. But above all, he prided himself in being a fairly even tempered man. As of late, he had found his patience wearing thin and the East India Trading Company with all of their new rules, fees and tariffs were to blame. This of course, led him to snapping at his crew more often when they behaved like idiots, just like the two sailors who were currently arguing over an off yellow-dress while the rest of the crew watched on.

"What's all this?" He demanded as he strode towards the arguing pair. The two men immediately fell silent and ceased their attempts to take the dress from the other. "If you both fancy the dress, you'll just have to share and wear it one after the other." He smirked as his comment earned several laughs from the rest of the crew.

"It's not like that, sir," one of the two men said. "This ship is haunted." Bellamy raised his eyebrow.

"Is it now?" He asked. He turned to the other man. "And you?"

"There's a female presence amongst us here, sir," the other man said. "All the men, they can feel it." Bellamy placed his hands on his hips. Did he really hire such simpletons?

"It's the ghost of a lady, widowed before her marriage, I figure it," a wiry young man said. "Searching for her husband, lost at sea."

"A virgin too, likely as not," a fourth man added. "And that bodes ill by all accounts." From the back of the crowd, Elizabeth and Kairi glanced up from where they were applying varnish to the ship's railing. Both of them were dressed like men to hide their feminine physiques and had their hair tied up into buns and tucked under ragged straw hats. The first man to explain his theory to Bellamy yanked the dress away from the other man.

"I say we throw the dress overboard and hope the spirit follows it," he said.

"No!" The second man said quickly. He lunged forward and took hold of the dress again. "That will just anger the spirit, sir. What we need to do is find out what the spirit needs, and then just get it back to her." Elizabeth and Kairi both exchanged smirks as the two men both started arguing again.

"Enough! Enough! You're a pair of superstitious goats and it's got the best of you," Bellamy shouted, causing the two men to look at him fearfully. He reached out and tore the dress away from the two men. "Now, this appears to be no more as we have a stowaway on board. A young woman, by the look of it."

"I think they're onto you," Kairi whispered to Elizabeth.

"I want you to search the ship and find her," Bellamy continued. "Oh and, uh… she's probably naked." That caught the men's attention. The crowd immediately broke apart as the men began searching every possible place on the ship for the young, naked woman. Not wanting to draw attention to themselves by behaving oddly, Kairi and Elizabeth cast their brushes aside and joined in the search.

_LD_

Elizabeth chuckled to herself as she adjusted the brooms in her hands, manipulating the strings that supported her wedding dress as it floated eerily through the air, passing in plain view of the windows in the captain's cabin. After the long day of 'searching' the ship with the crew of the Edinburgh, she had to admit that she was enjoying the idea of messing with their heads.

While the rest of the crew had gone to sleep, she and Kairi had remained awake, pitching ideas off of one another as to how they were going to make it to Tortuga to start their search for Will and Sora. Kairi had come up with the plan to use Elizabeth's wedding dress as a 'spirit' that would give a sign to the crew of the _Edinburgh_ that they should make port in Tortuga.

So now, Kairi stood in the shadows, watching as her plan unfolded wonderfully. Captain Bellamy had been in his cabin with the two men who had been fighting over the dress earlier that day, complaining about the tariffs and fees the East India Trading Company was imposing on all of the ports they controlled. Now, the three men emerged onto the deck as the 'spirit' descended towards them from above. Kairi strode up behind the three men, careful to keep her face hidden from them, and nodded towards Elizabeth. Elizabeth lifted one of the ends of her brooms up, causing the dress to lift its arm and 'point' from Bellamy to the starboard side of the ship.

"She wants you to do something," Kairi said in a deep voice.

"She's trying to give a sign," Bellamy breathed. The dress flew out over the starboard railing and the three men, plus Kairi, ran to the rail to look for a sign, only for the dress to come sweeping back towards them. The four of them ducked as the dress flew across the deck, knocking over a lantern as it passed over the port-side rail. "Over there! Look for a sign!" Kairi and Elizabeth both let out exasperated sighs as the three men ran to the port-side railing.

"Look there, there it is!" The bald-headed man said. "There's the sign!"

"That's seaweed," the other snapped

"Seaweed can be a sign."

"Looks like entrails."

"That would be a bad sign," Bellamy muttered. Elizabeth grabbed hold of a rope and slid down to come to rest atop the ship's capstan.

"What's that over there?" She called out, pointing to the smashed lantern on the deck. Bellamy and the other men turned around and saw a fire burning on the deck. The smashed lantern had ignited the oil Kairi had laid out beforehand and now the flames burned bright, forming a single word on the deck: Tortuga.

_LD_

_The Flying Dutchman_

_Somewhere in the Caribbean_

The tentacles that made up Davy Jones' beard strummed across the three tiers of organ keys, playing a sorrowful, haunting tune that could only be achieved by three normal men playing all at once. The massive pipe organ was set near the back of his cabin, facing away from the door. The wood of the organ curved this way and that. At one point it had been beautiful; now it was covered in all sorts of sea life. The only unmarred portions of the organ were the keys, and the painting set into it at eye level of a woman with ebony hair, gazing longingly out at the sea, surrounded by angels, as a ship sailed off into the sunset. Jones breathed heavily as he played on, staring at the painting and lamenting his loss, just as he had done for countless centuries.

Outside, Sora grumbled quietly as he scrubbed away at the aged, wooden deck of the _Flying Dutchman_. He simply couldn't believe his luck. It had been just over a day since he and Will were tricked to serve on the ship by Jack and they had hardly had a moments rest. The minute they were brought onboard, the pair of them were assigned duties and began their servitude. Sora, being young and inexperienced, was given the job of scrubbing the deck while Will was assigned whatever the bosun felt necessary. And to top it all off, they were stuck out in the rain.

_You know, it could be worse._ Roxas pointed out. _Kairi and __Naminé could be here. Imagine what they might be forced to do._

_I'd rather not think about it, thank you._ Sora said irritably. He spared a glance over to where Will and at least a dozen other crew members were working together to hoist a cannon from the hold up to the deck. One of the lines came loose drawing the bosun's attention.

"Secure the mast tackle Mister Turner!" He ordered. "Set to it!" Both Will and another crew member abandoned their posts to secure the mast tackle. _But I agree. It could be worse. The sooner Will and I find the key, the sooner we can escape._

_Amen to that. The crew really freaks me out._

_You've squared off against Heartless and these guys freak you out?_

_What's your point?_ A loud crash broke Sora away from his conversation with Roxas. He looked around in time to see Will dragged across the deck as the canon fell. Several crew members were knocked aside and seemed to be seriously injured.

"Haul that weevil to his feet!" The bosun ordered to a pair of crewmen. Will was forced to his feet and shoved face-first into a climbing net so that his back was exposed to the bosun as he pulled out a cat o' nine tails. Sora's eyes widened as the metal prongs on the tips of the lash glittered evilly in the light created by lightning flashes in the sky. "Five lashes will remind you to stay on 'em!"

"No!" Sora and another crewmember shouted. The two of them glanced at each other in confusion, both wondering why the other had spoken up in Will's defense.

"Impeding me in my duties?" The bosun asked with a sinister grin. Sora vaguely realized that the organ had stopped playing in the background. "You'll share the punishment."

"I'll take it all," the crewman who had spoken out with Sora said defiantly.

"Will you, now?" Davy Jones asked as he approached them. The crowd of crewman parted to let their captain through. "And what would prompt such an act of charity?" He stared expectantly at the man. The man turned to look at Will.

"My son," he said softly. "He's my son." Will glanced behind him and did a double-take, struggling against the crewmen that held him to the netting. Sora's mouth dropped open. He had heard about 'Bootstrap' Bill from Pintel and Ragetti, but he had assumed he was dead.

_Well, he was cursed by the gold just like the rest of Barbossa's crew, right?_ Roxas pointed out. _I guess that means he was stuck on the ocean floor. Talk about a living hell._ Davy Jones took a closer look at Will and then briefly examined 'Bootstrap' with a chuckle.

"What fortuitous circumstance be this?" Jones asked the crew. He turned to the bosun and took the whip from him before offering it to 'Bootstrap'. "Five lashes be owed, I believe it is." 'Bootstrap' stared in shock at the whip in his captain's hand, realizing what he wanted him to do.

"No," he said with a nervous tone. "No, I won't!"

"The cat's out of the bag, Mister Turner!" Jones said with a smirk. "Your issue will feel its sting, be it by the bosun's hand or your own."

"No!" 'Bootstrap' said firmly. Jones' smirk vanished.

"Bosun!" He ordered, offering the whip to him.

"No!" 'Bootstrap' snatched the whip from Jones' hand. Jones smirked and glanced at Sora.

"Five lashes to the boy when he's done', bosun," he said with a cruel smirk before turning back to watch as his crewmen tore Will's shirt from his back so 'Bootstrap' could strike him. Sora winced as 'Bootstrap' lashed out five times, much to the sick enjoyment of the crew. To Will's credit, he never cried out in pain once. When 'Bootstrap' was finished, Will was tossed below deck and Sora was thrown against the netting next,

"Maybe this will teach you your place, boy," Jones said with a laugh as his crewmen stripped Sora of his jacket and shirt, casting them aside and exposing his back to the bosun's whip.

The first strike was excruciatingly painful and took almost all of Sora's will not to cry out. The second strike was worse. As the prongs dug deep into his flesh, Sora couldn't help but let out a gasp of pain that turned into a howl as the bosun pulled the whip back, cleaving chunks of flesh from Sora's bone. The next three strikes came swift and cruel. The crowd dispersed, and Sora was dropped to his knees. The pain in his back was intense and every slight movement caused it to feel like the whip was digging into him again.

Ignoring the pain to the best of his ability, Sora placed his hands on his shoulders and cast Curaga over himself. It seemed to take ages for the spell to work, but sure enough, Sora could feel muscle and flesh knitting themselves back together.

"That's quite a trick you've got there." Sora turned around, wincing slightly from a slight twinge in his back left over from the wound. 'Bootstrap' Bill stood over him, holding Sora's jacket and shirt in his graying hands. Will was leaning against the railing behind him for support. He held them out to the teen, who accepted them graciously. Putting his water soaked shirt back on proved to be more difficult then Sora had imagined. He fought with it for several minutes before 'Bootstrap' took pity on him and helped him put it on. "Though it looks like you'll have some scars left over from it."

"Thanks," Sora said, shivering slightly as he slid into his jacket. 'Bootstrap' nodded curtly and gestured for Sora and Will to follow him.

"You're probably wondering how I ended up here," 'Bootstrap said after a minute or so of silence. He glanced back at his son, who nodded. "I'm sure you know all about the mutiny Barbossa led against Jack Sparrow. I wanted no part of it. I tried to defend Jack, but no one would listen to me. So, after we found out about the curse on the gold, I sent a piece of it off to you so that the others would remain cursed for eternity.

"Barbossa didn't take to kindly to that. He tied a cannon to my feet and dropped me in the ocean. With the weight of the water crushing me, I couldn't move. I couldn't die. I nearly went mad. For years, I prayed for an escape.

"Then, Davy Jones found me and gave me a choice; I could either join his crew, or wait at the bottom of the ocean until Judgment Day. It wasn't a difficult choice. I'd rather serve here than wait out eternity in the darkness. Although, my choice isn't without cost." They finally walked below deck and out of the rain into warm candlelight. "One hundred years before the mast, losing who you were, bit by bit, until you end up… end up like poor Wyvern, here." He gestured towards a part of the _Dutchman_'s hull. Sora and Will exchanged slightly startled looks as they realized that there was what appeared to be a sleeping man growing out of the wall. His body was covered with barnacles and coral, almost indistinguishable from the rest of the wall. His right arm was outstretched, forever clutching a lantern in his hand.

"Once you've sworn an oath to the _Dutchman_ there's no leaving it," 'Bootstrap' said solemnly. "Not until your debt is paid."

"We've sworn no oath," Will told him. 'Bootstrap' looked at them with surprise.

"Then you must get away," he said in a hushed, worried tone. "Both of you. As far away as you can." Sora and Will exchanged a glance.

"We can't," Sora said. "Not yet."

"Well, why not?" 'Bootstrap' demanded.

"At least not until we find this," Will said. He pulled out the cloth drawing of the key and showed it to 'Bootstrap'. Wyvern gave a shuddering gasp and his eyes snapped open. He leaned his upper body away from the hull with several sickening crunching sounds, leaving his brain still attached as half of his head refused to move. Sora and Will turned to look at him.

"The Dead Man's Chest…" Wyvern said in a solemnly fearful tone.

"What do you know of this?" Will asked, showing the drawing to him. Wyvern glanced around, searching his memory.

"Open the chest with the key, and stab the heart," he said slowly. "No! No, don't stab the heart! The _Dutchman_ needs a living heart, or there'll be no captain. And if there's no captain, there's no one to have the key."

"So the captain has the key?" Sora asked, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side as he did so. A guilty look crossed Wyvern's face, like he had accidentally divulged a terrible secret. "Where is it?"

"Hidden," Wyvern said in a hushed tone.

"Where is the chest?" Will asked.

"Hidden!" Wyvern's body snapped back to the wall and he shut his eyes.

_You thinking what I'm thinking?_ Roxas asked.

_Yup. _Sora replied. _Davy Jones is the only person who knows where the key is._

_I get the feeling he won't want to share that kind of info with us._

_You know, I was just thinking the same thing._

_LD_

Later on in the evening, shortly after a meal of undercooked fish that Sora had opted to throw out of the nearest porthole, he and Will watched a few members of the crew break out a dice game, which quickly drew a crowd.

As far as Sora could tell, the game played like this: each person had five dice which they shook up in a cup before turning the cup upside down on the playing surface to hide the face value of the dice from the other players. Each person would then make a bet on the number of dice that had a specific face value that they believed were currently in play. If the person guessed wrong and the next player in the rotation called them out on it, the person who was wrong lost the round and the entire process would begin again. The trick was to make your opponents guess wrong. It was a game of wit and lies.

"Wondering how it's played?" 'Bootstrap' asked the pair of them. Sora shook his head.

"I think I got it," he said.

"It's a game of deception," Will said. "Your bet includes all of the dice. Not just your own. What are they wagering?" The crewmember with a head shaped like a hammerhead shark let out a howl of anger as he lost a round.

"The only thing we have left," 'Bootstrap' explained. "Years of service."

"So, any crew member can be challenged?" Will asked.

"Aye, anyone."

"I challenge Davy Jones," Will said. The crew all looked around at him like he was insane. The background noise of Jones' pipe organ came to a sudden stop. A steady thump echoed around the ship as the crew began to chuckle. Jones appeared on the stairs leading down from the upper decks, staring straight at Will.

"I accept, mate."

At Jones' command, the crew brought forth a table and set it in front of Will along with a cup and five dice. Jones strode forward and stared down at Will.

"The stakes?" He asked.

"My soul," Will replied. "An eternity of servitude."

"No," 'Bootstrap' said quietly. He looked over at Sora and saw a similar look of worry on the spiky haired teen's face.

"Against?" Jones asked, silently wondering what would prompt Will to make such a risky gamble.

"I want this," Will said as he dropped the cloth with the drawing of the key onto the table. Jones picked up the drawing and unfolded it. A look of shock crossed his face. He threw the drawing down on the table and glared accusingly at Will.

"How do you know of the key?" Jones inquired. Will smirked and sat down.

"That's not part of the game, is it?" Will asked. "You can still walk away." For the briefest of moments, Jones looked as though he was considering it, as though he was weighing the risk of losing the key, before he slowly lowered himself onto his seat. The tentacles of his beard shifted and pulled the rusted key out from underneath a flab of flesh, dangling it out in the open for a moment before hiding it beneath the beard once more. Will and Jones tossed their dice into their cups, and shook them briefly before slamming them down onto the table, along with cups held by Sora and 'Bootstrap'. Jones looked around at them, irritated.

"What's this?" He demanded.

"We're in," 'Bootstrap' explained. "Matching his wager."

"No," Will pleaded. "Don't do this. This is my mission. Sora, think about Kairi."

"The die is cast," 'Bootstrap' said solemnly. "I bid three twos . It's your bid, captain." He glanced over at Jones, who chuckled softly.

"Four fours," Jones said with a smirk.

"Six fours," Sora said, as he swallowed a nervous lump that was forming in his throat.

"Six fives," Will said confidently.

"Eight threes," 'Bootstrap' said. Jones peered under his cup. He had four fives and a four. He smirked as he looked up at Will.

"Ten fives," he said smugly. Will glanced under his cup and counted five fives. Sora checked his and found that he had one five and four threes. Under 'Bootstrap's rested three twos and two threes.

"Eleven fives," Sora said, trying to fight back his nervousness.

"Thirteen fives," Will said after mulling it over for a minute or so. Jones and his crew all chuckled.

"Welcome to the crew, lad," Jones said smugly.

"Seventeen fives," 'Bootstrap' said. Everyone looked at him in surprise. "Seventeen fives. Call me a liar, or up the bid." A look of anger crossed Jones' face.

"And be called a liar myself for my trouble?" He growled as he lifted 'Bootstrap's cup, revealing his dice and proving him a liar.

"'Bootstrap' Bill, you're a liar and you will spend an eternity on this ship," Jones snapped at him. He turned to look at Sora and Will as he rose to his feet. "Master Turner, Master Arashi, feel free to go ashore." He turned to leave, but turned back to add "The very next time we make port!" He left for his cabin, laughing along with his crew as they all followed their captain away from the three remaining gamblers.

"Fool," Will whispered to his father. "Why did you do that?"

"I couldn't let you lose," 'Bootstrap' admitted. Will smiled slyly at him.

"It was never about winning or losing," Sora realized out loud. "You just wanted to know where the key was." 'Bootstrap's eyes widened in surprise at Will's cunning.

"And now we know where to find it," he said. "And I know how we're going to steal it."

_I like this guy._ Roxas said with a chuckle.

_LD_

_Sunday, June 27__th__, 4794 P.C._

_Lord Cutler Beckett's Office_

_Port Royal_

Cutler Beckett stood on the balcony of his office that overlooked the harbor and watched with a satisfied smile as a trio of East India Trading Company ships began to arrive.

"Maleficent is growing impatient. I suggest you have an answer ready for her right away."

Beckett's smile fell from his face as he turned around to find himself face to face with the man in the tall black hat and dark glasses, Charden Flamberg. Beckett stepped around him and strode back into his office to pour himself a drink. He could feel Charden's hidden eyes watching him carefully.

"Every time you come here, Charden, you tell me that Maleficent wishes me to ally myself and my men with her," Beckett said as he poured his preferred drink into a small glass. "And yet, you never mention what's in it for me." He took a sip of his drink and gestured to the large map that was painted on one of his walls. "You see there? Proof of my influence in this world. I have power and soon I will control the seven seas. What would I need Maleficent for?"

"With Maleficent, you can control much more than your own world, you can control countless worlds," Charden said. "She can offer you power, power to reshape those worlds in your own image, to make them how you want them to be. Imagine a world without pirates. Isn't that what you're after?"

Beckett stared down at his drink. That was what he was after, there was no denying it. He could still remember the torture he was put through during the time he had spent captive aboard the ship of the pirate Christophe-Julien de Rapièr. He remembered being forced to clean his ship and being whipped cruelly by the crew if he didn't do a good job of it. His back still bore the scars. If it hadn't been for his mentor in the East India Trading Company, Beckett might have died aboard that ship. He had hated pirates with a burning passion ever since and had become determined to wipe them and anyone who sided with them from the world ever since.

"Perhaps," Beckett began slowly, "it would be in my interest to join forces with Maleficent." Charden smiled.

"I thought you'd say that," he said. He and Beckett shook hands briefly. "I shall inform Maleficent immediately. She will be pleased to hear that you've finally made your decision." He turned to leave and a portal of Darkness opened up in front of him. He paused and turned back to face Beckett. "Before I forget, Maleficent asked me to leave you with a parting gift should you accept her offer." Charden snapped his fingers and a purple and black aura surrounded Beckett's body for a brief moment.

"And the gift was?" Beckett asked, giving Charden a quizzical look.

"The ability to summon and control the Heartless," Charden said with a smirk. "Be careful though, only those with strong hearts or wills can control the Heartless. If you falter in your resolve, they won't hesitate to take your heart." Leaving the warning hanging in the air, he stepped into the portal and vanished.

_LD_

_The Faithful Bride Tavern_

_Tortuga, The Caribbean_

Naminé let out a low groan of boredom as she leaned up against a support beam inside the tavern. She had been standing in the same spot for what felt like hours and had a strong suspicion that the trio filling the tavern with music only knew the one song they had been playing all night long. Jack was over in nearby corner, repeatedly examining his compass, shaking it, pounding it against the wall, all while muttering something about how he knew what he wanted. Gibbs was seated at a small table with a bottle of rum and a roster laid out in front of him for new hires to sign. It had taken them nearly a full day to reach Tortuga and now she was stuck here, invisible so as to avoid drawing attention to herself.

Not that she felt like complaining about being invisible. She certainly preferred it to being stared at by a bunch of sailors who would like nothing better than to pin her to the ground and take turns using her body to satisfy their desires. Naminé shivered at the thought and glanced over to where the last of a line of men were turning away from Gibbs, all having just signed the roster.

Aside from the boredom she was currently experiencing, Naminé still felt a small twinge of anger towards Jack and the rest of his crew. If they hadn't been so careless, Sora and Will wouldn't have been captured by Davy Jones while she had been below deck being seasick and they wouldn't have to gather ninety-eight souls in three days to exchange for their freedom. A small part of her remained suspicious that Jack and the others were keeping something from her, but she wasn't sure what.

"How are we going?" Jack asked, still staring intently at his compass.

"Including those four?" Gibbs asked, twisting in his seat to stare at Jack. "That gives us… four." Naminé was pulled from her train of thought at his words and her mouth dropped open.

"Only four?" She whispered. "We've been at this for hours! How do we only have four?"

"The _Black Pearl_ was made infamous when Barbossa was captain," Gibbs explained. "Some folks are still afraid of it." He turned in his chair and smiled up at the next applicant. "What's your story?"

"My story…" The applicant said in a low tone. "It's exactly the same as your story, just one chapter behind. I chased a man across the seven seas." Jack closed his compass and looked around. He recognized that voice. "The pursuit cost me my crew, my commission, and my life." James Norrington snatched up Gibbs bottle of rum and took a swig from it. He was still dressed in his navy blue uniform, although now it was covered in dirt and who knew what else. His powdered white wig was gray and strands of his natural brown hair could be seen poking out from underneath it. Gibbs stared up at Norrington in mild disbelief.

"Commodore?" He asked, unsure if he could believe his eyes or not. Norrington finished of the rum and glared down at Gibbs.

"No, not anymore! Weren't you listening?" He snapped, leaning in closer to Gibbs. Naminé watched the exchange with mild interest. "I nearly had you all off Tripoli. I would have, if not for that hurricane." Unnoticed by anyone, Jack pulled a large leaf from a nearby plant and attempted to hide behind it as he began to sneak away.

"Lord," Gibbs said in shock. "You didn't try to sail through it?" Norrington smirked.

"So do I make your crew or not?" He asked. Gibbs glanced around nervously. "You haven't said where you're going. Somewhere nice!" He flipped the table and Gibbs backwards towards Naminé, who stepped out of the way to avoid being hit. The trio stopped playing and the entire tavern fell silent and stared on as Norrington strode into the middle of the room.

"So, am I worthy to serve under Captain Jack Sparrow?" He asked the patrons in a drunken, mocking tone. He drew a pistol from inside his coat and aimed at Jack as he still tried to sneak away. "Or should I just kill you now?" Jack froze in place and slowly abandoned his leaf shield.

"You're hired," he said after a moment of silence. Norrington let out a small chuckle.

"Sorry," he said, clearly not meaning it. "Old habits and all that." Two of Jack's newest crew members ran forward and grabbed hold of Norrington, forcing his arm to point the pistol up in the air. Their struggling caused Norrington to fire at the ceiling. The bullet ricocheted off of the iron chandelier and shattered a man's freshly refilled mug. Angry at his loss, the man decked the person sitting next to him and the entire tavern broke into a brawl.

Naminé ducked as a bottle flew towards her head. One man smashed a barstool over another man's back with a sickening crunch. Swords were drawn and the ringing of steel beating against steel joined the din. The trio continued playing the same song they had been, although they increased the tempo so it was much more lively and exciting. Naminé glanced around for Jack and Gibbs and spotted the two of them slipping out of the back door to the tavern. She quickly followed them while taking extra caution to avoid getting hit by flying bottles, mugs, furniture and people.

Kairi and Elizabeth pushed open the front door to the tavern and paused in surprise as they watched the fighting. Elizabeth's eyes scanned the crowd and spotted Norrington, recognizing the disheveled former-commodore immediately. He was surrounded by a multitude of men, all of whom had their swords drawn and were attempting to one-up the former commodore. Norrington did a fine job of holding his own despite being horrendously intoxicated and even managed to grab hold of a new bottle of alcohol every chance he got.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kairi saw a man rush her with his cutlass drawn. She let out a sigh and summoned Destiny's Embrace in time to block a drunken man's attack. The man seemed surprised that Kairi's blade had appeared out of nowhere. Kairi simply smirked and used her flexibility to her advantage by swinging her leg up to knock the man in the side of his head without so much as moving another muscle. She wasn't given time to enjoy her swift victory however. The man she had just knocked unconscious apparently had several large friends, none of whom seemed too happy that she had just knocked him out.

She sidestepped the first of her attackers and brought her elbow down on the back of his head, rendering him unconscious. The second attacker took a blow to the stomach from one of the other brawls taking place throughout the tavern and dropped to the floor in pain. She swept the third man's legs out from underneath him as he charged, sending him tumbling face first into a wall. The other men all slowly began to circle Kairi, chuckling confidently amongst themselves. Kairi cocked an eyebrow at them and summoned a burst of fire that engulfed her Keyblade as the men began to move closer.

The men all let out cries of fear and stumbled back. Kairi couldn't help but smirk. Magic certainly had its advantages. The men, crying out something about a demon, ran for their lives. With satisfaction, Kairi released the spell and glanced around. The majority of the tavern had fallen silent. For a moment, she was worried that they had seen what she had done, but she quickly realized that they were all staring at Elizabeth and Norrington, the two of whom were standing on opposite sides of a support beam as nearly twenty men surrounded them in a lopsided circle, blades drawn and at the ready.

"Come on! Who wants some?" Norrington taunted, as he leaned against the beam for support. "Form an orderly line; I'll have you all one by one!" Elizabeth rolled her eyes and reached around the beam, grabbing the bottle of rum Norrington had clutched in his free hand. "Come on, who's first?" Elizabeth turned and smashed the bottle over Norrington's head and the former commodore crumpled to the ground unconscious. The other patrons of the tavern all stared at Elizabeth.

"I just wanted the pleasure of doing that myself," she said with a smirk. Cheers erupted around them as men raised their glasses in a toast and sheathed their weapons. Several men grabbed hold of Norrington and carried him outside where he was unceremoniously thrown into a pigsty. Elizabeth and Kairi stepped out of the crowd as the men headed back into the tavern. Elizabeth knelt next to Norrington onto his back so she could get a better look at the shell of the former man he once was.

"James Norrington," she said with a sad sigh, "what has the world done to you?" Kairi watched as Elizabeth dragged Norrington out of the sty and slumped him against the side of a building. Her attention was drawn away from the pair very quickly by the sight of a girl in white with shoulder length blonde hair walking away towards the docks. It almost looked like…

"Naminé?" Kairi muttered to herself as the blonde vanished around a corner. She shook her head.

_That couldn't have been Naminé._ She told herself. _Could it?_

Unbeknownst to the two of them, Ian Mercer, Cutler Beckett's right hand, watched from the doorway to the Faithful Bride as Kairi and Elizabeth took off towards the docks. The two of them spent the better part of two hours searching the docks of Tortuga for the _Black Pearl_ before they finally found it. The dock that the _Pearl_ was moored to was bustling with activity as Jack's crew worked quickly to load the supplies they had gathered onto the ship. Kairi let out a gasp. Walking away from them with two older men was none other than Naminé. Before she could call out to her former-Nobody-now-twin-sister, Elizabeth had stepped past her and was walking briskly towards the trio.

"Captain Sparrow!" She called out. Jack gave a quick glance behind him as he, Gibbs and Naminé made their way towards the _Pearl_.

"Come to join me crew, lads?" He asked before turning back towards the ship. "Welcome aboard."

"I'm here to find the man I love," Elizabeth said. "So has my friend here." That stopped Jack dead in his tracks. He exchanged confused and slightly perturbed looks with Gibbs and Naminé.

"I'm deeply flattered, son, but my first and only love is the sea," he said before making a motion with his hand for Gibbs to get rid of the Kairi and Elizabeth.

"Meaning, William Turner, Captain Sparrow," Elizabeth said with a chuckle.

"And Sora," Kairi added. Naminé's eyes widened in surprise. She'd recognize that voice anywhere. The three of them turned around to face the smirking faces of Kairi and Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth!" Jack exclaimed. He paused, as if remembering something important and added in an undertone to Gibbs "Hide the rum." Gibbs glanced down at the bottle in his hand and attempted to conceal it in his waistcoat as Jack turned back to face Elizabeth, carefully examining her clothing choice. "You know, these clothes do not flatter you at all. It should be a dress or nothing. I happen to have no dress in my cabin."

"Kairi!" Naminé exclaimed, running forward to embrace her sister in a hug. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" Kairi let out a laugh as she hugged the blonde back.

"I missed you too, Naminé," she said with a huge grin on her face. Kairi glanced around and the smile slowly faded from her face. "Where's Sora and Will?" Naminé's smile vanished instantly.

"Jack, we know Sora and Will came to find you," Elizabeth said, getting straight to the point with the pirate captain and ignoring his comment that she should not wear men's clothes. "Where are they?"

"Yes, Jack," Kairi said, turning away from Naminé to stare at Jack. "Where are they?" Jack stroked his beard nervously and raised an eyebrow at Kairi.

"And you would be?" He asked, quickly giving her a once-over glance.

"Kairi," Kairi replied. "Sora's girlfriend." Jack nodded in understanding.

"Darlings, I'm truly unhappy to have to tell you this, but through an unfortunate and entirely unforeseeable series of circumstances that have nothing whatsoever to do with me, poor Will and Zola have been press ganged into Davy Jones' crew," Jack explained.

"His name is Sora," Kairi and Naminé pointed out in perfect unison.

"Davy Jones?" Elizabeth asked in confusion.

"Oh, please," Norrington said in disbelief, having arrived shortly after Kairi and Elizabeth without them knowing. "The captain of the _Flying Dutchman_?" He gave a wretch and leaned over the railing of the dock, vomiting into the ocean. Both Kairi and Naminé winced in disgust. Jack gave him a quizzical look.

"You look bloody awful," he said staring at the former Commodore. "What are you doing here?"

"You hired me," Norrington said as he wiped the vomit off of his mouth. "I can't help it if your standards are lax."

"You smell funny," Jack retorted. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and called out Jack's name to bring his attention back onto her.

"All we want is to find Will and Sora," she told him. Jack sighed.

"I know," he said, turning away from them to face his beloved _Pearl_. He paused mid-step as an idea occurred to him. He turned around and stared intently back and forth between Elizabeth and Kairi. "Are you certain? Is that really what the two of you want most?" Kairi and Elizabeth both nodded. "Because I would think you would want to find a way to save them most."

"And you'd have a way of doing that?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, there is a chest," Jack began.

"Oh, dear," Norrington said exasperatedly. Jack ignored him.

"A chest of unknown size and origin."

"What contains the still beatin' heart of Davy Jones!" Pintel explained as he and Ragetti shuffled past with a large crate. Ragetti mimed pulling his heart out of his chest, holding it in his hand and making heartbeat sounds with his mouth.

"How exactly does a chest containing Davy Jones' heart save Sora and Will?" Kairi asked. Jack looked over at her with a serious expression.

"Whoever possesses that chest possesses the leverage to command Jones to do whatever it is he or she wants," Jack explained. "Including saving brave William and Zora from their grim fate."

"Sora," Kairi and Naminé corrected Jack in unison.

"You don't actually believe him, do you?" Norrington asked as he looked at the expressions of hope on the three females' faces.

"We've seen stranger," Naminé said with grin.

"How do we find it?" Elizabeth asked. Norrington rolled his eyes and leaned over the rail to vomit again.

"With this," Jack said as he raised his small, black compass up in front of him. "My compass is unique."

"'Unique' here having the meaning of 'broken'," Norrington added in. Jack ignored him.

"True enough, this compass does not point north," he said. Kairi and Naminé exchanged confused looks.

"If it doesn't point north, then where does it point?" Naminé asked.

"It points to the thing you want most in this world," Jack said.

"Oh, Jack," Elizabeth said with a small smile. "Are you telling the truth?"

"Every word, love," Jack said. "And the thing you want most in this world is to find the chest of Davy Jones, is it not?" He took his compass and placed it in Elizabeth's hands.

"To save Will and Sora," she said. Jack grinned.

"By finding the chest of Davy Jones," he said as he quickly stepped away from her, opening the compass as he did so. Elizabeth stared down at the compass as the tiny red arrow spun around wildly, back and forth as if it were trying to decide where to point before finally settling on a direction that Elizabeth knew full well wasn't north. She let out a small gasp of disbelief. Jack peered cautiously at the face of the compass, doing his best to avoid interfering with it.

"Mr. Gibbs!"

"Cap'n!"

"We have our heading," Jack said eagerly.

"Finally!"

_LD_

_The Flying Dutchman_

"Captain says I'm to relieve you," 'Bootstrap' Bill said as he approached the helmsman, a man covered from head to toe in seaweed. The helmsman tightened his grip on the wheel slightly, his eyes narrowed in suspicion at 'Bootstrap', who simply shrugged. "Captain's orders." The helmsman released the wheel, secretly relieved to have his duties taken over by someone else, and headed below deck. 'Bootstrap' watched him go before whistling a few soft notes.

Sora and Will emerged from their hiding place in a pair of barrels and quickly made their way to the door that led into Davy Jones' cabin. Will grabbed hold of the handle and attempted to give it a gentle twist. The handle refused to budge.

"Damn, it's locked," Will said in frustration. "We'll have to find another way in." Sora raised an eyebrow at him and summoned his Keyblade, aiming it at the lock. There was a brief flash of blue light and the door slowly opened.

"Or we could just do that," Sora said with a grin. He remained by the door to keep a lookout for any of the crewmembers that might manage to make it past 'Bootstrap' while Will crept as quietly as he could towards Davy Jones' sleeping form. The _Dutchman_'s captain was sitting at a bench in front of his pipe organ, his head slumped forward and his shoulders rising and falling rhythmically with each light snore. Carefully, Will took hold of two pens from their resting places on the organ and began to gently move the tentacles of Jones' beard. He placed one of the pens in his mouth as he managed to get one of the larger tentacles to rest on it while he carefully prodded at a small flap of skin that concealed the key. Sora watched anxiously from the doorway, silently wishing Will would hurry up.

The two of them froze in place as the tentacle resting on the pen in Will's mouth slid off and struck one of the keys on the lowest row of the organ, sending a blast of sound through the pipes. Jones let out a snort and began to stir.

_Oh crap._ Roxas said from somewhere in the back of Sora's mind. _If he wakes up, what do you we pull a Demyx and get the hell out of dodge by any means necessary?_

Fortunately for them, Jones' tentacle had knocked into a heart-shaped silver locket, which had opened and begun playing its gentle, haunting tune. Jones' breathing became regular and steady once again as he slipped back into his deep sleep. Sora breathed a sigh of relief.

_And you wanted to retreat._ Sora said to Roxas with a smirk.

_Hey, it's not retreating. It's advancing… towards future victories._

Will quickly checked to make sure Jones was completely asleep before he began poking around at the beard again. He managed to coax out the tentacle that was wrapped around the ring attached to the key and swapped out their prize for the cloth drawing of the key. He gently allowed Jones' tentacles to fall back into place before hurrying towards Sora.

"Let's get out of here before he wakes up," Will whispered. Sora nodded in agreement and the two of them slipped out of the cabin. Will immediately made a beeline for the longboat 'Bootstrap' was preparing for them as Sora took an extra moment to lock the door behind him.

"There's food and water for three days in here," 'Bootstrap' was saying to Will. "Now, get yourselves to land and stay there. It was always in my blood to die at sea, but it's not a fate I ever wanted for you."

"It's not a fate you had to choose for yourself, either," Sora pointed out as he walked up. 'Bootstrap' paid no attention to him, focusing solely on his son.

"I could say I did what I had to when I left you to go pirating, but it would taste a lie to say it wasn't what I wanted," he said sadly, clapping Will on the shoulder and handing him a small knife. "You owe me nothing, Will. Now go." Will stared at the knife in his hand for a few moments before looking sadly up at the father he had lost years ago and was about to lose again.

"They'll know you helped us," he said warningly. 'Bootstrap' chuckled.

"What more can they do to me?" He asked, gesturing at the sea-life covering his body

"I take this with a promise," Will said, shaking the knife in the air slightly. "I'll find a way to sever Jones' hold on you and not rest until this blade pierces his heart. I will not abandon you. I promise." 'Bootstrap' gave him a warm smile.

"Go," he said, as Sora and Will climbed into the longboat. "Get as far away as you can before someone wakes up and decides to take a nighttime stroll." He carefully lowered the boat into the water where Will and Sora both took up oars and began to row away from the _Flying Dutchman_ and off into the black of night.

_LD_

_Monday, June 28__th__, 4794 P.C._

_Lord Cutler Beckett's Office_

_Port Royal_

"There's something to knowing the exact shape of the world and one's place in it, don't you agree?" Beckett asked aloud as he stared at the sword in his hand.

"I assure you, these are not necessary," Governor Swann said, shaking the shackles clasped to his wrists. Beckett turned to look at him. Days in the Fort Charles prison had not done Weatherby Swann any good. He looked disheveled and defeated, and Beckett had to admit that the Governor did look better with his wig than he did without. Governor Swann was flanked by a pair of Beckett's newest soldiers, the Heartless. As disturbing as their appearances might be, Beckett enjoyed the fact that the Heartless essentially made the perfect soldiers.

They didn't question orders and followed them perfectly. They felt no pain, had no emotions and never hesitated. Best of all, replacing the ones who were defeated would be easy. After Charden had given him the power over the Heartless, Beckett had tested his new power and summoned several Shadows and Neoshadows to his side. Pleased to see that they really did come, he tested a theory of his, a way to make his own soldiers stronger. Overnight, nearly all of his men had been turned into Heartless, leaving only his officers and lieutenants unchanged.

The Bluecoat Heartless all stood at six and a half feet tall. Tricorne hats sat on their black heads. Their bodies were made up of long blue coats that fell past their waists. A pair of black belts crossed their torsos in an x-shape and were joined in the middle by an upside down Heartless emblem. Their legs were long and jet black, ending in dark blue boots. They stood and walked on the balls of their feet, and their heels never once hit the ground. They were each armed with a long-barreled musket that was topped with a jagged bayonet that glowed with a faint electric blue light. Unlike most Heartless, their glowing yellow eyes were slanted and the jagged white line that formed their mouths wasn't nearly as pronounced as it was on several other breeds of Heartless.

The pair of Bluecoats standing at Swann's side each held their muskets in one clawed hand while they kept the other tightly clamped to the governor's upper arms. Beckett smirked as Swann glared at him.

"I had you brought here because I thought you might be interested in the whereabouts of your daughter," Beckett continued pointing the blade at Swann. Swann's glare was immediately replaced by a look of surprise mixed with worry.

"You have news of her?" He asked. Beckett's smirk became more pronounced and he turned to look at Ian Mercer, who was casually examining something in the distance through a bronze telescope.

"Most recently seen on the island of Tortuga, and left in the company of a known pirate, Jack Sparrow," Mercer explained. "And other fugitives from justice." Swann scoffed.

"'Justice'! Hardly."

"Including the previous owner of this sword, I believe," Beckett mentioned as he sheathed the cutlass. Swann gave a start. He recognized that blade. It had been made by Will and given to the former Commodore Norrington on the day of his promotion. "Our ships are in pursuit. Justice will be dispensed by cannonade and cutlass and all manner of remorseless pieces of metal. I personally find it distasteful to even contemplate the horror facing all those on board." It was then that Swann realized that Beckett was building up to something important.

"What do you want from me?" He asked in a defeated tone. Beckett set the sword back in the case and closed it before turning to face the governor, glad that the older man had caught on.

"Your authority as governor, your influence in London," Beckett paused for effect before adding "and your loyalty to the East India Trading Company." Governor Swann understood the underlying message.

"To you, you mean," he said plainly. Beckett let out a small chuckle and strode up to stand next to the governor.

"Shall I remove these shackles?" He asked. Swann seemed to mull it over for a moment before sighing in defeat. He held out his wrists.

"Do what you can for my daughter," he pleaded. Beckett nodded to one of his officers to unlock the cuffs.

"So you see, Mercer," Beckett said as he turned away from the now-former governor, "every man has a price he will willingly accept. Even for what he hoped never to sell."

_LD_

_The Edinburgh Trader_

_The Caribbean_

"Strange thing to come upon a longboat so far out in open waters," Captain Bellamy asked. Sora and Will both shivered slightly underneath the blankets the crew of the _Edinburgh_ had provided for them. The two of them had spent the entire night taking turns rowing while the other one slept. They had managed to avoid rowing into an oncoming storm, but still had somehow managed to get themselves soaked to the bone before the crew of the _Edinburg_ spotted them and brought them aboard.

"Just put as many leagues behind us as you can, as fast as you can," Will said.

"And what are we running from?" Bellamy asked as Will's eyes fell on a familiar, off-yellow dress.

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Sora said as Will got up to examine the dress.

"Where did you get this?" He asked Bellamy.

"It was found aboard the ship," Bellamy replied. "The crew thought it was an omen of ill fate."

"That's foolish," Will said. He shared a glance with Sora. If Elizabeth's dress was here on board, that must mean that she and Kairi had escaped the Fort Charles prison somehow, they didn't have to worry about bringing Beckett Jack's compass anymore.

"Exceedingly foolish," Bellamy agreed. "But it did bring good fortune. The spirit told us to pull in at Tortuga and we made a nice bit of profit there. Off the books, of course."

"I imagine," Will began as he stared back at the dress, "that some of your crew may have jumped ship there."

"Just a couple," Bellamy said as his eyes began to narrow in suspicion. "Why do you ask?" Will and Sora shared another glance. That confirmed it for them. Elizabeth and Kairi definitely had been on this ship. A door slammed open above them and a crew member ran down the steps into the cabin.

"Captain! A ship's been spotted."

"Colors?" Bellamy asked.

"She isn't flying any," the crewmember said. Bellamy looked suspiciously at Sora and Will.

"Pirates," he spat.

"Or worse," Will said as the three of them went to follow the crew member onto the deck.

_LD_

_The Flying Dutchman_

Davy Jones watched as the _Dutchman_ came up on the aft of the _Edinburgh_. He stared down at his hand and crushed the cloth drawing of the key in it before turning to 'Bootstrap' Bill where he was restrained by a pair of his crewmates. He clasped 'Bootstrap's throat tightly with his claw hand.

"You will watch this," Jones growled into 'Bootstrap's face. He tilted his head towards the bosun, who raised his whip and began to strike it against the nine crewmembers standing around the capstan's hammer. The nine all groaned with effort as they turned it and the center piece began to raise high into the air.

"Let no joyful voice be heard!" Jones called out. "Let no man look up at the sky with hope! And let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake… the Kraken!" 'Bootstrap's eyes widened in horror.

"NO!" He shouted, struggling to pull away from the two who held him in place. The capstan's hammer reached its maximum height and slammed down. A deep thud echoed around the ship and a small ripple shot out across the water.

Deep beneath the ocean waves on a pile of bones and shipwreck debris, the Kraken opened its massive orange eyes and began to move in for the kill.

_LD_

_The Black Pearl_

"Beckett?" Gibbs asked. He, Jack and Naminé all had finished listening to Kairi and Elizabeth's story and now looked over Jack's shoulders as he skimmed the Letters of Marque.

"Yes," Kairi said. "They're signed by Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company." Jack made a sound of disgust.

"Will and Sora were working for Beckett and never said a word," Gibbs said in disbelief. "Beckett wants the compass...only one reason for that."

"Of course," Jack said, glancing over at Gibbs. "He wants the chest."

"Yes, he did say something about a chest," Elizabeth mentioned.

"If the Company controls the chest, they controls the sea," Gibbs said darkly.

"A truly discomforting notion, love," Jack said to Elizabeth.

"And bad," Gibbs said in solemn, nervous tone, "bad for every mother's son what calls himself pirate. I think there's a bit more speed to be coaxed from these sails." He turned from the others and began shouting orders at the rest of the crew. Kairi and Naminé both shrugged at one another before following Gibbs to see if they could be of any use.

"Might I inquire how you came by these?" Jack asked, turning towards Elizabeth.

"Persuasion," she replied.

"Friendly?"

"Decidedly not."

"Will strikes a deal for these and upholds it with honor, yet you are the one standing here with the prize," He opened the Letters and read a small part of it out loud. "'Full pardon, commission as a privateer on behalf of England and the East India Trading Company.' As if I could be bought for such a low price." He tucked the Letters away in his waistcoat, unaware that Norrington was watching him carefully.

"Jack, the Letters...give them back," Elizabeth asked. She held out her hand to him.

"No. Persuade me."

"You do know Will taught me how to handle a sword," Elizabeth said threateningly.

"As I said. Persuade me."

"It's a curious thing," Norrington said as he leaned against the railing next to Elizabeth." "There was a time when I would have given anything for you to look like that while thinking about me."

"I don't know what you mean," Elizabeth said. Norrington chuckled.

"Oh, I think you do," he said in a knowing tone. Elizabeth's eyes widened in shock as she realized what he was suggesting.

"Don't be absurd," she said, looking away from him to hide the slight blush that had formed on her cheeks. "I trust him, that's all." Norrington laughed as he began to walk away. He paused and glanced back at Elizabeth.

"So you never wondered how your latest fiancé ended up on the _Flying Dutchman_ in the first place?" Elizabeth had to admit that she was curious. She really wanted to know and everyone had avoided the subject with her so far. She waited until Norrington was far enough away before she pulled out Jack's compass. The arrow spun around once before pointing, to her dismay, straight at Jack.

_LD_

_The Edinburgh Trader_

"We've doomed us all," Sora said under his breath as he leaned over the railing to stare at the ship behind them. Sure enough, it was the _Flying Dutchman_, its skeletal frame, covered in driftwood and ocean life and its ragged torn sails that mysteriously still carried the wind were easily recognizable, even from this distance.

"What the devil?" Bellamy said as he stared at the Dutchman through a bronze spyglass.

"It's the _Flying Dutchman_!" Will shouted from on top of the main mast. Several members of the crew looked up at him in confusion before the ship lurched to a stop, throwing nearly everyone off of their feet.

"Mother Carey's chickens! What happened?" One sailor groaned as the crew all got to their feet.

"Must have hit a reef." Another one theorized. Bellamy straightened up and began shouting orders.

"Free the rudder!" He demanded. "Hard to port, then hard to starboard!" Sora pulled the barrel that he had comically ended up in off of himself and spat a fish out of his mouth.

"That 's disgusting," he said feeling slightly nauseous.

_But funny._ Roxas said. _I wish I could have gotten that on film._

_Shut it._

Sora glanced around while the crew scrambled to free the rudder. Captain Bellamy had vanished from sight and amidst the confused actions of the crew, a man stood, frozen in place with a look of fear on his face as he pointed out off the starboard side of the ship. Sora's gaze traveled in the direction of the man's pointing in time to see a massive tentacle rise from the water with a screaming Bellamy held tightly by it before it dragged him back into the depths.

"Kraken!" A man shouted in terror as a half a dozen tentacles rose up on the starboard side of the ship. One crewman began frantically ringing a bell while the others armed themselves with iron spears and hatchets. The weapons proved useless against the tentacles that were as thick as tree trunks. Railings were smashed easily, ropes snapped and men were thrown overboard. One of the crewmen even ran up to the edge of ship, waving Elizabeth's dress and offering it as tribute. Sora leapt over one of the smaller tentacles as it attempted to knock him off his feet. The Oblivion appeared in his hand in a flash of light and he severed the tip of the tentacle off.

The now injured appendage flailed around, knocking a trio of men into the water. Sora winced as he watched the men fall screaming to a certain death, but was left with no time to feel guilty about it. A larger tentacle attempted to crush him, only to have massive chunks of its flesh blown off by a Firaga spell Sora managed to cast at the last second. The smell of burnt fish flesh filled Sora's nostrils. The tentacle retreated from view as two more took its place.

The first of the new tentacles lashed out at Sora, who easily sidestepped the attack and sent a jolt of electricity into the tentacle with a Thundaga spell. The second tentacle ignored Sora and began wrapping itself around the main mast. Sora did his best to block out the horrified screams of the crewmembers as the Kraken tossed them around like rag dolls.

Sora rolled out of the way as another tentacles lashed out at him, missing him by inches. Instead, it smashed one of the staircases leading to the upper deck and Sora quickly found his legs pinned by a heavy piece of wood.

_Sora!_ Roxas shouted. As the tentacle raised up, readying itself to crash down on Sora. _Move!_

"I can't!" Sora shouted out loud. "I'm stuck and if I try to use magic I might severely hurt myself." Roxas cursed inside the back of his mind as the tentacle swung down for the kill. Sora squeezed his eyes shut, bracing him for the worse, but it never came. Instead, there was a flash of blue light bright enough for him to see behind his eyelids. Sora nervously opened his eyes and, to his amazement, found Roxas standing over him, garbed in his Organization XIII outfit, with an Oblivion Keyblade in one hand and an Oathkeeper in the other, miraculously holding the Kraken's tentacle at bay. With a roar, Roxas sliced with his Keyblades and cut deeply into the flesh of the Kraken. The tentacle reared back and vanished from view. Grinning, Roxas dispelled his Keyblades and helped Sora shove the wood off his legs and hoisted him to his feet.

"I got my own body!" Roxas said excitedly as he and Sora high-fived.

"How?" Sora asked.

"Who cares?" Roxas asked. "I'm not a Nobody or a Nobody living in his Somebody's heart anymore! And I have clothes on, unlike when Naminé got her body. This day is fantastic!" A man was dragged in between him and Sora, screaming as the Kraken pulled him beneath the ocean surface. "Well, at least as fantastic as it can be, all things considered."

"Way to go," Sora said with a grin. He glanced up and his grin vanished. "Although you better enjoy it while you can. You might not have it for much longer."

Roxas gave him a confused look as he turned around to see what Sora was looking at. "What are you talking abo- oh." A pair of massive tentacles were rising on the _Edinburgh_'s portside.

"Hey Sora," Roxas said nervously. "Do you remember what I said back on the _Dutchman_ about advancing towards future victories?"

"Yeah?"

"I say we go with that plan right about now."

"Amen to that," Sora said and the two of them turned tail and ran to the starboard side of the ship where they promptly leapt overboard and swam to the nearest piece of driftwood the Kraken had knocked off of the ship. They looked back and watched as the two tentacles fell down and snapped the ship in two like it was a toothpick. Men slid into the center of the wreckage, where the massive jaws of the Kraken could just be seen over the turbulent water, swallowing them up. A shiver ran up their spines as the Kraken let out a triumphant roar.

Will fell from one of the masts and landed a short distance away from Roxas and Sora, just far enough away to allow him time to swim further away from the Kraken. The three of them huddled tightly to the driftwood and brief introductions were shared between Roxas and Will. They floated for a moment catching their breath before diving back into the ocean and swimming to the _Flying Dutchman_ as it slowly sailed amongst the wreckage. The three of them climbed into the jaw-like bow of the ship and prepared to wait it out.

Davy Jones watched with grim satisfaction as his leviathan dragged the halves of the _Edinburgh Trader_ to the crushing dark oblivion of the ocean floor.

"The boy's aren't here," Davy Jones' first mate, a man named Maccus whose head had mutated to look like that of a hammer-head shark, said. "They must've been claimed by the sea."

"I am the sea," Jones said darkly. He turned away from the wreckage of the ship to leer at 'Bootstrap', who was frozen in place by horror. "You need some time alone with your thoughts. Brig!" The two crewmen holding 'Bootstrap' in place dragged him off. 'Bootstrap' went with them, having lost the will to resist.

"What of the survivors?" Maccus asked, gesturing at the seven men Jones' crew had pulled from the wreckage. Jones glared at them.

"There are no survivors," he said with a tone of finality. Maccus gestured to the crewmen behind the survivors. Five axes were raised, five axes spilled innocent blood. Jones walked over the railing and stared out at the wreckage.

"The chest is no longer safe," he said to a crewman that had a puffer-fish-like face. "Chart a course for Isla Cruces. Get me there first or there'll be the devil to pay."

"First?" The crewman asked in confusion.

"Who sent those thieving charlatans onto my ship?" Jones asked. "Who told them of the key?" He glanced back out at the wreckage of the _Edinburgh_.

"Jack Sparrow."

_LD_

_Isla Cruces_

One of the _Pearl_'s longboats had been lowered into the water and made its way to the shores of Isla Cruces, carrying Jack, Elizabeth, Norrington, Kairi, Naminé, Pintel and Ragetti along with it. Jack sat at the prow of the boat, clutching onto his jar of dirt for dear life, which made the others feel slightly nervous. No one was sure why Pintel and Ragetti had come along, but the others had agreed to it as long as they did the rowing. Although, none of them were prepared to listen to the pairs' pointless discussion.

"You're pulling too fast!" Pintel snapped.

"You're pulling too slow!" Ragetti retorted. "We don't want the Kraken to catch us."

"I'm saving my strength for when it comes. And I don't think it's 'Kraken' anyway. I always heard it said 'Kray-ken'."

"What with a long 'A'?"

"Aye."

"Nah, nah, nah, nah. 'Kroh-ken' is how it's pronounced in original Scandinavian and 'Kraken' is closer to that."

"Well, we ain't original Scandinavians, are we? 'Kray-ken'."

"It's a mythological creature. I can calls it what I wants!"

Kairi and Naminé both groaned. To the relief of everyone, the pair's debate came to an end as they reached the white, sandy shores of Isla Cruces. Jack turned to Pintel and Ragetti as the pair dragged the boat far enough inland so that it wouldn't be swept away by the tide and ordered the pair to guard the boat and watch the tide before warning them to not touch his jar of dirt.

Elizabeth led the others further inland and across the white sand for several minutes until they reached a small dune about halfway between where they had left Pintel and Ragetti and the edge of the island jungle. It was there that the compass began changing direction on her, forcing her to walk back and forth every few feet while, Jack, Norrington, Kairi and Naminé looked on. Finally, Elizabeth gave up.

"This doesn't work!" She snapped at Jack before tossing the compass down in the sand. "And it certainly doesn't show you what you want most." She crossed her arms and sat down angrily. Jack raised an eyebrow and stared at the compass face as the arrow twisted back and forth before pointing to Elizabeth.

"Yes it does," he said. Elizabeth looked at him in confusion. "You're sitting on it."

"Beg pardon?" She asked. Jack began shooing her away.

"Move," he said. Elizabeth obeyed and scrambled out of the way. Jack whistled to Norrington and gestured at the spot where Elizabeth had been sitting. Norrington tossed one of the two shovels he had been carrying aside and walked over to the spot Jack had indicated and began to dig

_LD_

It had only been twenty minutes since he had started digging, and already Norrington was worn out and sweating profusely. He wiped his brow as he plunged the shovel into the sand again, keeping his eyes fixated on the back of Elizabeth's head as he moved more sand out of the way. Jack sat cross-legged nearby in a meditative pose. Kairi and Naminé kept themselves entertained by playing tic-tac-toe in the sand, and to their confusion, managed to end each game in a draw.

They all looked around as Norrington's shovel hit something beneath the sand with a dull thud. They quickly unburied a large chest sealed with a sturdy padlock that proved to be no match for the unlocking power of a Keyblade. Inside the chest were a dozen, aged and dried out roses and countless love letters. Jack ignored all of these and went straight for his prize, a smaller, intricately decorated chest. He pulled it out and set it on the edge of the larger chest. The five of them stared at the chest for a moment before leaning in close to find out if the legend was true.

_Thump-Thump._

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback HQ Medical Ward_

_The Frozen Fields_

Riku stared up at the ceiling if the medical ward, silently cursing his 'doctor' for not letting him get out of bed until she was positive he was completely healed. His mind was currently working at a higher rate than usual as he processed all of the information that had been given to him since he had woken up three hours before hand. He glanced to his left where the holographic projection of Dawn sat on a tray of medical equipment, having just explained everything to him.

"So, let me see if I got this straight," Riku began. "From what you've told me, after I fought with Keila and fell of the cliff to what should have been my death, those two women found me and brought me here. When they tried to heal him, my body rejected the restoration and I went into cardiac arrest."

_That must've been when I had that crazy dream about that Hope person._ Riku told himself. Dawn nodded.

"Then the restoration suddenly worked for no apparent reason and I was healed except for my new scars and a couple of fractures left over from the bones I broke. Right?" Riku stared expectantly at the AI. Dawn nodded again. "Now, explain to me again what this place is and who the two were that saved me."

"This is the Alliance Fallback Headquarters," Dawn said in a monotone, bored-sounding voice, almost as if she were reciting an encyclopedia entry from memory. "During the Keyblade War, it was known as the Forge and served the Chasers as their home. Now it is being refurbished and modified to be compatible with modern day technology.

"Overseeing the initial stages of preparation are Axel Ignis of Radiant Garden and the Disney Court, Number VII of the Chronos Numbers, Jenos Hazard, and their unwilling assistants, Pence Weyant and Hayner Ingram.

"In charge of the facility as a whole is the current High Chaser of the Keyblade, Master Xanthos Algor. His Apprentice is Olette Fairchild and they are the only two known Chasers who are active at this present time.

"The two women who rescued you from the snow are Master Jenna Algor, Superior Medicusi and Master Xanthos' twin sister. Her Apprentice, Nicole Case is the one who saw you fall from the cliff. You'd be dead, frozen under a pile of snow if it wasn't for her." Riku let out a groan.

"That's a lot to take in," he mumbled. "Especially after having a near death experience." Dawn smiled.

"I can explain it to you again if you'd like," she offered. "Or if that's too boring, I can give you a detailed account of the first battle of the Keyblade War. There's a data center in this facility that Master Xanthos allowed me access to while you were unconscious and there is just so much information stored there about life before the Keyblade War and the War itself too. It's rather fascinating."

"I can do without the history lesson for now, teach," Riku said sarcastically. Dawn's face fell slightly.

"Understood," she said. "Although I think you'll be interested to know that I have obtained new data on that anomaly I discovered. Remember?" That grabbed Riku's attention and spared him from the headache he felt coming on from the flood of information he had received today.

"What'd you find?" He asked.

"The Wielders back before the War had encountered weird areas just like the anomaly," Dawn explained, her body glowing slightly brighter as her excitement grew. "They called it a Metaworld. Apparently, they're formed when several worlds hearts fuse together to form one world. Aside from that, there really isn't that much to say except that Metaworlds have their own universal rules. Some of them prevent magic from working. Others move on a completely different timeline than the rest of the universe. And others prevented the Keyblade from-"

Without warning, the room went dark as all the power suddenly went out. Dawn's avatar projection flickered once, displaying a look of shock before she vanished.

"Dawn!" Riku shouted worriedly. "What the heck just happened?"

"Relax, Master Riku. I just shut off the power to this room. I can't have your AI being aware of our little 'conversation'. I'm not skilled enough with computers to erase that from her memory banks."

Riku looked around, straining his eyes in the sudden darkness for the source of the voice. He was nearly blinded as a bright red light flooded the room from a crystal set into the top of a staff. The man holding the staff was clothed in a silver robe and concealed his face with his hood.

Riku let out a growl and summoned the Way to Dawn to his hand. "Who are you and what do you want?" He demanded.

"I am Naleten," the man said. "I am a Nobody. I've come here to keep you in check, Lord of the Dawn." Naleten lowered his staff and lunged at Riku with a ferocious battle cry.

_LD_

_Beast's Castle_

_Library_

Belle looked up from the book that rested in her lap with a smile as she heard footsteps approaching. Her smile faded as she realized that a teenage girl in a black cloak was approaching her. To her surprise, the girl looked an awful lot like Sora. But something felt out of place. Belle could feel the presence of Darkness filling the room.

"Are you Belle?" The girl asked. Belle nodded.

"Yes," she replied. "Who are you?" The girl smiled. A flash of light lit up the room as a silver and gold Keyblade appeared in the girl's hand. Behind her, nine Neoshadows rose from the ground and began to advance on Belle. One of them leapt swiftly ahead of the others and clamped a claw over Belle's mouth, preventing her from calling out for help.

"Your captor," Keila answered smugly.

_LD_

* * *

_Well, that's it for now everybody. As always, reviews are appreciated. They make me smile and let me know you care. _

_It's been awhile since there's been any new news in the Kingdom Hearts world, so I'm happy to inform those of you who don't already know that Nomura has confirmed that a playable demo of Dream Drop Distance will be at the Tokyo Game Show this year and is apparently going to focus on the hidden data Ansem put inside Sora. He's even hinted at an HD collection of previous titles for the 10th anniversary this year. Fingers crossed. _

_I just realized that Kingdom Hearts and Halo both have their 10th anniversaries this year. Have I ever mentioned how much I love 2011? No? Well, now you do._

_Fun facts about this chapter:_

_1. My internet was down for almost three weeks and my work schedule kept me away from the public library so I couldn't get this published sooner. Sorry you guys!_

_2. I played around with about twenty different scenes involving Riku waking up and I just couldn't get any of them to work the way I wanted. _

_3. 'Medicusi' is based off of the Latin word 'Medicus', which means 'Doctor'._

_A new poll is up to see what video games all of you are looking forward to at the end of the year. Feel free to stop on by and drop your opinion._

_Until next time!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons_


	25. Hello Beastie

_TGIF, everyone. TGIF._

_This week has been too long. Oh well. The good news is, it's almost time for the Tokyo Game Show! Which means we finally will get more details on Dream Drop Distance. I'm excited. Are you? _

_Huh. I think this is the first time in a few updates where it hasn't taken me a full month to get a chapter out to you guys. I'd call that progress._

_Disclaimer: I have nothing new to say after twenty-four other disclaimers. If you think I own Kingdom Hearts or Disney, you fail at using the internet._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter Twenty Five: Hello Beastie

_Sunday, June 27__th__, 4794 P.C._

_Isla Cruces_

_The Caribbean_

"I don't believe it," Kairi whispered softly as she pulled her head away from the chest. "It's real."

Norrington glanced over at Jack. "You actually were telling the truth," he said in disbelief. Jack looked offended.

"I do that quite a lot," he said, "yet people are always surprised."

"With good reason."

The five gathered around the chest all looked around to find Will and Sora standing on one of the dunes, all looking as though they had spent the past week underwater.

"Will!" Elizabeth exclaimed, scrambling to her feet and running up to him as quickly as she could.

"Sora!" Kairi and Naminé called out happily, rushing up to embrace the spiky haired teen as tightly as they could. "We were so worried about you!"

"Don't mind me," Roxas panted as he slowly walked up the dune to stand beside the trio. "I'll just stand here and dry off in the sun, shall I?" Naminé and Kairi looked around at him in astonishment.

"Roxas?" Naminé whispered breathlessly. She released Sora and tenderly reached out to touch Roxas' shoulder. When her hand met the resistance of flesh and bone, Naminé let out a cry of joy and pulled Roxas into a bone-cracking hug. Roxas let out a grunt of surprise at how tightly Naminé was hugging him before he wrapped his arms around her. Sora and Kairi both laughed at the surprised expression on Roxas face before embracing each other again.

Sora rested his forehead against Kairi as his cerulean eyes stared into her violet-blue ones. "I missed you," he whispered. Kairi smiled warmly up at him.

"I missed you too," she said gently pressing her lips to his.

"How did you get here?" Jack asked.

"Sea turtles, mate," Will said with a smirk. "A pair of them strapped to my feet."

"Not so easy, is it?" Jack said, with a grin.

"But I do owe you thanks, Jack," Will continued on.

"You do?" Jack asked in confusion.

"After you tricked us onto that ship to square your debt with Jones…" Will began. A look of guilt crossed Jack's face for a split second. Elizabeth, Kairi and Naminé all looked over at Jack with mixed expressions of shock and disbelieving anger.

"What?" Elizabeth asked.

"What?" Jack repeated, doing his best to avoid answering the question.

"…I was reunited with my father," Will said.

"Oh," Jack said in relief. "You're welcome, then."

"Everything you said to me," Elizabeth said as she stormed up to Jack. "Every word was a lie!"

"Pretty much," Jack said without a trace of regret. "Time and tide, love." The sound of Will unsheathing the knife given to him by his father reached Jack's ears and he looked around. Will knelt next to the chest, knife drawn and ready in one hand and the key to the chest in the other. "Oi, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to kill Jones," Will replied, as though it should've been obvious. Without a second's hesitation, Jack drew his cutlass and placed the tip of the blade near Will's neck.

"Can't let you do that, William," Jack said darkly. "'Cause if Jones is dead, who's to call his terrible beastie off the hunt, eh?" Sora stared open mouthed at Jack. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Will slowly stood up and sheathed his father's knife in his belt. Jack held out a hand towards him, never once pointing his sword in a different direction. "Now, if you please. The key." Will moved quickly and stole Elizabeth's sword from its place at her side and pointed it at Jack.

"I keep the promises I make, Jack," Will said menacingly. "I intend to free my father. I hope you're here to see it."

Norrington drew his blade and pointed it at Will. "I can't let you do that either. So sorry," he said firmly.

"I knew you'd warm up to me eventually," Jack said with a smile. He took a step towards Norrington to stand next to him only to find Norrington's blade now pointing at him. Will quickly pointed his sword and Norrington and Jack pointed his at Sora as the teen stepped forward and summoned the Oblivion to his hand, pointing it at Jack.

"You tried to give us to Jones to save your own sorry skin!" Sora growled. "Even though you'd still be cursed by the Grim Reaper Heartless if Donald, Goofy and I didn't help save you."

"Lord Beckett desires the contents of that chest," Norrington said, ignoring Sora and gesturing with a jerk of his head towards the Dead Man's Chest. "I deliver it, I get my life back."

"Ah," Jack said in realization. "The dark side of ambition."

Norrington smirked at Jack. "Oh, I prefer to see it as the promise of redemption." He let out a cry as he swung his blade down on Will's, knocking it aside. Jack moved to attack Will but was intercepted by a strike from Sora. Jack swept Sora's legs out from underneath him and lunged at Will at the same time as Norrington. Will ducked under Jack and Norrington's blades as they struck together and ran off with the key in one hand. Sora pulled his face out of the sand and spat a large amount of it out of his mouth before scrambling to his feet.

Jack and Norrington both turned and followed Will, closely followed by Sora. Will spun around and quickly blocked blows from both Jack and Norrington. Will grabbed hold of Norrington's wrist and threw him into Sora. The pair fell to the ground in a jumbled mess of limbs. Jack took advantage of their distraction and snatched the key from Will's hand as Norrington got back up. Jack countered a near-death blow to his neck from Norrington and shoved him back towards Will and Sora. Norrington spun around and slashed horizontally at Will's midriff. The former blacksmith ducked and left himself wide open for Norrington's kick, which sent him sprawling across the ground.

"Will!" Elizabeth cried out, running quickly over to Will's side.

"Guard the chest!" Will said before he got back up and chased after Jack, Norrington and Sora.

A look of indignation crossed Elizabeth's face. "No!" She shouted as she went to chase after Will. "This is barbaric! This is no way for grown men to settle...oh, fine! Let's just haul out our swords and start banging away at each other! That'll solve everything! I've had it! I've had it with wobbly-legged, rum-soaked _pirates_!"

"She's got a point," Naminé said. "Do they really have to fight over it?"

"Probably not," Kairi said with a shrug. "But don't forget, Naminé, they are men, not girls. They don't think clearly like we do."

Naminé let out a laugh. "Good point, Kairi." She turned towards Roxas. "At least you aren't out there like those idi- Roxas?" Roxas wasn't standing at her side like she thought he had been. She turned back around in time to see the blond former Nobody leap over the chest with the Oathkeeper clutched in his left hand and a massive grin plastered on his face. "Roxas! Where are you going?"

The blond grinned back at her over his shoulder as he ran towards the four duelists fighting over the key. "Are you kidding me?" He called back. "Why would I ever miss out on an opportunity to be in a duel with pirates?" Naminé let out a groan while Kairi giggled a tiny bit.

"I guess Roxas got a little bit of Sora's fascination with pirates, right, Naminé?" Kairi grinned at the blonde, who simply let out a sigh and summoned her Rejection of Fate to her hand.

"Looks that way," she said. "Let's go knock some sense into them, shall we?" Kairi nodded in agreement and summoned Destiny's Embrace.

"They are completely useless without us anyway," Kairi said with a smirk as the two of them moved to follow the duel. Almost instantly, a group of Shadows, Neoshadows, Cannon Guns and Air Pirates appeared, surrounding them from all sides. Naminé and Kairi moved instantly to stand back to back with their Keyblades at the ready.

"Well, this is fantastic," Naminé said sarcastically as the Cannon Guns began charging up their initial attack.

"Look on the bright side," Kairi said as her eyes darted from Heartless to Heartless, "We could be fighting twenty Darksides instead of this cannon fodder."

Naminé let out a loud laugh. "Confident, are we?" She teased.

"Of course," Kairi said with a grin. "Why shouldn't we be? Our 'Master' is the Keyblade's Chosen One and we both inherited his fighting abilities."

"Then let's show these Heartless just who they're dealing with, shall we?" She suggested. In unison the pair raised their Keyblades and pointed their tips up at the sky. Electricity shot from both Keyblades and rose thirty feet into the air, where an orb of electricity took form.

"Thunder!" The two shouted. Ten bolts of lightning rained down from the orb of electricity hanging above their heads, blasting the Shadows into small clouds of black dust. The Neoshadows stumbled backwards from the attack and the Air Pirates crashed face-first into the ground. Only the Cannon Guns seemed unaffected by the attack. All at once, they fired fifteen explosive rounds towards the two teens.

"Reflect!" Kairi shouted and a domed barrier of Light surrounded her and Naminé, absorbing the full brunt of the attack. The barrier shattered as Naminé charged boldly towards a trio of Neoshadows. Jet-black claws slashed out at her and missed as the blonde ducked past them. The trio of Heartless spun around and was greeted by a barrage of ice bullets. The Heartless burst into a thick cloud of Darkness that quickly faded away. Naminé glanced over to where the red-head was leaping through the air, using the Air Pirates as springboards and cutting her way through those within her reach with the fire that burned along the edge of Destiny's Embrace. The sight of it was almost hilarious, but Naminé had no time to laugh as the remaining Neoshadows turned their full attention onto her.

"How'd this go all screwy?" Pintel asked aloud as he and Ragetti watched Sora, Will, Jack, Norrington and Roxas all duel over the key, endlessly spinning in a wide circle down the beach.

"Well, each wants the chest for hisself, don't he?" Ragetti explained. "Mr. Norrington, I think, is trying to regain a bit of honor. Ol' Jack, he's looking to trade it to save his own skin. Sora's not exactly happy with Jack and is trying to keep him away from getting the chest. And Turner there, I think he's trying to resolve some unfinished business 'twixt him and his twice-cursed pirate father."

"Sad," Pintel said, glancing away from the duel to the exposed chest. "That chest must be worth more than a shiny penny."

"Oh, tsk, tsk, terrible temptation," Ragetti agreed.

"If we was any kind of decent, we'd remove temptation from their path," Pintel said, grinning slyly at the one-eyed man.

"Enough!" Elizabeth shouted in exasperation. This was getting ridiculous and she was running out of ideas. "Oh. Oh! The heat!" She placed a hand to her forehead and collapsed to one side, pretending to faint. She narrowly opened one eye and watched as the five-way duel continued, uninhibited by her apparent lack of well-being. She sat up grumpily and placed her tricorne hat back on her head to watch the duel in irritation. She caught a glimpse of Pintel and Ragetti running off with the chest out of the corner of her eye. She glanced quickly back at the fight and decided that it wasn't going to end any time soon before she scrambled to her feet and took off in pursuit of Pintel and Ragetti.

The last of the Air Pirates burst into flame as Kairi's burning Keyblade sliced through its lower abdomen. The auburn-haired teen landed gracefully on the ground behind Naminé with a wild grin on her face. The remaining Heartless formed a lopsided circle around them, jet-black claws outstretched and twitching as they sensed the presences of two strong hearts.

Half of the remaining Neoshadows turned their attention onto Kairi as she straightened up while the other half remained focused on the blonde. Kairi's grin became a confident smirk as she thrust her empty palm towards the Heartless.

Thirteen arrows made from a blinding white light streaked from her palm and impaled the Heartless that had been about to attack her as Naminé felled the remaining Neoshadows by beheading the lot of them. The two of them exchanged triumphant grins and released their Keyblades.

"Is it wrong that I find it fun to beat up a bunch of Heartless?" Kairi asked as she and Naminé high-fived. Naminé gave her a shrug.

"If it is, then I guess something's wrong with both of us," she replied. "I had way too much fun messing with the Heartless. They're not very bright are they?" She and Kairi glanced over to where Sora, Roxas, Jack, Will and Norrington continued clash their blades against one another in an attempt to take the key to the chest for themselves. They both winced as Roxas' head whipped back from receiving a blow from the flat end of Sora's Oblivion. The blond fell backwards into the sand, clutching his now bleeding nose. Sora immediately broke away from the fight to make sure Roxas was okay.

"You know what I think?" Kairi wondered aloud. Naminé gave her an inquisitive look. "I think a bit of Sora's rubbing off on us. He really seems to have fun fighting Heartless a lot of the time, doesn't he?" Naminé laughed.

"I guess so," she said. "We both did gain the ability to fight because of him after all. It would make sense that we also got some of his other traits. Should we go make sure Roxas is alright?" Over in the distance, Roxas' fist shot up and decked Sora hard enough to send the spiky-haired teen sprawling face-first into the sand.

"I think he's fine," Kairi said, wincing slightly at seeing her boyfriend hit like that. The two of them watched for a moment as Roxas healed his bloody nose with a quick Cure spell before helping Sora to his feet. She spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and turned her head to get a better look. Elizabeth was chasing down Pintel and Ragetti as the pair ran awkwardly towards the jungle with the Dead Man's Chest held between them.

"Hey!" Kairi shouted as she began to run after the chest thieves. "They've got the chest!" Naminé looked around to see what Kairi was shouting about and let out a growl when she spotted Pintel and Ragetti.

"Pirates," she spat as the Rejection of Fate appeared back in her hand in a flash of light as the blonde joined her sister and Elizabeth in pursuit of the chest.

"You okay?" Roxas asked Sora as the brunette wiped sand off of his pants and jacket. Sora nodded.

"Yeah," he chuckled. "Nice left hook, by the way." Roxas smirked.

"I had time to work on it while I was living in your head," he replied. Sora gave him a quizzical look. "What? You didn't think I'd spend my free time in there just twiddling my thumbs did you?"

"No, I just thought you spent your time sleeping" Sora said holding out his hand to call the Oblivion back to him. He quickly looked around to see how far away Jack, Will and Norrington had gotten. He spotted them in time to see Jack duck under both Will's and Norrington's blades. Jack's blade lashed out and smacked hard against Will's chest, knocking the wind from the former blacksmith and allowing Jack the opportunity to steal the key and run off towards the jungle. Will slashed at Jack's back and missed. He spun to parry a blow from Norrington and turned back around to chase Jack. Norrington grabbed Will by the shoulders and threw him as hard as he could against the ground. Will tried to get back up to no avail as Norrington kicked a large amount of sand into his eyes.

"By your leave, Mr. Turner!" Norrington said, mocking Will with a bow before he ran after Jack.

"Let's go," Roxas said, leaping high into the air and soaring out over the jungle in pursuit of Jack and Norrington. Sora, rather than following Roxas' example, took off on foot after Will through an aged graveyard and into the ruins of an abandoned church, where Jack and Norrington were dueling on a staircase that ran up the inside of the aged bell tower. Norrington snatched the key from Jack and tripped the pirate captain as he attempted to steal it back, causing Jack to fall off of the stairs and clutch tightly to one of the ropes that rang the bell. Will grabbed onto the other rope and used Jack's momentum to pull him up to the top of the bell tower, grabbing the key from Norrington as he ascended. Norrington looked up at Will with a mixed expression of shock and anger.

"By your leave, Mr. Norrington!" Will called down in a mocking tone. Norrington gave a grunt of frustration and charged up the stairs after Will. Sora watched as the swinging bell raised Jack back up to the top of the bell tower, where he climbed out of a window frame to chase after Will and Norrington.

Sora stared after him for a moment before lowering his head as he prepared to leap into the air, only to be staring straight at an oncoming swing from a Berserker's claymore. Sora was sent flying through the air with a shocked expression on his face. He couldn't believe that he hadn't seen the Berserker appear. His back slammed into the ground with enough force to knock the breath from Sora's lungs as he bounced back up only to fall into an empty grave.

"You look like you're having fun," Roxas said with a smirk as he landed next to the grave and peered in at Sora.

"Define fun," Sora said as he stood up in the hole. He crouched down and leapt up and out of the grave to stand next to his blond brother. They turned to watch the Berserker that had sent Sora flying force its way out of the church ruins by widening the doorway with its claymore. Two more Berserkers appeared next to it, all three of them moving purposefully towards Sora and Roxas.

"Just three?" Roxas asked cockily as he twirled the Oathkeeper around in his hand. "I swear, sometimes things are just too easy." The words had barely escaped his lips when ten or so Snipers, half a dozen Samurai and at least seven Neoshadows appeared and surrounded them. "I just had to open my mouth."

"Where did these Nobodies come from?" Sora asked as he and Roxas stared around at their enemies. Roxas shrugged and summoned his Oblivion to his free hand.

"Who cares? Let's just get this over with." He said with a grin. The blond Wielder dashed forward and stabbed both of his Keyblades at the closest Neoshadow and missed as Heartless sank into the ground, becoming a two-dimensional, shapeless pool of Darkness. Another Neoshadow attempted to slice at him with its razor sharp claw, but was stopped as Roxas rolled out of harm's way before spinning around to slice halfway through the Heartless' midriff.

Behind the blond, Sora was quickly surrounded by the ten snipers. The spiky-haired teen only smirked as ten bright-red targeting lines appeared on his body. Sora took a deep breath in and closed his eyes as he slowly exhaled. His eyes snapped open as the Nobodies all fired on him at once. Sora vanished, reappearing in midair as he struck the ten projectiles one by one, deflecting them back into the Snipers and reducing the Nobodies to a white mist.

Roxas darted from one Neoshadow to the next, his Keyblades shining in the mid-day sun as he cut them down. One by one, they fell victim to the sting of his blade until only two remained. The two barely had time to glance at each other before they were struck down by a Thunder spell. Roxas lowered his Keyblades and looked around for more enemies. To his surprise, he found the three Berserkers fending off five of the six Samurai that had appeared.

"That's a first," Sora commented as he watched the Nobody-on-Nobody fight. A claymore fell on one of the Samurai's bodies, reducing it to a white mist while leaving the Berserker holding the claymore open to an attack from behind delivered by another Samurai. The rest of the fight lasted barely thirty seconds, after which, three Samurai remained standing. The three samurai turned to face Roxas, bowed low and then vanished.

"That was one of the strangest things I've seen in a long time," Roxas said with a laugh.

Meanwhile, Jack tried several times to grab the key from Norrington, as the former commodore fended off Will. When he succeeded in taking the key for his own, Norrington and Will both turned their attention onto Jack and teamed up against him, quickly disarming the pirate captain.

Norrington glanced behind him to look at Will. "Do excuse me while I kill the man who ruined my life."

"Be my guest," Will said coldly.

"Let us examine that claim for a moment, former Commodore, shall we?" Jack spoke up. "Who was it who, at the very moment you had a notorious pirate safely behind bars, saw fit to free said pirate, and take your dearly beloved all to hisself?" Norrington glanced back at Will. "So whose fault is it really that you've wound up a rum-pot deckhand what takes orders from pirates?"

"Enough!" Norrington shouted angrily. He swung his cutlass viciously at Jack and missed as the pirate captain somersaulted off of the roof with the key. Norrington and Will watched him for a moment before Norrington spoke up. "Unfortunately, Mr. Turner, he's right!" He swung his blade at the former blacksmith, who barely managed to raise his sword in time to block the attack.

"Still rooting for you, mate," Jack called as dusted himself off and pulled his sword from where it had stabbed into the ground after its fall. He walked away from the church cheerfully and fell directly into the same grave Sora had landed in earlier. Jack stood up and hoisted himself halfway out of the grave with a satisfied grin on his face. His grin faded away, becoming a look of confusion as he heard a low rumbling coming from nearby. Without warning, the water wheel rolled on top of him. The aged wood broke around him and Jack quickly found himself being dragged out of the grave and up with the wheel's rotation. Sora and Roxas watched as the wheel rolled into the forest with Will and Norrington still dueling on top and Jack's legs kicking as he tried to get free. As Jack's legs reached the ground once more he managed to break free and began jogging inside the wheel like a hamster with a smile on his face until his forehead made contact with a crossbeam and caused him to fall out of the side of the wheel.

"That was also one of the strangest things I've ever seen," Roxas commented as he and Sora watched the wheel roll into the jungle. Sora chuckled.

"We need to get you out more."

_LD_

"We got it!" Pintel said happily as he and Ragetti weaved in and out of the trees. "We got it! We got it!" They came to a sudden, uneasy halt as Elizabeth stepped out in front of them a confident smirk on her face as she reached for her sword. Her confident look disappeared in the blink of an eye as her hand grasped thin air. She glanced down at her waist and immediately gave herself a mental smack. She had completely forgotten that Will had stolen her sword to fight Jack with. She gave a nervous laugh as she looked back at Pintel and Ragetti. The two men exchanged a quick glance and dropped the chest between them as they drew their cutlasses.

"Hello, Poppet," Pintel said with an evil grin. He and Ragetti began to advance on Elizabeth, but were briefly distracted by the odd sight of a water wheel rolling by with Will and Norrington dueling on top as Jack ran alongside the wheel, trying to get back inside. Ragetti gave his uncle a confused look to which Pintel replied with a shrug before they turned back towards Elizabeth. Kairi and Naminé both appeared from behind a tree and went to stand next to Elizabeth, Keyblades drawn and at the ready. Elizabeth's worried expression became one of smugness.

"The chest, please," Kairi said sweetly as a tongue of flame appeared on Destiny's Embrace. Pintel and Ragetti both smiled nervously at the three women as the slowly backed away. Kairi and Naminé nodded at each other and started advancing on the two pirates. Their attention was grabbed however by a tomahawk that embedded itself in the trunk of the nearest tree. The five of them stared at the weapon for a moment before looking around to see the cursed crew of the _Flying Dutchman _running straight for them.

Pintel and Ragetti thrust their swords into Elizabeth's hands and took off running away from the _Dutchman_'s crew, pausing only to grab the chest as they went. Seeing that they were tremendously outnumbered, Elizabeth, Kairi and Naminé all quickly followed suit and ran away screaming.

They had barely run twenty feet when Pintel and Ragetti both tried to run around opposite sides of a tree with the chest between them. As a result of their lack of thinking, the chest was wrenched from their hands and landed on the ground. The five of them all stopped to look at the chest, and then up at one of the _Dutchman_'s crew members as he attacked Elizabeth. Elizabeth, suddenly thankful that Pintel and Ragetti had forced their swords onto her, quickly raised the two blades in an x-shape to block the incoming strike.

Kairi and Naminé dashed past Elizabeth, both realizing that running wasn't going to help them escape. Destiny's Embrace became covered in flame as Kairi hurled it towards a group of the closest crewmen. The cursed pirates let out shocked cries as the flaming Keyblade spun towards them and they threw themselves to the ground. Kairi grinned with satisfaction and summoned her Keyblade back to her hand in time to counter a strike from another crewman. She kicked the man directly in the fork of his legs as hard as she could, causing him to stumble backwards, hunched over in pain.

Naminé rolled to the side as a crewman wielding a large axe attempted to cleave her in two and slashed at the cursed man's legs. The crewman gave a howl of pain as the Rejection of Fate's tip dug deep into his flesh. Naminé spun around and slammed the flat of her blade against the back of the crewman's skull, knocking him to the ground. As the crewman crumpled to the ground, two more rushed forward to fill his place, but were quickly dispatched. One received a blade through the neck courtesy of Elizabeth, while the other one caught fire as Naminé unleashed a large fireball in his face.

As the rest of the crewmen drove the five normal humans away from where they had dropped the chest, a rather skinny crewman with his head encased in a large conch shell took hold of said chest and ran as quickly as he could for the thick cover of the jungle closer to the beach.

_LD_

Jack watched smugly as Will and Norrington rolled away inside the water wheel. After he had caught up to the wheel, he had been forced to run inside of it like a hamster while dueling Will and Norrington for possession of the key. He had managed to steal it from the other two and exit the wheel a brief instant before it began to roll down a steep hill. He lifted the two-pronged key to his eyes and grinned victoriously.

The sound of someone running through the knee-high foliage nearby caught Jack's attention, distracting him from relishing his victory. He looked around and spotted the cursed conch-headed crew member running through the clearing Jack was standing it as he carried the chest. Jack glanced around him and spotted a coconut lying at his feet. Lady Luck seemed to be on his side today. He snatched up the coconut, and threw it as hard as he could at the conch-headed man. The coconut, to Jack's amazement, beheaded the man while his body dropped the chest and began wandering around on its own. Jack eyed the body and quickly walked over to kneel by the chest.

"Ai- ya," the head groaned. "Inedo! Inedo! Follow my voice! Follow my voice!" The body turned back and forth in an attempt to locate the head. "To the left… no. Turn around. Go to the right." _Thud._ "No, that's a tree."

"Oh, shut it," Jack snapped, not wanting to listen to the cursed pirate try and guide his body back to him. He carefully placed the key into the heart-shaped lock on the front of the chest and gave it a quarter-turn to the right. With a hiss, the locking mechanism in the chest snapped open. Jack smirked and cautiously opened the top of the chest. Resting in the back corner, still beating with a steady pulse was the heart of Davy Jones. Jack reached into the chest and removed the heart. He closed the chest and looked up just as a small crowd of Davy Jones' crew burst into the clearing chasing after the four teens, Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti. Jack wasted no time in scrambling to his feet and running as quickly as his legs could carry him to the longboat.

Behind him, Pintel and Ragetti paused long enough to pick up the chest and run off with it while Roxas protected them from a pair of cursed crewmembers. A shark-headed crewman attempted to stab Roxas in the back, only to have his arm quickly frozen still by a Blizzaga spell Sora had managed to cast in time. Roxas called out his thanks to his former Somebody and spun around, the Oathkeeper and Oblivion slicing open the guts of the two crewmen he had been blocking against before plunging the Oathkeeper into the frozen-armed man's upper chest.

"Thunder!" Roxas shouted. Electricity coursed along the Oblivion's edge and blasted a large hole in the man's chest. The man collapsed to the ground, howling in agony but remaining alive as tiny fish and other sea life spilled from his wound in place of blood. Roxas fought back the urge to vomit.

"That's disgusting," Kairi said as she leapt over the spiky-haired blond, briefly placing her free hand on his back to use him as a springboard. She landed next to Elizabeth and saved the older woman's life by igniting Destiny's Embrace with a Fire spell and using it to cleave the rusted blade of a crewman off of its hilt. The crewman looked down at his blade in disbelief before looking back at Kairi in time to register that he was staring at the sole of her shoe before it made contact with his face.

Naminé rolled under Kairi's extended leg as the red-head roundhouse-kicked one of the crewmen in the face. The blonde exited her roll and swung the Rejection of Fate upwards, burying it deep into the upper thigh of an anglerfish-faced crewman. The cursed man fell to one knee, swearing loudly as Naminé shoved him aside and stabbed another crewman at the same time as Sora. The crewman fell backwards in shock as the two of them tore their Keyblades back out of his gut. The number of cursed crew around them had thinned and Sora took advantage of the reprieve to make sure there weren't any more of the _Dutchman_'s crew following them. Behind them, the cursed crew was getting back to their feet, completely unaffected by their injuries as they gave the teens and Elizabeth death glares.

Sora swallowed hard. "Uh oh."

"Time to go!" Roxas shouted. Together, the four teens turned tail and ran as fast as they could towards the beach. Behind them, Elizabeth parried blows from two of the crewmen before slashing them across their guts. She spun on her heel and twisted the two blades in her hands so their tips were pointed behind her and impaled another pair of crewmen

"What was the point of all that fighting if they're just going to get back up every time we put them down?" Kairi shouted as they burst through the trees and began running across the sand towards the longboat where Jack was fending off a puffer fish-faced crewman with one of the boat's oars.

"There wasn't one!" Roxas replied as the _Dutchman_ crewmembers ran out from the jungle in hot pursuit. "Unless you count survival." He and Sora both turned to face the crew head on just as the water wheel rolled out of the trees and mowed down over half of the cursed crew. Everyone stopped and watched as the wheel finally came to a stop and fell on its side in the shallows. Will and Norrington, both dizzy and feeling nauseous climbed out of the wheel as the fight broke out again. Will's eyes immediately spotted Elizabeth, Kairi and Roxas dueling against Jones' crew nearby the longboat.

"Right," he said weakly. He pointed his sword at the combatants, took barely two steps and fell face first into the shallows. Behind him, Norrington's eyes were fixed on the boat and a distracted Jack Sparrow, an opportunity he refused to miss out on. He stumbled quickly towards the longboat as Will collapsed in his attempt to get back up.

Norrington ran up beside the longboat and immediately grabbed hold of Jack's coat. He quickly dug through the pockets until he found what he was looking for, the Letters of Marque that offered a full pardon of all crimes. Norrington smirked and tucked the Letters away inside his own coat. He made to turn away from the boat and flee the battle but the sight of dirt inside the boat caught his eye. He looked up to Jack as the captain continued to duel against the puffer fish-faced crewman and smirked.

Pintel and Ragetti fought their way to the boat, using the chest to knock aside the cursed crewmen that got in their way. They tossed the chest into the boat and went to make off with their prize as Norrington finished tucking something away inside of his coat. Their escape was cut short however by Will as the former blacksmith pointed his sword at the two men. Pintel and Ragetti both reached for their swords only to grasp thin air. They both gave Will sheepish smiles and chuckled nervously. He and Ragetti lunged for the nearest objects in the boat.

"Come on, Turner!" Pintel shouted, brandishing an oar like a sword as Ragetti grabbed hold of a net. Will shook his head in amusement before glancing down at the chest. His eyes widened slightly as he noticed the key was still in the lock. Jack knocked the puffer fish-faced crewman back and caught a glimpse of Will staring at the chest. He whacked the crewman once more before turning and bashed Will upside the head with the oar. The resulting crack caught Elizabeth's attention and she immediately rushed to Will's side.

"Leave him lie, unless you plan on using him to hit something with," Jack said to her as he carefully eyed the cursed crewmen.

"We're not getting out of this," Roxas said hopelessly.

"Not with the chest," Norrington said suddenly. He tossed his sword aside and grabbed the chest. "Into the boat."

"You're mad!" Elizabeth said.

"Don't wait for me," Norrington said before he ran back towards the jungle. Jones' crew glanced between the eight still standing by the boat and Norrington's retreating figure. With a roar, they gave chase to the former commodore.

"I say we respect his final wish!" Jack said hurriedly.

"Aye!" Sora and Pintel said in agreement and the eight of them turned to push the boat back into deeper water. They got back to _Pearl_ just a few minutes later where Gibbs helped Sora and Pintel bring Will back onboard. Will was placed next to the railing out of the way and Elizabeth immediately went to his aid as he slowly came to.

"What happened to the Commodore?" Gibbs asked as the crew started to raise the longboat out of the water.

"He fell behind," Jack said uncaringly, clutching his jar of dirt tightly as he strode towards the helm.

"My prayers be with him," Gibbs said solemnly before he instantly cheered up. "Best not wallow in our grief! The bright side is that you're back and made it off free and clear." With a loud rumbling splash, the _Flying Dutchman_ rose from the depths of the ocean alongside the _Pearl_'s portside.

Fear crossed Gibbs' face as he looked up at the laughing faces of Jones and his crew. He slowly crossed himself. "Lord on High, deliver us!"

"I'll handle this, mate," Jack said, placing an encouraging hand across Gibbs' chest before he shouted over to the _Dutchman_. "Oi! Fish-face!" Jones stopped laughing and glared over at Jack. Jack raised the jar of dirt high above his head as he walked towards the bow of the ship, his eyes never leaving Jones. "Lose something? Eh? Scrungealy-" Everyone on the _Pearl_ winced as he fell down the stairs. There was a brief pause before Jack raised the jar over the railing so Jones could see that it was still intact as he got to his feet. "Got it! Come to negotiate, eh, have you, you slimy git!" He taunted in a sing song voice. "Look what I got. I got a jar of dirt! I got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it?"

Jones glared at Jack for a moment before he turned to his first-mate. "Enough!"

Jack's confident expression fell as the _Dutchman_'s cannons were rolled out to aim at the _Pearl_. "Hard to starboard."

"Hard to starboard!" Elizabeth shouted in panicked tone.

"Brace up the foreyard!" Will commanded. Gibbs shoved Cotton away from the helm and began turning the wheel as quickly as he could to get them away from the _Dutchman_.

"Hard to starboard!" Davy Jones commanded. "Send his beloved _Pearl_ back to the depths!"

"Fire all!" Maccus shouted. The air was quickly filled with the rapid booming sounds of the _Dutchman_'s cannons all firing in the direction of the _Black Pearl_. The initial shots tore through the stern of the _Pearl_, shattering the windows of the captain's cabin and ruining the interior. Pintel and Ragetti peered inside the ruined doors and watched as the _Dutchman_ turned to give chase.

"She's on us!" He shouted as he ran up to the upper deck. "She's on us!"

"Try and get us now, you bastards!" Roxas shouted triumphantly. The words had no sooner left his mouth when a cannonball shattered one of the three lamps set into the _Pearl_'s stern and knocked on of the crewmen into the ocean. Roxas and Sora both peered around the side of the ship back at the _Dutchman_. Two triple-barreled cannons were protruding from the front of the Dutchman rotating every time a shot was fired and allowing for an almost nonstop assault.

"I may have spoke too soon," Roxas said. Jack strode up to Gibbs and forced him away from the helm. He grabbed hold of the wheel and rotated it clockwise slightly. The sails of the _Pearl_ filled with the wind and the ship lurched slightly as she gained speed.

"Go on, me darling!" Pintel pleaded the ship as he patted the railing affectionately. "Show us what you've got!"

"Come on girl!" Sora shouted as he cast a Reflect spell which shot a cannonball back at the _Dutchman_. To his satisfaction, he watched one of Jones' crewmen get blown off of the deck as a result. The shots from the _Dutchman_'s triple guns were falling shorter and shorter of their mark as the _Pearl_ picked up speed.

"She's falling behind!" Kairi exclaimed cheerfully.

"Aye, we've got her!" Gibbs said proudly.

"We're the faster?" Will asked.

"Against the wind, the Dutchman beats us. That's how she takes her prey," Gibbs explained. "But with the wind..."

"We rob her advantage," Will realized.

_LD_

"They're out of range!" A crewman shouted.

"Break off pursuit, run her light and douse canvas," Jones ordered.

"We givin' up, sir?" Maccus asked. Jones smirked at him as the bo'sun cracked his whip above the heads of several crewmembers that were turning the capstan hammer.

_LD_

"They're giving up!" Marty shouted. The crew all cheered. Pintel and Ragetti locked arms and did a quick dance as Sora and Kairi locked lips next to them.

"My father is on that ship," Will growled to Jack. "If we can outrun her, we can take her. We should stand and fight."

"Why fight when you can negotiate?" Jack asked. He lifted his jar of dirt and placed it on the railing of the upper deck. "All one needs is the proper leverage." The ship came to a shuddering halt, throwing everyone from their feet and, much to Jack's horror, sent the jar of dirt falling to the deck below, where it shattered. Jack let out a small whimper and quickly rushed to the spilled dirt where he began sifting through it, clearly searching for something. "Where is it? Where is the thump-thump?"

"We must have hit a reef!" Someone shouted as the crew peered over the railing at the bubbling water around the hull. Will and Sora shared a brief, knowing look.

"No, it's not a reef!" Sora shouted. He rushed over to Kairi and Naminé and pulled them both back from the rail. "Get away from the rail!"

"What is it?" Kairi asked.

"The Kraken!" Will said. Jack looked up from the spilled dirt in absolute terror. "To arms!"

"Load guns!" Gibbs ordered. "Defend the mast!"

"It'll attack the starboard, I've seen it before!" Will shouted as he passed a rifle off to one of the crewmen. "Run out the cannons and hold for my signal!" The crew ran below deck and quickly readied the cannons. The four Keyblade Wielders summoned their weapons to their hands and lined up alongside the starboard railing as the others remaining above deck armed themselves with spears and rifles. There was a moment of silence as everyone on board watched the creature's suckered limbs slowly climb the side of the ship.

"Easy, boys," Will said in a calming tone as the men gathered around the cannons started to show signs of nervousness. Five fireballs formed on the tips of the Keyblades brandished by the off-worlders.

"Will?" Elizabeth called down to Will as she watched several tentacles slowly rise up the side of the ship.

"Steady...steady..."

"Will!" Elizabeth called again, her voice slightly higher.

"Hold...hold..."

"I think we've held fire long enough!" Pintel said anxiously.

"WILL!"

"Fire!"

The _Black Pearl_'s cannons all fired directly into the Kraken's tentacles, blasting off large chunks of flesh and bone. Five fireballs sent from five Keyblades incinerated large sections of flesh straight to the bone. The tentacles writhed in pain and one slammed down onto the deck, smashing the longboats before sliding off of the deck. Sora felt a shiver travel up his spine as he heard the Kraken let out a groan of pain. The tentacles slowly sank back into the water. As the last of the tentacles slipped back beneath the surface of the ocean, the crew all let out cheers.

"It'll be back," Will said to Elizabeth. We have to get off the ship."

"There's no boats," she said hopelessly. Will turned and saw the wreckage of the longboats on the deck.

"Well, isn't this fantastic?" Roxas muttered sarcastically. Will watched as a barrel of gunpowder rolled across the hull and an idea came to him.

"Pull the grates!" He ordered. "Get all the gunpowder onto the net in the cargo hold!" The crew all began scrambling about as they went to follow orders. Sora ran below deck to help out in any way he could while Kairi, Naminé and Roxas remained on deck, preparing for the Kraken's next assault. Will was handed a rifle, which he immediately passed along to Elizabeth. "Whatever you do, don't miss."

"As soon as you're clear," she promised. In no time at all, the crew had pulled the grates and had loaded the only six barrels of gunpowder onboard. "We're short stock on gunpowder!" Someone shouted. "Six barrels!"

"There's only half a dozen kegs of powder!" Sora called out to Will.

"Then load the rum!" Will shouted back. The crew all fell silent, awkwardly staring at Gibbs, clearly waiting for a second opinion.

"Aye, the rum too!"Gibbs said painfully before he climbed back above deck. Roxas tossed a handful of rifles to Marty and glanced out at the sea to see if he could spot the Kraken. Instead, all he saw was Jack, rowing away in the only surviving longboat.

"That son of a bitch," he muttered. "He abandoned us." He was nearly thrown off of his feet as the ship lurched beneath him.

"Not good," Marty said in a worried tone. With a roar, several of the Kraken's tentacles emerged from the water and stabbed themselves into the cannon ports. Chaos ensued on the _Black Pearl_ as the crewmen fought desperately against the Kraken. The tentacles writhed below deck, smashing the cannons and wrecking everything it could. Crewmen were grabbed and dragged out through the holes in the ship to become food for the beast.

"Haul away!" Sora shouted as he ran above deck in time to see Roxas thrown into the wreckage of the captain's cabin by a tentacle the blond had damaged.

"Heave!" Gibbs shouted to the crewmen gathered around the capstan. "Heave like you're being paid for it!"

"Put your backs into it!" Marty shouted as he stood on the capstan.

"I got you! I got you!" Gibbs shouted as he held onto the arms of a crewman being held by one of the smaller tentacles. "I won't let you go!" Another tentacle tripped Gibbs and he lost his grip on the crewman, who was raised high into the air. Sora attempted to rescue the crewman by blasting the tentacle with a Firaga spell, but he missed and instead set fire to one of the sails.

"Shoot me!" A crewman managed to shout before he was dragged beneath the waves. Gibbs scrambled to his feet as the net loaded with all of the ship's rum and gunpowder was raised above deck. Elizabeth raised the rifle and took aim at the net.

"Clear?" Elizabeth shouted to Will.

"Higher! Higher" Will shouted, gesturing upwards with his sword. A tentacle pulled itself from the lower decks and wrapped above the capstan before smashing it, bringing Will's ascent to a lurching halt. Roxas rejoined the fray and froze one of the Kraken tentacles solid with a Blizzaga spell. He ducked under another tentacle that would've sent him flying overboard and shattered the frozen limb. The Kraken let out an earsplitting roar and before Roxas could react, he was thrown by a tentacle into the portside stairs, smashing them and hitting his head hard against the cannon that was secured beneath them.

Sora pulled Kairi out of harm's way as a tentacle smashed into the deck where she had been standing a brief second before. She barely had time to thank him before another tentacle threatened to crush them both. The tentacle swept Kairi off of her feet and began to curl around her ankles only to be quickly severed by Sora's Oblivion. She and Sora both looked around as Naminé let out a high-pitched scream. The Kraken had snared both of her arms and held her high above the deck of the _Pearl_ as it prepared to drag her to a watery grave.

"Naminé!" Sora and Kairi cried out. Both of them leapt into the air and flew up to the Kraken's tentacle that held tightly to the blonde. Kairi sliced off the tip of the tentacle with her Keyblade before sending and electric jolt through the injured limb. Naminé let out another scream as she fell, only to be caught by Sora. He floated back down to the upper deck and gently placed Naminé back on the wood.

"Thanks, Sora," Naminé said as she took in several deep breaths. Sora grinned as Kairi landed next to him.

"Don't mention it," Sora said. He turned towards the stairs to rejoin the fight when a Kraken tentacle slammed into him from above, knocking Kairi and Naminé off to the side.

"Sora!" Kairi and Naminé shouted in unison. The tentacle that had slammed into Sora rose again and swung towards them only to be blown to pieces by a pair of Fira spells fired off by Naminé as Kairi rushed to Sora's side.

"Are you okay?" Kairi asked him quietly as she examined him carefully.

Sora forced a grin through the pain in his head and looked back at her. "I've had worse," he said. Kairi breathed a sigh of relief and quickly examined the shallow gash that had appeared just below Sora's hairline and across his forehead.

"Let me get that for you," she said softly as she placed her hand over his forehead. "Heal." Green light shone from underneath her palm for a brief moment as the healing magic took effect so that when Kairi removed her hand, only a faint pink line was left behind.

Sora ran his hand quickly over the place where the wound had been before grabbing Kairi by the shoulders and pulling her into a hug. "Thanks, Kairi." The red-head smiled at him and kissed him gently on his cheek.

"You're welcome, Sora," she whispered softly.

"C'mon! Come and get me!" Will shouted. "I'm over here! C'mon!" One of the tentacles slammed into the deck, throwing one of the few intact cannons overboard and ended up getting the net wrapped tightly around it as it tried to grab Will. Unfortunately for Will, that caused him to lose his sword and trapped his ankle in the net. He quickly recovered and yanked the knife his father had given him from his belt.

"Shoot!" Will shouted as he furiously hacked away at the ropes binding his ankle. Elizabeth hesitated, carefully aiming the gun and waiting for Will to get free, unaware that three tentacles were slowly slithering through the captain's cabin behind her. "Elizabeth, shoot!" She took a deep breath and aimed carefully. Without warning, one of the tentacles from the captain's cabin grabbed hold of her ankle and dragged her to the floor as it began to pull her off of the ship. Elizabeth let out a scream as the Kraken dragged her through the ruined door of the cabin.

With a shout, Ragetti stepped next to the tentacle and severed it with a large axe, freeing Elizabeth. The woman immediately turned around and spotted the rifle she had dropped as a crewman grabbed hold of it and aimed at the net. Before he could pull the trigger, the Kraken wrapped one of its tentacles around it and shook him about like a rag doll. The man's body went limp as his neck snapped and the rifle fell from his hands onto the upper deck. Elizabeth ran after it and fell to the ground as the Kraken caused the _Pearl_ to lurch violently. She crawled quickly up the stairs and grabbed the rifle as someone placed their boot on it to prevent her from taking it.

Elizabeth struggled in a desperate attempt to remove the person's boot from the rifle until she looked up and saw Jack standing proudly above her. Jack picked up the rifle and took aim at the net as Will cut himself free and fell to the deck. Kairi and Naminé sliced through another tentacle and turned in time to see Jack aim. Roxas appeared out of nowhere and pulled them both to the deck to shield themselves from what was coming. Jack pulled the trigger and the gunpowder and rum exploded violently. Chunks of burning wood and Kraken flesh fell to the deck as the Kraken let out a groan of pain and pulled its tentacles back underwater.

"Did we kill it?" Marty asked as he and Gibbs leaned cautiously over the railing.

"No, we just made it angry," Gibbs said nervously. "We're not out of this yet. Captain! Orders!"

"Abandon ship," Jack said as he tossed the rifle he had used to detonate the barrels aside. "Into the longboat."

"Jack! The _Pearl_," Gibbs said, gesturing at the debris and Kraken-flesh covered deck.

"She's only a ship, mate," Jack said indifferently. His eyes gave him away though.

"He's right," Elizabeth said. "We have to head for land."

"That's a lot of open water," Pintel said nervously.

"It's a lot of water," Ragetti repeated.

"We have to try," Sora said as Kairi and Naminé helped him to his feet. "We can get away as it takes down the _Pearl_."

"Abandon ship," Gibbs said darkly. "Abandon ship or abandon hope." He began hurriedly gathering supplies while Jack turned back towards the captain's cabin, running one hand along the mast as he took one final look at the ship he treasured so much.

"Thank you, Jack," Elizabeth said quietly from behind him. Jack turned to her.

"We're not free yet, love," he said solemnly.

"You came back," she said with a smile. "I always knew you were a good man." Without hesitation, she pressed her lips to his and began to slowly back him towards the main mast. Will looked up from the side of the ship as he passed a rifle down to Marty and froze as he caught sight of Jack and Elizabeth locked together by the lips. A look of disbelief slowly formed on his face.

"Prepare to cast off! There's no time to lose!" Gibbs said hurriedly. Will seemed unable to move and was blocking the ladder down into the longboat. "C'mon Will, step to!" Will tore his eyes aware from the kiss and slowly climbed down into the longboat.

The kiss broke apart as a loud click filled Jack's ears. He glanced down at his wrist and saw a manacle securing him to the mast. He should've seen that coming. "It's after you, not the ship," Elizabeth said. "It's not us. This is the only way, don't you see?" she said in a hushed tone as if she were trying to justify her actions to herself. "I'm not sorry."

Jack smirked. "Pirate." Elizabeth backed away from him and went to get into the longboat, leaving Jack to watch her go.

"Where's Jack?" Will asked in a cold tone as Elizabeth stepped into the longboat. She purposely kept her eyes away from him, hiding her guilt at what she had just done.

"He elected to stay behind to give us a chance," Elizabeth explained. The others looked back up at the _Pearl_ in confusion. That didn't sound like something Jack would do. "Go!" Naminé hesitantly released the rope tethering them to the doomed ship and the longboat slowly drifted away.

Back on the deck of the _Black _Pearl, Jack grinned triumphantly as he managed to squeeze his hand out of the cuff Elizabeth had put him in by using some oil from a lantern he broke. His grin fell as he heard the sound of something rising from the water behind him and slowly turned to find himself facing the jaws of the Kraken. The best opened its gaping maw, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth and let out a blood-curdling roar. Slime flew as it roared, coating Jack and part of the _Pearl_'s deck.

Jack's body shuddered from the feel of the Kraken's slime. "Not so bad," he said as he wiped the slime off of his face. He glanced down and spotted his tricorne hat he had lost lying at his feet. Eagerly, he bent down and placed it back on his head before he looked back up at the Kraken's gaping mouth. "Hello, Beastie." He drew his blade and strode up to the railing as the Kraken bore down on him, plunging his blade deep into the beast's gullet.

The survivors of the _Pearl_ watched sadly as the Kraken's tentacles wrapped around the ship, pulling slowly beneath the waves.

From the deck of _Flying Dutchman_, Davy Jones watched through his spyglass as the Kraken's tentacles dragged the _Pearl _to the crushing darkness. He closed the spyglass and stared satisfied at the place where the _Black Pearl_ had been just a moment before. "Jack Sparrow, our debt is settled."

"The captain goes down with his ship," one of the crewmen said.

"Turns out not even Jack Sparrow can best the Devil," Maccus added. Those words struck a chord inside Jones. A single thought ran through his mind. _He didn't._

"Open the chest," Jones commanded his crew. The crewmen exchanged confused looks as Jones turned to face Maccus. "Open the chest, I need to see it!" The chest was brought before Jones and unlocked. Jones knelt in front of the chest and opened it, a look of anger crossing his face.

"Damn you, Jack SPARROW!"

_LD_

_Tia Dalma's Shack_

The room was filled with a saddened silence, broken only by the steady sound of Will stabbing his father's knife into the table and pulling it out again. Gibbs stared out at the bayou while Kairi held a shell-shocked Sora. Sora wasn't used to losing. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he had lost so horribly in anything. Naminé and Roxas huddled together in a corner, silently watching as Tia Dalma walked from person to person, offering them mugs of hot tea. Only Elizabeth seemed unwilling to take one.

Tia Dalma gave her a sympathetic look. "Against the cold, and the sorrow," she said. Offering the tray to Elizabeth once more. Elizabeth conceded and took a mug. Tia Dalma smiled and moved to place a mug next to Will. "It's a shame. I know you're thinking that with the Pearl, you could have captured the Devil himself and set free your father's soul."

"It doesn't matter now," Will said as he stabbed his knife into the table again. "The _Pearl_'s gone, along with its captain."

"Aye, and already the world seems a bit less bright," Gibbs said from the doorway as he stared out at the bayou. "He fooled us all right till the end, but I guess that honest streak finally won out." He turned and raised his glass to the room "To Jack Sparrow!"

"Never another like Captain Jack!" Ragetti said sadly.

"He was a gentleman of fortune, he was," Pintel agreed.

"The best pirate I've ever seen," Sora said, raising his glass as well.

"He was a good man," Elizabeth said, a mixture of sadness and guilt in her voice. Everyone took a drink and silence ensued once more.

"If there was anything could be done to bring him back..." Will began, reaching out to Elizabeth only for her to shy away. "Elizabeth..."

"Would you do it? Hmm?" Tia Dalma asked Will suddenly. She turned to Elizabeth. "What would you? Hmm? What would any of you be willing to do? Hmm? Would you sail to the ends of the eart' and beyond to fetch back witty Jack and him precious _Pearl_?"

"Aye," Gibbs said.

"Aye," Sora and Roxas said in unison.

"Aye," Kairi and Naminé agreed.

"Aye," Pintel said as he got to his feet.

"Aye," Ragetti and Cotton's parrot chorused.

"Yes," Elizabeth said. Tia Dalma turned to Will expectantly.

"Aye," he said softly.

"All right," Tia Dalma grinned. "But if you go and brave the weird and haunted shores at World's End, then you will need a captain who knows those waters." She turned towards a spiral staircase set into the back corner of the room as heavy footsteps began to descend along them. The others all watched with anticipation as a man dressed in black came to a stop a few steps from the bottom.

"So tell me, what's become of my ship?" Barbossa said as he lifted a bright green apple to his mouth and took a large bite out of it, leaving juice to run down his chin and beard. The Oblivion appeared in Sora's hand as he glared at Barbossa, startling Kairi, Naminé and Roxas. "Master Sora, it's been too long."

"Not long enough," Sora growled.

"You know this guy?" Roxas asked.

"We all do," Will spoke up. "I thought Jack killed you, Barbossa."

Barbossa took another bite of his apple, not bothering to swallow the bite before he spoke. "I died, true enough. But how can you get to the land of the dead without a guide who's sailed that way before, hmm?"

"And you can take us there?" Gibbs asked skeptically. Barbossa laughed.

"But of course, Master Gibbs," he said. "But first we need to possess the Mao Kun charts to find the World's End. So we best be settin' sail for Singapore." Barbossa turned back towards Sora. "It's a long ways to Singapore, lad. I'm sure you've business elsewhere and won't be able to come with us. But when the time comes, I'm sure I can expect you there." Sora nodded.

"You got it," he said, keeping a close-eye on Barbossa as he moved to stand closer to Kairi, Roxas and Naminé. "We'll be back as soon as we can."

"How will we know when you guys reach Singapore though?" Kairi asked. Barbossa reached into his pocket and tossed her a silver, Spanish coin.

"That there's a special piece of eight," he explained. "When the song is sung, that coin will reverberate with the song. When it does, you'll know to come."

Sora nodded in understanding. "We'll be here," he said simply as he pulled out the Gummi remote and waved to the others in the room, purposely making sure he didn't wave to Barbossa. "See you guys later."

"Bye, everyone," Kairi, Naminé and Roxas chorused as Sora pressed the button on the remote and transported them back to the _Kingdom_.

_LD_

_Lord Cutler Beckett's Office_

"Lord Beckett, the last of our ships has returned," Ian Mercer announced as he strode into Beckett's office. Beckett looked up from the stack of shipping manifests laid out on his desk.

"Is there any news on the chest?" He asked, somehow already knowing the answer.

"None," Mercer said plainly. Beckett sighed and turned his eyes back towards the manifests. "But, one of our ships did pick up a man adrift at sea. He had these." Beckett looked up again in curiosity as Mercer dropped the leather-bound Letters of Marque Elizabeth and Kairi had stolen from him.

"I took the liberty of filling in my name," Norrington said as he entered the room. Smirking at Beckett.

"If you intend to claim these, then you must have something to trade," Beckett said, watching the disheveled man carefully. "Do you have the compass?"

Norrington shook his head and walked over to stand in front of the desk. "Better." He raised his hand and dropped a small bundle onto the wood. Beckett leaned forward in fascination as the bundle shifted slightly of its own accord.

_Thump-Thump_

"The heart of Davy Jones."

_LD_

_Onboard the Kingdom_

Sora let out a long yawn as he, Kairi, Roxas and Naminé appeared inside their respective warp chambers. His body ached all over from all of the fighting he had been involved with over the past few hours. The last time he could remember being this sore was after he had taken on a thousand Heartless all by himself in the Great Maw on Radiant Garden.

"I'm beat," Kairi groaned as the three of them stepped out the chambers. "Today was just too intense."

"I'm starving!" Roxas groaned as he stretched his arms above his head. "Who knew not having a body could make you so hungry?" Naminé raised her hand. "That was rhetorical. I'm going to go make myself a sandwich. Do you three want any-?" Roxas' words were cut off as a bolt red lightning struck him square in the shoulder blades with enough force to slam his head into the wall. Roxas let out a small gasp of pain and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Roxas!" Naminé cried out in shock. She, Sora and Kairi spun around to find themselves face to face with Roxas' assailant. The man towering above the three teens was dressed in white, segmented armor accented with brown sections that covered his chest, shoulders, arms and legs. His face was concealed by the gold, polarized dome-visor helmet. Red sparks danced in-between his fingertips as he turned his hidden face from one teen to the next

"Who are you?" Sora asked, wondering how this man got onto their ship. The man remained silent. In response to Sora's question, he raised a hand and before the three teens could react, had sent a large bolt of red lightning straight into his chest.

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback HQ Medical Ward_

_The Frozen Fields_

The Way to Dawn slammed into Naleten's staff with a loud clang as Riku countered the Nobody's attack. He let out a growl of frustration and applied as much force into his blade as he could muster, forcing Naleten to stumble backwards. The Nobody recovered almost instantly. He spun around, swinging his staff like a bat towards Riku's midriff. The silver-haired Keyblade Wielder leapt backwards, avoiding the attack by mere inches.

"You're quite the popular person, aren't you?" Naleten asked casually as he charged at Riku again. Riku let out a grunt as the tip of the staff's crystal tip left a shallow wound in his left shoulder. "Maleficent and Xehanort both want you dead for some odd reason. I can't see why though. There's nothing overly special about you, is there?" The blunt end of the staff dug into the wall as Riku sidestepped the attack that had been aimed for his head. "At least not yet, anyways."

"Depends," Riku said as he stabbed at Naleten's chest. "How about I cut you down? Then we'll talk about who isn't anything 'special'." The Nobody smirked and drove his staff further into the wall to anchor it in place before he swung himself up on it, causing the Way to Dawn to pass through empty air where he had been a split second before as he held himself upside down in a straight line on the top of the makeshift bar.

"I think we both know that person would be you," Naleten taunted. He swung himself around on his staff and kicked Riku squarely in the center of his chest with both feet. Riku was sent flying across the room into a cart laden with medical equipment. The silver-haired Wielder let out a gasp of pain as he felt the metal of the cart buckle and bend under the force of the blow. Naleten placed his feet back on the ground and tore his staff from the wall, littering the floor with small chunks of drywall, insulation and stone. "See? You can't even land a single hit on me."

Riku groaned and forced himself up from the wrecked cart. Naleten moved swiftly and was practically on top of Riku in the blink of an eye. Despite the throbbing pain in his back, Riku leapt away from Naleten at the last possible nanosecond, narrowly avoiding the sharp tip of the crystal set into the staff. The crystal slashed straight through the cart, splitting one of its sides wide open like it was made of paper. Naleten tore the staff away from the cart and pointed it at Riku. Several streaks of red energy flew from the crystal and shot towards the teen. Riku smirked and easily deflected the energy attacks. Compared to the hundreds of ethereal beams Xemnas had attacked Sora and him with when they had clashed with the Nobody the previous month, stopping Naleten's attack was absurdly easy.

Naleten charged at Riku, swinging his staff with deadly force. The Way to Dawn flashed up and stopped the Nobody's attack cold. Naleten stumbled from the unexpected resistance and Riku took his chance to unleash a series of heavy blows against the Nobody's chest. The Way to Dawn became a dark blur in Riku's hands as it struck Naleten again and again until the combo finished with Riku blasting Naleten at a point blank range with an explosion of light tinged with a dark shadow. Naleten was hurled across the room, where he slammed headfirst into a wall covered with computer monitors that had been monitoring Riku's vitals.

"Why are you trying to kill me?" Riku asked. "I've never done anything to you." Naleten grinned, flashing his pointed teeth at Riku as he got back to his feet, seemingly unaffected by the damage Riku had just dealt him.

"Whatever made you think I was trying to kill you?" He asked. His body seemed to flicker for a moment and then he vanished only to reappear inches in front of Riku before the teen had time to react. Naleten's fist slammed heavily into Riku's ribs, accompanied by a sharp cracking sound. Riku eyes widened from the shock of the pain. His hand went limp and the Way to Dawn clattered to the ground, vanishing in a flurry of sparkling lights. He tried to cry out but only managed a small cough. Tiny flecks of blood flew from his mouth and splattered against Naleten's cloak. The Nobody's emotionless grin became more pronounced. He stepped back from Riku and watched him fall to his knees.

"Are you ready to surrender yet?" Naleten said as he set his staff down on a nearby bed. He grabbed Riku by his throat and hoisted him up into the air. Riku glared down at him for a moment before spitting in Naleten's face. The Nobody's grin vanished as he wiped the spittle away with his free hand. "I guess not." He pulled back his free hand and punched Riku as hard as he could in the face. Riku was torn away from Naleten's grip as the punch sent him sailing through the wall to land face first against a cold stone floor.

Naleten picked his staff back up and aimed it at the hole in the wall he had created using Riku's body. The red crystal on the staff's end emitted a single pulse of energy and the rest of the wall was blown apart, leaving a large enough space for him to walk through.

Naleten squinted through the cloud of dust left behind by the ruined wall in an attempt to find Riku's body. It didn't take long for the dust to settle and when it did, Riku wasn't lying amongst the chunks of the wall. Naleten's brow furrowed in confusion. He had seen the boy hit the ground where he was now standing, but there was no sign of the silver-haired Keyblade Wielder anywhere. Naleten checked to his left and right. He was standing in a long corridor that stretched for hundreds of yards in both directions with the only door leading back into the medical ward. He checked behind him and peered back in the hole in the wall to see if Riku had slipped back in there.

_Where did he go?_ Naleten asked himself. He raised his hand to examine the pale skin on his throbbing knuckles. How long had it been since he had punched someone in the face? He found it hard to believe that it would hurt as much as it did. The ground beneath him lit up with a bright golden light without warning. Naleten glanced down at it for a moment before he realized where Riku had vanished to. _Above! _His head snapped up in time to watch as countless, gold orbs of light tinged with black shadows rained down on him at rapid speeds. Orb after orb struck into him, hammering one after the other until the last orb forced his knees to give out beneath him. Naleten hit the floor, still staring up at the ceiling as Riku dropped in front of him, the Way to Dawn drawn and covered in the same gold and black light that had made up the orbs.

Naleten smirked up at Riku before rising to his feet, seemingly unharmed. "That was impressive. But I've been around for a very long time and after what I've been through, that was nothing more than a love tap."

"Is that so?" Riku asked as he did his best to hide that he was slightly unnerved at the fact that the Nobody didn't show any signs of being injured. "Then what would you call this?" He moved swiftly, refusing to give Naleten the chance to block or avoid his next attack. The Way to Dawn struck Naleten's left side and threw him sideways with enough force to break through the wall opposite to the hole that now lead into the medical ward. Riku leapt through the wall after the Nobody and immediately felt a wave of disbelief pass through his body as he quickly took in his surroundings. They weren't inside the Alliance Fallback HQ anymore. They weren't even on the Frozen Fields anymore. They were standing in what was unmistakably the Keyblade Graveyard, although, they seemed to be in an area of the graveyard that was completely bare of any rusted, ancient Keyblades.

"What the-?" He asked aloud as he glanced around. "How did we get here?" Riku turned around to look behind him. The hole he had made by throwing Naleten through the wall was there, but it seemed to just hang in the air a few feet above the ground. As he watched, the hole slowly faded away, revealing more of the Keyblade Graveyard's landscape.

Naleten stood several yards away with his back to Riku, staring out at the dry, dead plains from beneath his hood. He let out a small chuckle and turned to face the silver-haired Wielder. "And I was told you were intelligent."

Riku let out a growl. He wasn't fond of being made fun of. He only really let Sora and Kairi get away with it, if only because they never meant anything harmful by it. "Care to run that by me again?"

"It should have been obvious by now," Naleten said. "We're not in the real world, are we?" Riku raised an eyebrow at him.

"Are you trying to tell me that this is all a hallucinogenic dream brought on as a result of the painkillers that Jenna person gave me?" He asked. Naleten chuckled humorlessly.

"Don't be ridiculous," he said. "Just because we're not in the real world doesn't mean what's happening to us now isn't real, does it?"

"Is it really that hard to answer a simple question? If this isn't a dream and we're not in the real world anymore, then where are we?" Riku demanded as he raised his Keyblade. "You'd better answer quickly, 'because I'm not in the mood to deal with your games anymore. In case you didn't know, I'm supposed to be recovering from falling off of a cliff."

"I know all about that," Naleten replied. "Keila almost did a good job at finishing you off. Oh well, it works in my favor if you live, but your memories of Keila are a bit of an inconvenience."

"Will you please get to the point?" Riku growled. "Quit beating around the bush."

"Fine," Naleten said indifferently. "That blackout was the last time you and I were in the real-world. I cut the power lines to the entire complex to keep the others living there busy while I dove into your heart."

A puzzled look crossed Riku's face. "What do you want with my heart?"

"Many things," Naleten said. "But I don't really need you anytime soon. In fact, if you and Keila had never met, I wouldn't have to be here right now."

"This place is my heart?" Riku asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I don't believe you. I've been inside my own heart during my Awakening. This isn't what my heart looks like."

"So, you've already experienced the Destati?" Naleten asked as his staff appeared in hands with a flash of red light. "Impressive. That explains how you were able to cast us out of your heart and into my memories, very impressive."

"Your memories?" Riku asked. Naleten nodded.

"We are standing in my most recent memory of this place," he replied. "A suiting location for us to finish this little battle of mental prowess, wouldn't you agree?" Riku glanced around and noticed for the first time that the Keyblade Graveyard around them didn't look quite the same as when he and Sora had dueled against Xanthos during their Mark of Mastery Exam. The Keyblades he could see weren't embedded in the ground or covered in the aged rust of misuse, but instead lay scattered across the field he and Naleten stood in, still clutched in the hands of their deceased Masters. The freshly moved earth was stained with blood, covered in burn marks and frozen in countless places. Off in the distance, Riku could just barely make out the shapes of hundreds of people fighting with Keyblades. Realization dawned on Riku as he surveyed their surroundings.

"This is the Keyblade War, isn't it?" Riku asked aloud as he stared down at the body of a young woman with crimson hair that was lying in a pool of her own blood.

"Yes, it is," Naleten said. "Congratulations. You are the first person in almost five thousand years to witness a small fraction of the carnage the Keyblade War unleashed upon the worlds."

"Doesn't that mean you should be dead?" Riku pointed out. "I'm starting to get the feeling you're lying to me. I've only met two people who lived since the Keyblade War; Xanthos and his sister. They're Keyblade Wielders who were preserved in time. You're a Nobody and I doubt anyone would've tried to preserve you."

"I'm assuming that was an insult," Naleten said. "But I didn't need to be kept in a Cryptum like dear old Xanthos to survive. You see, Nobodies, as I've discovered, never truly age. Did you know that? Sure, our physical appearances can change drastically over time, but as long as nothing destroys us and we never reunite with our heart, we will continue to live on forever." He gestured at himself before glancing around at their surroundings with slightly bored expression. "If I had a heart, I would laugh at the absurdity of it all. Who would've thought the key to immortality would come with such a heavy cost, and yet still be so easily obtained? Almost five-thousand years ago, this place wasn't known as the Keyblade Graveyard. It was known simply as the Badlands, a harsh world at the exact center of the universe, the closest place there is to Kingdom Hearts without opening any of the Doors. The Keyblade War reached its climax here as a person I once called friend fought with me. I was defeated and he left me to the mercy of the Heartless someone had summoned to the battlefield." He glanced back at Riku before adding "And it is here that I will seal away your memories of the Catalyst."

In a flash of red light, Naleten's staff reappeared in his hands as the Nobody dashed towards Riku. Riku reacted on instinct and somersaulted backwards, effectively avoiding the powerful blow from Naleten's staff. He landed on his feet and swung the Way to Dawn in a wide arc in front of him. Half a dozen streaks of gold light tinged with jet-black cores streaked towards the Nobody.

The gem in Naleten's staff released a visible pulse of energy that created a barrier around Naleten. The six streaks of light collided with the barrier and faded instantly from existence. "A feeble attempt to defeat me," Naleten said. "I'm disappointed. I expected… _more_ from someone such you." Riku smirked.

"I guess I'll just have to step up my game then, huh?" He said. A bright golden light flowed from Riku's hand and enveloped the Way to Dawn, extending well past the tip and adding about two feet in length to the blade. Small, curved spikes of orange light edged with black formed along the curved edge of the Sunblade, each nearly six inches in length. Riku placed his hand over the cross-guard and wrenched his hand back towards his body along with a chain made entirely out of golden light with it. With a roar, the Sunblade came to life as the curved spikes began their endless, high-velocity rotation. Riku raised the Way to Dawn high above his head.

Golden beams of light shot out from the tip of the Keyblade and began wrapping themselves tightly around Naleten's upper body, binding his arms to his side. The Nobody struggled against the bond and attempted to angle his staff to slice through the light ropes with its sharp point. Riku smirked as the Nobody struggled against his bonds. The beams separated themselves from the Way to Dawn and anchored themselves into the ground as Riku leapt high into the air.

"Are you ready for this?" Riku shouted down at the Nobody. Naleten looked up at him with a defiant look plastered on his face.

"Do your worst," he snarled. The light on the Way to Dawn intensified.

"You asked for it," Riku said as he plummeted towards the Nobody. Light enveloped his entire body until he became a bright streak against the gray, over-cast sky. "Go into the light!" The Way to Dawn slammed into Naleten's head and the light around Riku's body forced itself painfully into the Nobody's body. Naleten let out a howl of pain and collapsed face first on the ground, blood slowly beginning to pool next to the Nobody's head

Riku leapt away from Naleten and grinned triumphantly. "That's what you get," he said with a lack of compassion. He watched Naleten's chest rise and fall shakily for a few moments with mild relief. He didn't want him to fade back to Darkness just yet. He still had one very important question to ask. "You mentioned Keila earlier. What does she have to do with your 'plan'? And what do I have to do with it, for that matter?"

"She is the Catalyst of Daybreak," Naleten explained slowly as he rose to his feet. He winced slightly as he pressed his free hand against the bleeding wound Riku had left on his head. "Without her, you're useless to me. But I'm not ready for either of you yet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Riku demanded, leveling the Way to Dawn's tip at the Nobody's chest.

"By meeting Keila," Naleten continued as his wound slowly began to close, "you activated the early stages of the Catalysis before I had expected it to occur, jeopardizing my plans and forcing me to take action. I told Keila's mother about how close the two of you were becoming on the road to Atlantis and I showed her images to support my claims. Cynthia, in her rage, took Keila from you and I thought that would be enough. I should have known better.

"You told your AI about how you intended to find your new 'friend' and rescue her. That was when I knew the Catalyst had activated and the first stage of Catalysis must've been nearing completion. Despite the two of you being enemies, you grew closer and developed a friendship in mere days, something any intelligent person would've been wary of, but no. The two of you were just fine with it.

"The risk was too great. I decided the time had come for direct intervention from myself. Over the course of my five millennia alive as a Nobody, I developed a unique ability. I can seal or unseal sections of a person's heart, soul, or mind. I can manipulate free will, alter decisions, limit powers, and grant them, block memories, control emotions or change entire personalities. This ability of mine allowed me to seal away any of Keila's memories or feelings that had anything to do with you. But I've come to the conclusion that it's just not enough. Because she is the Catalyst, you will subconsciously pursue her until Catalysis is complete and that in turn will cause the seals I've placed on her to weaken. So I need to put a stop to that subconscious thought here and now.

"To answer your earlier question, no, I am not trying to kill you. I'm simply going to seal away any memory you have of Keila and any feelings you have towards her so my plans can flow smoothly without further slip-ups from two of my most valuable pawns." Naleten stared expectantly at Riku with a sharp-toothed grin slowly spreading across his face. Anger surged through Riku. He felt his hand quivering around the Way to Dawn's hilt as he struggled to fight his anger.

A pawn? That's all anyone ever seemed to think of him. Maleficent used him as a pawn. Zexion saw him as a pawn. Even DiZ.

He let out a low hiss as he glared at Naleten. This Nobody was the reason Keila couldn't remember that she and Riku had become friends. This Nobody was the reason Keila had almost killed him. "You bastard," he growled. "It's your fault she didn't remember me. It's your fault I ended up needing medical attention for the second time in less than a month. You almost got me killed!"

Naleten let out a low chuckle. "Now, now, Master Riku. Raw anger really doesn't suit you." He held out his arms wide to Riku, as though he were offering the teen a hug. "Now then, why don't you put your Keyblade away and give in to me? Your mental strength may be astounding, but anyone can see that you're at your limit. If you keep this up much longer, you just might die." Riku let out a snort of annoyance.

"I am no one's pawn," he growled. "I am Master Riku. Wielder of the Keyblade and I refuse to let my heart and mind be sealed by anyone, least of all you. So go screw yourself!" Naleten let out a sigh.

"Fine," he said coldly. "The hard way it is, then." Naleten snapped his fingers once and something heavy collided with the back of Riku's head. The Keyblade Graveyard shattered into an infinite number of lights that slowly faded out of existence. Riku fell to his knees on the stained glass platform that represented his heart, unable to move. The Way to Dawn clattered against the platform's surface next to him. Riku rolled onto his side and stared up at Naleten's emotionless face as the darkness of unconsciousness consumed him.

_LD_

_Onboard the Kingdom_

Recovery Seven smirked behind his polarized visor as he watched the Keyblade's Chosen One drop with a simple jolt of his lightning. Pathetic. That's what the brat got for not raising his guard when Seven had revealed himself. His smirk became a full-fledged grin as the two girls looked up at him, first in shock then in anger. There were twin flashes of light and before he could even blink, found the tips of two Keyblades aimed straight for him.

"What'd you do that for?" The blonde one demanded. "Who are you?"

Seven ignored her and instead held out both of his hands towards the blonde and the red-head. Two rings of red lightning shot from his fingertips and struck the two females, rendering both of them unconscious in the blink of an eye.

The Keyblade's Chosen One let out a groan as he recovered from Seven's attack. Seven turned his attention back on him and drew his pistol from its holster on his thigh and aimed it carefully. The boy's eyes widened in horror as his brain processed that there was a gun pointed at him at a range that would make dodging impossible. Seven smirked coldly beneath his visor as he aimed at the fallen teen's heart and pulled the trigger.

_LD_

* * *

_I love cliffhangers. And I'm sure you all hate me for them._

_It's about time I finished up Pirates 2, albeit slightly behind schedule._

_I hope you all enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next update. As always reviews are greatly appreciated. Your opinions make me feel warm inside this freezing office._

_Until next time! (Which hopefully won't be in a month)_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons_


	26. Recovery

_Shadow: Guess who's back?_

_Olette: Xehanort? (She smirks as Shadow gives her an 'are you serious?' look)_

_Shadow: Well, yes. But I was talking about me. I'm back! _

_Olette: Yeah, a month and a half behind schedule._

_Shadow: Weren't you only here to give the disclaimer in honor of two hundred reviews and the one year anniversary of this story?_

_Olette: We hit two hundred reviews over a month ago and the anniversary was two weeks ago._

_Shadow: Well, you see... I, um, uh..._

_Olette: I'm just giving you crap, you know that? Anyways, Shadow Horizons does not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or Black Cat.  
_

_Shadow: And without further ado, enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter Twenty Six: Recovery

_Sunday, June 27__th__, 4794 P.C._

_Onboard the Kingdom_

_In Orbit above Port Royal_

Sora watched, helplessly from his sprawled position on the floor as Recovery Seven's index finger slowly pulled the trigger. Luck seemed to favor him, however. Roxas tackled Seven a split-second before the gun went off, causing the bullet that surely would've killed Sora to only embed itself deep in his left shoulder. Sora let out a cry of pain and clutched his hand tightly over his wound. Seven kicked Roxas in the chest with enough force to send the blond sailing into one of the closed warp chambers, shattering the glass covering and causing the entire machine to buckle slightly. Seven's head swiveled back towards Sora as the brunette let out a groan of pain.

Sora forced himself to hold out his hand in front of him and cast Reflega around himself as Seven leveled his pistol at him. A dome of light covered Sora as the armored man fired off seven shots in an attempt to force the barrier to collapse, but to no avail. Roxas pulled himself out of the wrecked warp chamber and summoned his Keyblades to his hands before leaping at Seven. Seven spun and intercepted Roxas' attack by grabbing hold both Keyblades, allowing him to redirect Roxas' momentum with his tremendous strength and throw him into Sora as the brunette started to get to his feet. Seven smirked beneath his visor and turned his attention back on the two unconscious females. Sora wrestled his way out from underneath Roxas and aimed his hand at Seven.

"Burn!" He shouted as his fingertips began to glow red. Seven's head snapped around to look at Sora and saw the Firaga spell forming on the teen's fingertips. He ducked swiftly behind another one of the chambers in the room as three large fireballs raced across the room towards him. Two of the flaming orbs slammed against the chamber and destroyed the cover, rendering it useless, while the third completely missed and left a dark scorch mark on the wall. Seven ejected the clip from his pistol and slammed a new one into its place. He stuck his arm out from behind his cover and fired three shots at the two teens, enough to force them both to duck behind the other chambers. Seven darted out from behind the chamber he had been using as a shield, taking extra caution to keep his pistol trained on Sora and Roxas' hiding spot and ducked behind the controls to the chambers.

"Had enough yet?" Roxas shouted as he leapt at the control station. Seven moved from behind his cover and leveled his pistol at Roxas. The blonde's eyes went wide as Seven fired five shots from his pistol at the former Nobody. Two of the shots were deflected by the Oathkeeper while the other three tore into Roxas' left leg. Roxas howled in pain and dropped his Keyblades as he clutched his injured leg.

"Roxas!" Sora cried out as he forced himself to his feet, ignoring the pain in his shoulder as best he could.

Seven let out a deep growl. Sora looked away from Roxas and over at the Recovery Agent. He was holding an unconscious Kairi up by her arm and was pressing the barrel of his pistol into the side of her head.

"Drop it," he growled, gesturing at the Oblivion with a tilt of his head. Sora glared at the man with all of the anger he could muster. Seven pressed the gun harder into Kairi's head. Sora sighed in defeat and dropped his Keyblade. The Oblivion bounced off of the ground once before vanishing in a flurry of bright lights.

Seven backed towards one of the open chambers and placed Kairi inside, turning his back to Sora for a brief moment. When he turned back, he found the tip of the Oblivion less than an inch away from his face. Seven leaned back as the obsidian blade came dangerously close to shattering his visor. The sharp point of the Oblivion dug into the visor, leaving a long, diagonal scratch across it.

Seven let out another growl and raised his pistol. Sora threw himself behind the only empty warp chamber that was still intact. Seven fired off two shots. Sora winced as he felt one pass close enough to his shoulder to rip through his jacket. He peered around the edge of the chamber as Seven tossed Naminé unceremoniously into one of the other chambers. He looked around as Sora stepped from cover and fired another shot at him, narrowly missing the teen's head.

Sora ducked behind the chamber again as the bullet flew past him and Seven took the opportunity to climb into the only remaining chamber. He turned his head growled menacingly at Sora as light quickly filled the three occupied chambers.

"No!" Sora and Roxas both shouted. Sora burst from his cover and ran towards the chambers. The light intensified with a blinding flash as the chambers activated. "Roxas!" Sora moved quickly to the former Nobody's side as the blond let out a groan of pain. "Are you okay?"

"There are bullets in my leg, and Naminé and Kairi just got kidnapped. What do you think?" Roxas snapped. "Help me get these things out of there. They hurt worse than that time Xigbar found out I ate the last slice of pie and shot me for it."

"Xigbar shot you for eating a slice of pie?" Sora asked as he helped Roxas straighten out his leg. Roxas let out a gasp of pain

"Only because he had dibs on it," he explained as Sora held a shaky, blood covered hand over his former Nobody's leg. His palm lit up from the light created by a weak magnet spell. "And he said he's use anyone who tried to eat it as targ– holy-! Damn, that hurts!" The three bullets rose out of the holes in Roxas' leg with a sickening squelching sound and spun in small circles below Sora's palm. Sora grabbed the bullets and tossed them in the direction of the wrecked chambers.

"Of course it hurts," Sora said. "You act like you've never been shot before."

"Not with bullets, I haven't," Roxas grumbled as Sora pulled the bullet out of his own shoulder. Sora winced as the bullet fell to the floor and he summoned the Oblivion back to his hand.

"Heal," he muttered. Tendrils of green light enveloped both him and Roxas as the Curaga spell worked its way into their flesh, knitting the muscle back together and sealing their wounds, leaving only faint pink marks in their place. Roxas breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back against the wall.

"Well now what?" He grumbled.

"Now, we rescue Kairi and Naminé," Sora said determinedly, not wasting a second as he dashed out of the room. "We're going after that guy." Sora practically threw himself into the pilot's chair as he ran onto the bridge and began powering up the _Kingdom_. Roxas limped up the stairs to the bridge after him, wincing from the dull pain left over from the wound.

"How do we go after him if we don't even know where he went?" Roxas asked as he sat down in one of the other chairs. "He could be anywhere."

"I can think of someone who might know," Sora said as the engines roared to life. "Who do we know that would kidnap Kairi?"

"Organization XIII?" Roxas suggested sarcastically. "But I'm the only surviving member and I definitely didn't hire this guy to kidnap Naminé and Kairi after shooting us. What does that have to do with the brute in the armor anyway?"

"I'll bet you anything it was Maleficent," Sora said as he punched in the coordinates for another world. "She probably hired that guy to come kidnap Kairi. And we know exactly where she is."

"We do?"

"Don't you remember?" Sora said as he waited for the _Kingdom_'s navigation system to lock on to the World That Never Was. "Maleficent told me that after the Organization was gone, she was going to take the Castle for herself."

Roxas let out a snort of laughter that lacked humor. "Determined old hag, isn't she?"

"Tell me about it," Sora muttered. The monitor in front of him displayed an image of a white-gloved hand giving him a thumbs-up. "Alright, here we go." He spun the wheel and turned the Kingdom around so they were facing away from Port Royal.

"Wait!" Roxas shouted suddenly. Sora looked at him incredulously.

"Why?" He asked. "We have to go save Kairi and Naminé!"

"I know!" Roxas said. "But look!" He pointed out of the viewport towards a small cluster of asteroids. A large Gummi ship was beginning to take off from behind the asteroid cluster. Its fuselage was rectangular and several hundred meters long. The bow was curved downward slightly and lined with half a dozen cannon batteries on each side. The words _Hang 'Em High _were painted in gold over the jet-black paint of the ship that made it hard to spot. Two trapezoid shaped wings were positioned along the stern of the ship and extended to take up one-third of the ship's length. A pair of large cannons was positioned under each wing. A large, domed bridge was visible towards the stern of the ship, surrounded on all sides by no less than seven rotating weapons turrets. Three large Firagun-class engines at the stern glowed with a bright blue light as the ship slowly began to turn away from the _Kingdom_.

"Is that a Heartless ship?" Sora muttered, leaning forward in his seat to get a better look. "I've never seen one that size before."

"Do the Heartless usually name their ships?" Roxas asked sarcastically. "I think that's where that guy took Kairi and Naminé." Sora mentally smacked himself. What was he thinking? Why would a Heartless ship even try to run away?

"Good point," he said. "But I don't think the _Kingdom_ could take that thing on. Those cannons look like they could blast us into oblivion, whether our shields are up or not." Roxas pondered that for a moment.

"What if Maleficent didn't hire this guy? Maybe we should follow them just in case. If we just go to Maleficent and you're wrong, then we might never find Kairi and Naminé again," he suggested. "This ship has a cloaking device, right?"

"Not one that'll make us invisible, no," Sora said as he watched the _Hang 'Em High_ start to pick up speed, leaving Port Royal behind. "But it can make it so that we're invisible to their radar. I'm not exactly sure how it works. Cid explained it to me once but he lost me with all of his ship-building mumbo-jumbo that I don't really remember how."

"Well that's comforting," Roxas said as Sora activated the cloaking device. He reached around to the side of his chair and quickly buckled himself in. "It's good to know that you don't know how it works but you're going to use it anyway." There was a low hum from beneath their feet as the Kingdom's Fira engines came to life. "I've got a bad feeling about this"

"Don't say that," Sora said as grabbed hold of the controls. "'I've got a bad feeling about this' is right up there with 'what could possibly go wrong?' Both typically end badly and we don't need the bad luck. Besides, it's us. How much worse can this situation possibly get?"

The _Kingdom_ lurched forward with a sudden burst of speed, forcing both Sora and the unprepared Roxas to be forced deep into the backs of their chairs as they took off into the dark abyss of space after the _Hang 'Em High_.

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback HQ Library_

_The Frozen Fields_

Olette groaned as she tore her eyes away from the heavy book resting on the ground in front of her and fought back the urge to shiver as the cold from the outside seeped into the powerless complex. With the power out, the heat that had made living comfortable slowly faded away, replaced by the bitter cold brought in from the outside. Not even the fires she had conjured up in each of the library's two dozen fireplaces were enough to warm her up.

She glanced at the pile of books stacked next to her that her Master was expecting her to read by Tuesday and let out a sigh. Normally, she enjoyed reading and studying. She didn't care that back in school she had always been called a nerd. Why shouldn't she enjoy something that came easily to her? But the books Xanthos had selected for her were all books on the varied art of Chasing Keyblades, different methods to create higher grades of Lightsteel, and epic novels that focused on the first Forging and they were all boring, even to her.

"How does he expect me to read all of these by Tuesday?" She muttered to herself. She sat up and stretched her arms above her head, causing the blanket she had had wrapped around her to slide off. A new wave of cold wracked her body and Olette quickly pulled the blanket back around her and buried her face up to her nose in it.

"You look a little cold."

Olette nearly jumped out of her skin as Hayner spoke up from directly behind her. She hadn't heard him come into the library at all and hadn't been expecting him to try to visit her, for that matter. She had specifically told both him and Pence to not bother her while she tried to focus on her reading.

"For the love of-" Olette said breathily as she tried to get her heart rate to slow down. "You scared me." She glanced back at the blond and immediately caught sight of a pair of steaming mugs clutched in his hands.

"Sorry," Hayner said with a wide grin. He sat down on the ground next to her, resting his back against one of the plush armchairs arranged near the fireplace. He unsheathed the short sword he had taken to carrying with him whenever Jenos or Axel placed him on guard duty and rested it against the chair. He offered Olette one of the two mugs of what turned out to be hot chocolate in his gloved hands. The brunette took it gratefully and sipped at it, careful to avoid burning herself. "I figured I'm come check in on you since the power's out and all." Olette smiled at him.

"I'm a big girl you know," she said, taking another sip. "I can take care of myself. But I appreciate it."

"I didn't say you couldn't take care of yourself," Hayner said as he stared into the crackling red and gold flames. "I just thought you might want something to warm you up a little since the heat's all pretty much gone now." He exhaled heavily, watching as his breath faded away. "I know I did. So I brought you some good old fashioned hot chocolate."

"Thanks," Olette said as shifted herself so that she was slightly more comfortable against the chair. The pair of them sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the flames dance on the wood in the fireplace while sipping on the hot chocolate. "What's with the sword? Are you supposed to be on guard duty?" Hayner glanced at his sword for a moment.

"No, Pence has guard duty today and is spending it shooting empty soda cans he's scattered outside of the complex." Hayner explained. "I was planning on training with Axel to keep myself in shape, but that plan fell apart when the power went out and Xanthos dragged him to the generators to figure out the problem.

"You were going to train with Axel?" Olette asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend as she took another drink from her mug. "Do you want to die in a fire?" Hayner laughed.

"I'd just respawn," he said. "But we weren't planning on fighting each other in real life. We were just going to run through one of Xanthos' combat simulation programs." Olette's face visibly paled at the thought of her Master's training simulations. The last simulation Xanthos had put her through involved her fighting a massive demon that could spit acid with only a sharpened stick as her weapon. Needless to say, the end result wasn't pretty.

"You guys were going to use one of Master's training programs?" Olette asked in disbelief. "You two must be insane." Hayner chuckled slightly at the look on her face.

"So what if we are?" He said smugly. "You know that's one of the reasons why you love me." Olette's cheeks flushed bright pink at Hayner's choice of words.

"And, uh, what makes you think I love you?" She muttered.

"We're best friends, of course!" Hayner said with a smirk. "And I personally don't think people can be best friends without loving each other. Heck, I love Pence in a completely heterosexual way. Like a brother, ya know?" Olette stared at him for a moment before she burst out laughing, earning a confused look from Hayner. It took him a moment before he realized what he had just said. He smacked himself in the forehead. "I did not just say that."

Olette managed her laughter enough so she could speak clearly. "You did. You sounded just like Rai!" She giggled a tiny bit. "Ya know?"

"I'm not that mentally challenged," Hayner retorted, struggling to keep a straight face.

"I don't know," Olette said teasingly. "You could've fooled me.

"Now you're just being mean," Hayner mumbled. Olette just gave him an innocent grin. "Do you think they made it out of Twilight Town with the other refugees?" Olette gave him a confused look.

"Who?"

"Seifer and his gang," Hayner clarified. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still not their biggest fan, but still."

"I know Fuu did at least," Olette said. "I ran into her in Radiant Garden's marketplace. She was looking for Seifer and Rai, but I don't know if they got out of there in time."

Silence fell over the pair and they turned their attention back to the crackling flame. Olette lifted her mug to her lips and downed the remainder of her drink before she set the mug off to the side. She shivered slightly and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she managed to catch a glimpse of Hayner attempting to hide his shivering from her. She took pity on him and opened her blanket up, offering half of it to him.

"Here," she said, thankful for the darkness hiding the blush that was appearing on her cheeks. "You look like you're freezing."

"I'm okay," Hayner said with a nervous chuckle. "You look like you're colder than I am." He fought back against his body's natural instincts to shiver again as he spoke.

"For crying out loud, Hayner," Olette sighed. "Suck it up. You're freezing." She moved quickly before Hayner had time to object to her and threw the blanket around both of them. "See? Now was that really so hard?" Hayner considered making an inappropriate joke in response but decided against it.

The two of them sat in a slightly awkward silence for several minutes, both blushing furiously and both thankful for the power outage to hide that fact. Over the years, they had never shared moments like this one. It was rare for the two of them without Pence or one of their other friends, so they hardly ever had alone time. Even when they did, they had never been so close to one another except for the occasional friendly hug.

At the moment, that was all Olette seemed to be able to think about. Her heart seemed to be beating at a million miles an hour and she was very conscious of her breathing. Every now and again, she would steal a glance at Hayner's face, or what little of it she could see in the shadows cast by the dancing flames, wondering to herself what the blond was thinking about, or if he could hear just how loudly her heart was pounding. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes in as she tried to calm her heart rate.

Her head fell against Hayner's shoulder several quiet minutes later. Hayner glanced down at her and let out a quiet chuckle as he realized she had fallen asleep on him. He shifted his back slightly so he was more comfortable against the chair, taking extra care to make sure he didn't wake Olette. His hand found hers under the blanket and gave it a comforting squeeze as he rested his head gently on top of hers. Within moments, he followed her example and drifted off to sleep.

Two figures in black cloaks stepped out from their hiding place behind a massive bust of a roaring dragons head. The taller of the two, Kiram, breathed a sigh of relief.

"I thought they'd never leave," he said in relief. The shorter one, Etos, smacked him on the back of the head.

"They didn't leave, Kiram, they're asleep," he whispered angrily. "So shut up and keep quiet. Moron."

"I am not a moron!" Kiram retorted, failing once again to keep his voice down. Etos clamped his hand over his twin brother's mouth.

"Seriously?" Etos muttered, keeping his one good eye focused on the sleeping pair. "What did I just tell you?"

"I know, I know," Kiram muttered as Etos led him to one of the three ornate spiral staircases that led to the upper levels of the library. "Keep quiet until we have the map, then get the hell out of Dodge before that Xanthos guys shows up."

"Exactly," Etos said as the two of them climbed the steps to the third level. "Good to know that you pay attention sometimes."

"Let's just get the map and get out of here," Kiram muttered nervously. "Dark libraries creep me out." Etos fought back the urge to let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Says the guy that hunts the giant spiders outside the mansion for fun," he taunted. Kiram smacked his slightly shorter twin.

"This coming from the guy who wet the bed until he was fourteen."

"Hey! We swore to never speak of that again."

"Actually, only you said you were never going to speak of it again. I made no such promise," Kiram said, watching his younger brother's anger rise slightly. "And what happened to keeping our voices down?" Etos let out a muffled growl of frustration and ignored his brother, allowing Kiram the silent satisfaction of winning this fight.

Their target glowed softly in the darkness, the small black orb Xanthos had stolen from the Twilight Town Natural History and Science Museum. It rested in a small, glass display case, hovering inches over the crystal display stand that had been crafted for it. Etos grinned greedily as he and Kiram approached the orb. Ever since their encounter with Xanthos back in Twilight town three weeks before, the two brothers had been relentlessly tracking down where Xanthos had taken the orb.

They had traveled from world to world in their desperate attempt to find the orb, knowing that their mother would punish them if they returned home empty handed. Both of them swore to never speak about what happened on all of the worlds they visited. Some things are better off forgotten, they had decided.

Etos stretched out his hand and pressed his hand to the glass. The glass rippled like water disturbed by a pebble being thrown as his hand passed through it to grab hold of the orb. He grabbed hold of the orb and wrenched it out of its display case before tossing it to Kiram. The glass case rippled like water once more before returning to its normal, smooth appearance.

Kiram carefully locked the orb away inside a silver cube-shaped case and tucked it inside his cloak for safekeeping before he created a portal of Darkness.

"Let's get out of here," he said, his sea foam-green eye darting around the dark room nervously. "I really don't want to be around when that Xanthos guy finds out the orb is missing."

"Just a second," Etos muttered. He pulled a small dagger from within the folds of his cloak and drew it across the palm of his left hand. The blood that flowed out defied gravity and rose into the air, changing color until it was black before it took the shape of the orb. The cut sealed itself and Etos grabbed the fake, blood-replica of the orb from the air. His hand passed through the glass once more as he placed the replica on the crystal stand.

"Now we can go," he said, grinning in satisfaction at the idea that he had just out smarted the man their mother respected above all others. He followed Kiram into the portal and they were gone.

_LD_

_External Power Generators_

Xanthos let out an exasperated sigh as he stared out at the snow covered landscape. He certainly wouldn't be recommending the Frozen Fields to anyone for its scenery anytime soon since the only thing to look at where the endless snow covered plains. He tried to recall what the endless hills of snow had looked like before the war, back before the Chasers had activated the Armageddon Codex as a last resort measure and unleashed the endless winter upon the world. Nothing, he could only remember the snow and ice. With a sight, he glanced behind him at the trio of large steel towers that served as the HQs power generators. Under normal circumstances, the generators would release an electrical orb of raw self-sustaining energy that traveled between one another, providing an unlimited supply of power to the complex below their feet. He turned his gaze upwards towards a figure in dark red and black armor that was scaling the side of the tallest tower.

"Come on, Axel!" He shouted up at the figure. "I'm freezing my ass off! Hurry it up!"

"Hey, don't rush me! This is high!" Axel shouted as he tore his chakram out of the side of the tower before digging it back in at a higher spot. "Shouldn't I have on safety gear or something?"

"Why do you think I gave you that armor, dumbass?" Xanthos retorted as he took a drink from the bottle in his hand. "It's like having a helmet for your whole body. So stop complaining."

"No, I mean, shouldn't there be like a safety rope, or at least some railings?" Axel grumbled.

"Come on, Axel, use your head!" Xanthos called back. "If we had a rope tied up there already, you could just climb the rope! Stop asking dumb questions." Xanthos took another drink and turned around as someone walked up behind him

"Hey, Xanthos," Jenos said, his voice muffled slightly beneath his deep purple colored scarf. "How are things out here?"

"Cold as the Ninth circle of Hell, but what else is new?" Xanthos said with a shrug. "Did you find the back-up generators?

"Yeah," Jenos said with a sigh. "But they're crushed underneath a lot of stone. It looks like some of the lower levels caved in before we set up shop."

"Damn," Xanthos muttered. "That'll be a pain to clear out. Oh well. I've got Axel figuring out this electrical problem as we speak, so it doesn't really matter."

"Where is he, anyway?" Jenos asked, glancing around their surroundings for a sign of the pyro.

Xanthos pointed up at the middle tower. "Up there."

"Oh, okay then," Jenos said before turning to leave. He did a double take and stared back up at Axel in shock. "What's he doing up there?"

"Help me, Jenos!" Axel shouted.

"Normally, these towers fire bolts of energy between one another and none of them are firing," Xanthos explained, completely ignoring Axel's shouts. "So I sent Axel up the main one to see if he can figure out why."

"Jesus Chri-hi-hi-hi-st!"

"So why didn't you climb up there?" Jenos asked, ignoring Axel's shouting.

"Me?" Xanthos asked as he took another drink. "I'm afraid of heights. I mean allergic! Allergic to heights."

"Everyone's afraid of heights!" Axel shouted.

"You have a fear of heights?" Jenos asked, eyeing Xanthos suspiciously. "Didn't you tell me just yesterday that you used to jump off of skyscrapers and cliffs during the Keyblade War?"

"And how do you think I developed that fear?" Xanthos shuddered. "That shit was crazy."

"There's a bird up here fucking with me!"

"Quit making friends and get up there!" Xanthos shouted. "I'm not paying you to become a bird whisperer."

"You're not paying me at all!"

"My point exactly! Now climb!"

"Shoo, shoo!"

"So you can stare down a horde of Heartless but not climb a tower?" Jenos asked. "I think your priorities are out of line."

"My priorities are always in line. The line I set for them. I like my priorities in that line, thank you very much," Xanthos said. "Besides, would you want to climb a metal tower covered in snow and ice in this weather?"

"That's a good point," he said. He glanced back up at the tower, shielding his eyes slightly from the glare of the sun in the sky. "Looks like he made it. What do you see up there, Axel?"

"What?" Axel called back.

"What do you see?" Jenos repeated.

"What do I see!" Axel shouted back as he peered over the edge of the tower. "I see everything! Because I'm at the top of the fucking world!"

"Can you see the port where the bolt comes out?" Xanthos asked.

Axel glanced behind him. There was a rectangular opening in the tower, blocked up with what appeared to be Gummi blocks. "Yeah, it's right here! But it's blocked!"

"What?" Jenos shouted.

"It's blocked!"

"What's blocking it?"Xanthos asked.

"It looks like a bunch of pieces of a ship."

Xanthos and Jenos shared a disgusted look. "That's disgusting," Xanthos shouted. "Who would climb all that way up there just to do that?"

"I said _ship_!" Axel shouted, placing extra emphasis on the 'P'.

"Oh, well that makes more sense," Xanthos said as he turned towards Jenos. "How did those parts get up there?"

"What kind of ship is it?" Jenos called up to Axel.

"How should I know? It's in a million pieces!" He shouted angrily. This was definitely not his day, and the wind up on top of the tower was freezing despite the insulated body armor Xanthos had given him. "What difference does it make?"

"Sorry! I'm just naturally curious."

"I'm gonna spit on you, Jenos!"

"What do you think, Jenos?" Xanthos asked.

"It's really hard to say without seeing it, but I guess he could try to clear the blockage," Jenos said into his hands as he tried to warm them up through his gloves. "I'm a little concerned though. If he clears it and that bolt goes off, it could kill him."

"That's an excellent thought," Xanthos said. "And what was the concern you said you had?"

Jenos let out a sigh. He had forgotten that Xanthos wasn't exactly fond of him or Axel. "Forget it."

"Alright then," Xanthos cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted up to Axel, "Axel, we're gonna need you to clear that blockage."

"How?" Axel asked. "These pieces are huge! How am I supposed to lift them?"

"Well, they say people in emotional situations can sometimes get super-human strength," Xanthos suggested unhelpfully.

"Yeah? Well, what about people in situations where they really don't give a fuck?" Axel snapped back. "What kind of powers do they get?"

"Language!" Xanthos shouted. "There are children inside this complex."

"They're teenagers!" Axel shouted. "They've probably heard worse than that!"

"If you can't lift it, just try clearing it with a fireball," Jenos recommended.

"Is that safe?"

"None of this is safe," Jenos reminded him with a smug smirk. "You're gonna start analyzing now?"

"Here, take one of mine," Xanthos formed a large fireball in his hand and threw it like a baseball up towards Axel. The fireball sailed up about halfway before falling back towards the ground and melting a large patch of snow.

"Did you really expect that to work?" Jenos asked.

"Yes, actually," Xanthos said with a shrug. "It was worth a shot. I probably just didn't throw it high enough. Hey, Axel, try this one!" Another bright orange fireball flew from Xanthos' gloved hand and fell short of its mark by about three feet.

"Just because I use fire doesn't mean I can catch fire!" Axel snapped.

"Damn, I can't reach," Xanthos grumbled as the fireball crashed back to the ground and exploded close to him and Jenos. Jenos let out a cry of shock as snow was blasted over the pair of them.

"Hey! Cut it out!"

"Yeah!" Axel grumbled as he kicked one of the Gummi blocks. "Let me get back to work up here." A pair of bright blue ethereal blades flew past Axel's head.

"Did you catch those?" Xanthos asked.

"Seriously?" Jenos said, smacking Xanthos on the shoulder in exasperation. "What did I just say?"

A pair of fireballs formed in Axel's hands. "Okay, here we go." He raised his hands above his head and brought them sweeping back down, sending the twin fireballs hurtling towards the debris. "Oh shit! Where do I go when the fireball-" A loud explosion cut him off as the fireballs exploded, tossing the Gummi blocks that had been clogging the port in the tower up into the air as well as throwing the former Nobody even higher. Axel let out a cry of panic as his ascent reached its zenith and gravity took over.

"Oh no, he's falling!" Jenos exclaimed in a panicked tone as Axel's shouts slowly grew louder.

"I see that," Xanthos said in an uncaring tone He raised his bottle and finished off the last of his drink, side-stepping a small engine Gummi block that threatened to crush him as it plummeted to the ground.

"Should we try to catch him?"

"Catch him?" Xanthos gave Jenos a quizzical look. "Hell no. He'll crush us."

"Then what do we do?" Jenos said. "Chronos never covered this sort of thing with me when they were training me to be a Number."

"I've got an idea," Xanthos said. "We could set up a giant trampoline that will catch him and he can bounce on that until his momentum goes away."

"We have a giant trampoline?" Jenos asked. Xanthos chuckled.

"Of course not. They're too expensive," he said. "How about we act like we're gonna catch him, then we don't? It's a win-win."

"You used to jump off of high places! How about you give him some advice!"

"Oh, right," Xanthos smacked himself. How could he forget? "Axel! There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and the people who create it. Surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but happy!"

"The hell?" Jenos asked, staring at Xanthos with a confused expression on his face. "I meant advice on how to land!"

"Oh, right," Xanthos chuckled. "Axel, what you're going to want to do is-" Axel's screaming came to an abrupt end as he crashed into the ground, sending a small cloud of snow up into the air around him as his armored body struck the stone beneath the snow. Xanthos didn't seem to notice and continued to speak. "-try to tuck and roll at the last second. That will transfer your momentum to inertia, and invert your ker-splat probability."

Jenos sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. What had he done to deserve getting stuck here? "Hey, Xanthos?"

"Yeah?"

"I think he's down already."

Xanthos glanced down at Axel. "Oh, right." Axel let out a groan of pain. Xanthos chuckled and turned away from the pyro to look up at the power generators.

_LD_

_The Kingdom_

_In Pursuit of the Hang 'Em High_

Sora nearly jumped out of his seat as Roxas let out a low whistle next to him. They had spent the past couple of hours tailing the _Hang 'Em High_ from far enough away that they were out of any radar range while still keeping the massive ship within sight. Thankfully, the _Hang 'Em High_ had been forced to fly through an asteroid field to avoid confrontation with a small fleet of Heartless ships, which had worked out in favor of Sora and Roxas. The _Kingdom_ had a much easier time navigating its way through the field than the _Hang 'Em High_ did and the asteroids provided cover, allowing for Sora to fly them closer to the stern of the ship without being picked up by radar.

"Look at that," Roxas said, pointing below the _Hang 'Em High_. Sora spared a quick glance down and mimicked Roxas' whistle. They hadn't been flying through a normal asteroid field, they had flown straight through one of six rings surrounding a massive, sand colored world that was now directly below them. Sora couldn't help but stare. He had never seen such a large world before.

"Roxas," Sora began slowly as he steered the Kingdom out of the ring directly after the Hang 'Em High. Roxas glanced over at him. Sora turned his head to match the blonds' gaze. "I just got an idea."

"And your idea is?" Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow as he watched Sora turn back to face forward.

"We're going to force that thing to land on that world," Sora said.

"How?" Roxas asked. "In case you forgot, that thing has guns that are half the size of our ship! It can blow us to Kingdom Come in the blink of an eye!"

"It doesn't have any cannons close to engines," Sora pointed out. "All we have to do is fly as close to the engines as possible and fire our only two missile pods into their at least two of them. Even if the engines aren't completely destroyed, that should be enough to force them to land for repairs, thus buying us time to get on board, rescue Kairi and Naminé , and get out of there." Sora looked over at Roxas, waiting for a response.

"I've only got one issue with your plan," Roxas said. "The minute we move in there, they're going to spot us on radar and blow us up."

"No they won't," Sora said with a confident grin.

"Uh, yeah, they will," Roxas said.

"Nope."

"Yes."

"Nope."

"Of course they will!"

"Not if we jam it," Sora said with a sly smirk. Roxas gave him a quizzical look.

"Jam it?" He asked. Sora nodded. "How?"

"With the radar jammer, duh," Sora said with a grin as he flipped a switch on his console. A periscope descended from the ceiling to rest directly in front of Roxas' face.

"See if you can find their radar," Sora said. "Use the scope to lock on and then press the red button on the left hand side to jam it."

"Got it," Roxas said as he lowered the two handles to guide his aim. He quickly scanned the top of the _Hang 'Em High_, and spotted his target, a large, slowly rotating radar dish that was installed just behind the bridge. A pair of targeting reticles appeared in the center of Roxas' field of vision, directly over the radar. '_TARGET LOCKED' _scrolled across the top of the small screen. Roxas grinned.

"Radar about to be-" he paused for dramatic affect before pressing his thumbs down onto the red button, "-jammed!" He grinned as the _Kingdom_ shook slightly from firing the jammer and peered around the periscope, expecting to see some sort of cool energy beam fire from their ship. What he wasn't expecting was an oversized jar of jam to actually fly out and smash against the _Hang 'Em High_'s radar.

"Huh," Sora said as he and Roxas watched the shattered glass of the jam jar float off into space. "It literally _jams_ the radar. I did not see that coming."

"Me neither," Roxas agreed as the periscope rose in front of him. "Do you think it worked?"

"Only one way to find out," Sora said as he pressed down as hard as he could on the _Kingdom_'s throttle. With a roar of its engines, the _Kingdom_ sped off towards the _Hang 'Em High_. Sora flicked another switch and three screens around him displayed the message, '_MISSILES ARMED_'.

"So far so good," Sora said as the _Kingdom_ drew closer to the _Hang 'Em High_'s engines. "I don't think they spotted us."

"Then why don't we give them a little present?" Roxas suggested as the_ Kingdom_'s automatic targeting system took aim at the _Hang 'Em High_'s center and starboard engines. Sora jammed his thumb down on the trigger and two missile pods fired from the ship with a dull thud, trailing flames and smoke behind them as they shot towards their targets. Each pod split apart into ten smaller missiles, which spread out to cover a wider area and collided with the hull of the Hang 'Em High, decorating its stern bow with twenty balls of fire. The two targeted engines sputtered for a moment and died as the force of the explosions forced the Hang 'Em High to lurch slightly forward.

"I would call that a hit," Sora said with a grin as the damaged ship began to descend towards the world below them. "And they're going to land now. Perfect. Let's go rescue Kairi and Naminé."

_LD_

_Hang 'Em High_

_Bridge_

Captain Rob Murphy sighed as he heard the distinct sounds of one of the three dozen technicians on the bridge swear audibly and tried to ignore the small chuckle Recovery Two let out. Murphy glanced at the soldier in light purple armor with lime green accents. He blamed the Recovery force for this. For more than twenty five years, he had avoided the curse his name should've brought. If it can go wrong, it will. That was Murphy's Law, and up until today it seemed, he had avoided just that. He winced as the technician's voice reached his ears over the loudspeaker, a device he suddenly regretted having on board, despite its practical use.

"Sir?"

Recovery Two turned her helmeted head to glance at the technician. Murphy sighed and turned to face the technician. "Yes, what is it?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute, please, Sir?" Murphy nodded at the young man and strode over to stand by him with Two following closely behind.

"Well?" He asked as he stared down at the technician.

"I'm having trouble with the radar, Sir," the young man said into his microphone.

Murphy grabbed it from his hand and hung it up next to the man's station. "You don't need that, son," he said, silently wondering why his crewmen always seemed to be a little too dense. "We're right here. Now what is it?" Behind him, the hulking figure of Recovery Seven appeared. Murphy felt his heart rate rise slightly. Seven always made him fell a little nervous. He hardly ever spoke, except for a grunt here or a growl there and when he used actual words, they were typically in short sentences. At least Two would talk and occasionally remove her helmet. Murphy had never even seen Seven out of his armor once.

"I'm having trouble with the radar, Sir," the technician said, his voice still coming out of the microphone somehow. Seven growled and lunged forward. He crushed the microphone in an armored hand and flung it across the room, where it broke a guard's helmet open, knocking the poor man unconscious. That was the other reason Seven made Murphy nervous. The man had a temper and didn't seem to care who took the brunt of it.

"What is it?" Seven growled. The technician swallowed hard as he stared at his reflection in Seven's visor.

"I, uh, I'm having trouble with the radar, Sirs," he stuttered nervously. Murphy glanced at the man's screen, which had turned completely blue and had tiny text running across it that was nothing more than gibberish to him.

"What's wrong with it?" Murphy asked.

"I've lost the bleeps, I've lost the sweeps, and I've lost the creeps," the technician explained in a hurried tone.

"Come again?"

"You know," the young man said in a tone that implied that he thought it what he was babbling about should have been obvious. The bleeps," he let out a beeping sound. Murphy raised an eyebrow at him. "The sweeps." Once again, the man mimicked the sound the 'sweeps' made. "And the creeps." Murphy sighed as the man made the 'creeps' noise.

_That's not all he's lost._ Murphy said to himself.

"Sir!" The technician exclaimed suddenly. "The radar, Sir. It appears to be jammed."

Murphy looked at the screen again, and to his amazement, several streaks of red jam were starting to leak out from inside the station and drip down the screen.

"It's literally jammed?" Murphy said. That doesn't seem physically possib-" he was cut off by the sounds of multiple explosions from the stern of the ship as the _Hang 'Em High_ lurched forward. Several technicians and Murphy were thrown to the front of the bridge, leaving only Two and Seven still standing, both seemingly unfazed.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy shouted as he scrambled quickly to his feet.

"Damage to the engines, Sir!" One technician shouted. "Short range missiles by the looks of it." Murphy glanced back at the radar technician's jam covered screen then glared at the Recovery Agents.

"We've lost both the center and starboard engines!" Another technician announced. "The hull has been breached in the Engine room! Atmospheric pressure is dropping at a considerable rate."

"Son of a bitch," Murphy swore. "Tell the surviving crew in the Engine room to put on atmosphere suits and keep that portside engine intact for as long as possible."

"Yes, Sir!"

"Pilot!" Murphy turned towards the woman who had guided them through the asteroid field. "Set us down worldside."

"Aye, Captain!"

"And someone send a message to Radiant Garden, we might need a lift out of here."

"Yes, Sir!"

Murphy sighed and turned to issue more orders only to find Seven standing less than a foot from him.

"We'll be late," he growled. Murphy swallowed and stared firmly up at his reflection in Seven's golden visor.

"If we don't land, there is a good chance we won't make it back," Murphy explained. "We'd only being going in circles with only the port engine still working. You already did your job. You captured two teenage girls. I'm sure you're proud of yourself." Murphy stormed past Seven and began barking orders at the rest of the bridge. Seven watched him for a moment, growling quietly to himself.

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback HQ_

_External Power Generators_

_The Frozen Fields_

A single orb of red energy was being fired between each tower, remaining stationary at each one only for a few seconds before firing over to the next one.

"Hot ham and cheese!" Xanthos exclaimed cheerfully. "The power's back on."

Jenos gently tapped Axel's unmoving form with the toe of his boot as Xanthos happily watched the energy bolt traveling between the towers. "Um, I think Axel's broken."

"Sad," Xanthos said in a tone that implied he didn't really care. "I always thought I would be the cause of Axel's death. Oh well, fuck it."

"Yeah," Jenos agreed with a half-hearted shrug. "Fuck it."

"Alright, now that we have power again, let's go call give the King a call and let him know that it's ready for more people to come here," Xanthos said as he turned towards the path that led down the side of the hill where the generators were to a side entrance of the complex.

"We're not ready for more people," Jenos said. "Pence and I only just finished setting up the computer mainframe and Hayner's only cleared out half of the hangars."

"Why do you think I'm calling for more people?" Xanthos pointed out. "So we don't have to do anything else except supervise."

"You're a lot lazier than I initially thought," Jenos said. Xanthos simply smirked.

"Jenos, I firmly believe in one concept my Master drilled into my head every day for two years," he explained. "You can do anything you set your mind to so long as you have vision, determination and an endless supply of expendable labor." Jenos let out a chuckle.

"I like the way you think," he said. He tapped Axel with the toe of his shoe. "What about him?"

Xanthos glanced down at Axel's form and shrugged. "Let's just drag him into the entrance hall and leave him for Jenna. I'm sure she can handle it." He motioned for Jenos to follow him and walked over to Axel's body.

Both men sighed as they stooped down and awkwardly lifted the red-head between them. Xanthos struggled to adjust his grip on Axel's arms without dropping him, but failed. He and Jenos simply stared as Axel's head dropped back down to the stone beneath the snow. Jenos raised an eyebrow at Xanthos, who continued to stare at Axel's partially snow-covered head.

"I meant to do that," he said innocently as he stooped down yet again to pick up Axel.

Jenos nodded his head. "You know what, on some level I actually believe that." The two of them struggled their way down the icy hillside with their unconscious cargo. It took them nearly a half-hour to complete a seven minute walk due to the slipping, sliding, dropping Axel and pointless shouting as they tried to blame one another for their current situation. When they finally made their way past the still damaged front doors and into the entrance hall, they simply propped Axel up against one of the tall stone pillars that supported the ceiling.

"That was more work than should've been necessary," Jenos commented as Xanthos dusted off his black cloak.

"Tell me about it," the Chaser agreed. "Want to grab a cold one and see if we can still catch the second half of the Blitzball playoffs?"

"Why not?" Jenos asked. "I've needed some down time." The two of them turned away from Axel and headed off for the kitchens. Axel let out a low groan as they walked away.

"What happened to you?" Axel's eyes slowly opened and he struggled to turn his head. Jenna's apprentice, Nikki, was standing over him, casually munching on a triangular slice of a grilled cheese sandwich while her sapphire-blue eyes watched him with mild confusion.

"Power generator attacked me," Axel moaned. "I think my kneecaps are shattered."

"Sad," Nikki said, taking another bite. "Have fun!" She turned to walk away.

"Wait!" Axel groaned. "Aren't you going to help me?" Nikki took another bite of her sandwich and stared at him for a moment before producing a Mega-Potion from seemingly nowhere and tossing it onto his chest.

"Drink half of that and you'll be fine," Nikki said. "You're injuries aren't nearly as bad as you look, but you're right, both knee caps are shattered but that potion should put you back together. Now, if you'll excuse me." She tossed the last of her grilled cheese into her mouth and strode off. Axel groaned and grabbed hold of the Mega-Potion, snapping the stopper off with a quick flick of his thumb as he did so.

He downed half of the potion as he had been told to do so and immediately felt it take effect. Painfully. In a matter of moments, all of his wounds and injuries were healed. Axel did the only thing that seemed logical. He howled in pain.

"Holy mother of-" He said as his kneecaps and shoulder mended themselves. "Mother fu- Oh, that hurts!" The pain receded as quickly as it had come, leaving him gasping in pain on the floor. After a few moments, he tenderly stretched out his leg and grinned when he saw it move. He rose to his feet and breathed a sigh of relief before summoning his chakram to his hands.

_Those two are in for a world of hurt when I get my hands on them._ Axel said to himself, cloaking both of his chakram in flames as he headed off down the hallway. He twisted his head from side to side, cracking his neck loudly. _If it's a choice between regular and extra-crispy, I want them extra-crispy._

_LD_

"Well, isn't this just fantastic?" Roxas grumbled as he and Sora pressed their backs against a canyon wall. "We're barely here five minutes and we've already been attacked and we have nowhere to escape to."

"Look on the bright side," Sora said as his eyes scanned the canyon around them. "We could've been attacked by Heartless."

"I'd rather take Heartless over-" a blood-curdling screech filled their ears. Both teens tightened their grips on their Keyblades. "-over whatever that _thing_ is."

"I suppose you have a point," Sora said as the creature that had chased them from their ship into the canyon appeared. It stood on four long legs that were covered with some sort of pale red shell. Its body was made up of a large, bulbous thorax that was covered in several plates of the same red shell protecting its legs. Six short arms protruded from the sides of its abdomen, each one tipped with numerous, razor sharp claws. Its head was rather small and seemed almost disproportionate to the rest of its body. Its mouth was filled with several rows of rotating, jagged teeth and its seven bright red eyes seemed to glow brightly, even in the desert sun.

The creature let out another screech and lunged its head at Sora. The brunette rolled underneath the creature and swung his Keyblade as hard as he could against the closest leg. The Oblivion merely bounced off of the leg, not even leaving a scratch on it. The creature looked underneath itself at Sora and let out another screech. Sora bolted out from under it as it dropped its body down to the ground and raised itself back up with surprising agility.

"Well that was effective," Sora said sarcastically as he rushed up to Roxas' side. After they had destroyed two of the _Hang 'Em High_'s engines, forcing it to make an emergency landing, they had followed the ship into the atmosphere of the world below, where they had immediately been caught by a sandstorm, forcing them to land several miles away from where the _Kingdom_'s radar indicated the _Hang 'Em High_ had landed. And now they were under attack, not that Sora or Roxas was really surprised by it. But it was definitely irritating.

Flames appeared along both of Roxas' Keyblades as he strode towards the creature. "If physical attacks won't work, let's see how this thing can handle magic," Roxas said. He swung both of his arms back and sent his flaming Keyblades flying. The Oathkeeper struck the creature on the side of the head while the Oblivion embedded itself in dead center of its abdomen. The creature screeched in pain. Two of its arms tore the Keyblade from its flesh and tossed it aside angrily.

"Well, Roxas, I can think we've ticked this thing off," Sora said as Roxas summoned both Keyblades back to his hands. The creature screeched again and lunged at the two teens, forcing them to leap away from one another.

The creature's claws lashed out at Roxas. The blonde smirked and deflected the attack with the Oathkeeper "Sounds about right!"

"Are the two of you brain-dead?"

Sora and Roxas looked around as the sound of a female voice reached their ears. A young woman rode past the both of them on what appeared to be a skateboard that floated several inches above the ground, straight for the creature. She was dressed in a tan cloak that concealed most of her body except for her head and left arm. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of reflective goggles and her short-cropped violet colored hair seemed out of place against the dull browns and tans of the canyon around them and a wild grin was plastered on her face.

She shot between the creature's legs, passing straight under it and effectively grabbing the creature's attention. It screeched at her and spun around to face her. The purple haired girl smirked up at the creature and held her hand up to it.

"Crush," she shouted. Purple energy surrounded the creature and forced it to the ground with a sickening crunch. A bright light shone in her left hand as a weapon appeared from nowhere. Sora and Roxas stared in surprise. She was a Keyblade Wielder.

The Keyblade clutched in her right hand had a black handle with a white tip that was completely encompassed by the lavender colored guard. Each side of the guard was decorated with two spikes that were angled downward towards the base of the blade. The blade itself was lavender colored and had concave edges that met in a point. A large, silver triangle was secured to the point so that the top of the triangle pointed towards the blade. A small, glowing purple eye floated of its own accord in the center of the triangle. The 'teeth' of the Keyblade were formed by a black, circular arc lined with spikes and were only connected to the rest of the blade by the triangle. The Keychain was the same triangle that was connected to the 'teeth', only without the eye.

The girl swung her Keyblade in a wide arc above her head and leapt up onto the creature's back. With a ferocious yell, she drove her Keyblade in between the plates at the base of its neck and twisted. The creature let out a short-shriek as life left it and collapsed. The girl tore her Keyblade from the creature's back, splattering the front of her cloak with its bright yellow blood. Her Keyblade vanished from her hand as she leapt down to stand in front of Sora and Roxas.

"Coming out into Veneschall territory all by yourselves?" She asked as she attempted to wipe the blood off of herself. "Either you're real ballsy, or you've got a death wish." She gave both teens a quick look over. "Maybe both."

"What's a Veneschall?" Sora asked, following the girl as she turned her back on the boys to walk back over to where she had abandoned her hover-board.

"'What's a Veneschall?'" The girl laughed. She caught a glimpse of Sora's quizzical look and stopped almost instantly. "Oh, you're serious. You're not from around here are you?"

"Nope," Roxas said, walking up to stand beside Sora. "I'm Roxas."

"I'm Sora," the brunette said, flashing the girl his trademark grin.

"You're off-worlders, aren't you?" the girl asked as she lifted her goggles to reveal a pair of sapphire blue eyes.

Sora glanced at Roxas, who shrugged. "Might as well tell her the truth," the blond said. "World Order be damned. Between Maleficent, the Heartless, Organization XIII and you, that thing's pretty much useless isn't it?"

"I knew it," the girl said. She grabbed hold of her board with one hand and it suddenly folded itself down into a small cube, which the girl promptly clipped to her belt. "My name's Nanaki."

"Nice to meet you, Nanaki," Sora said, offering his hand to her. Nanaki eyed it for a moment with an expression that made Sora think she was under the impression that it would bite her. He slowly lowered his hand. "Now, what's a Veneschall? And where are we?"

"This is the surface of Lynfael," Nanaki said, gesturing around at the barren wasteland around them. "The surface is too harsh for most humans to live on. Our kind fled into the tunnels centuries ago and we've been there ever since. As for the Veneschall," she kicked the corpse of the creature with a look of slight distaste, "they're the top of the food chain in this area of the surface world. They'll eat anything that moves, just because they can."

"So, this thing is a Veneschall?" Roxas asked. He knelt next to the creature's head, staring into it's glazed over eyes. "If they're so tough, then how were you able to take it down?"

"Because this one is in its larvae stage," Nanaki explained. Roxas visibly paled at her words.

"This thing is just a larva?" He asked nervously. "Then what does a full grown one look like?"

Nanaki grinned. "Pray that you never find out." Roxas stood up and quickly backed away from Veneschall Larvae's corpse. "So, what brings you to our miserable world?"

"We're trying to rescue our girlfriends," Sora explained. "This big guy kidnapped them right in front of us. His ship landed somewhere around here."

"Ship?" Nanaki asked. "Oh! You mean that big flying thing that fell out of the sky about an hour ago?" Sora and Roxas both nodded.

"That's the one," Roxas said. "Do you know where it is?"

Nanaki nodded and pointed off in the distance, away from where Sora and Roxas had originally landed. "About half a day's march from here in the Kellena Valley," she said. "I can take you there if you want."

"Really?" Roxas asked, clearly surprised. "Even though we just met?"

"This sort of thing happens to me all the time," Sora pointed out. "I arrive at a new world, I get attacked. I meet a local, and the local becomes my ally."

Nanaki ignored him. "I'll only help you under one condition though."

"There's always a catch," Sora said. He glanced at Roxas, who sighed and nodded. "Okay, you've got a deal. What do you want?"

Nanaki grinned in satisfaction. "After we rescue your women, and you leave this godforsaken rock, I want you to take me with you."

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback HQ Medical Ward_

_The Frozen Fields_

Naleten hummed softly as he washed the traces of Riku's blood out from underneath his fingernails. His staff hovered of its own accord just behind him, casting its eerie red light around the room. With a small nod of his head, Naleten shut off the water and produced a blood-red hand towel out of thin air. As he quickly dried his hands, he spared a glance back at the unconscious teen still lying on one of the dozen or so beds in the room. His shirt had been left open, exposing his pale chest for all to see.

Naleten smirked emotionlessly as he walked over to stand above Riku's form. The towel in his hands fell to the ground, vanishing into a black mist before it ever touched the floor. The Nobody examined his handiwork. Thirteen powerful seals taken from the Tome of Silence were etched in the Celestial Nine-Point Compass pattern directly over Riku's heart. A perfect seal, carved into the flesh that could only ever be broken under the circumstances decided by the person who formed the seal.

Naleten waved his hand over the seal and watched as the skin knitted itself back together so perfectly, it was impossible to tell that anything had been done to Riku at all. Naleten flashed Riku a grin and summoned a portal of Darkness behind him.

"Until next time, Master Riku," he said with a low bow as he backed into the portal. "Be sure to play your role for me like the good little pawn you are. Lord Thera would greatly appreciate it." The portal closed around him and Naleten was gone.

There was a deep shuddering thud that resounded throughout the complex less than a second later and the power flared back to life. Riku let out a groan as the fluorescent lights came back on in the medical ward and slowly opened his eyes with a groan of pain. His chest felt like it had been carved open like a Thanksgiving turkey. He slowly sat up in the hospital bed, wincing slightly at his chest pains.

A flash of pale orange light in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned his head to see Dawn's holographic avatar appear on his bedside table, looking slightly dazed and confused. She shook her head back and forth quickly for a brief moment before she looked up at him with a half-smile.

"Greetings, Master Riku," she said feebly as the orange light that illuminated her body turned blue. "How are you feeling?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at her. "Are _you_ okay, Dawn?" He asked. "You don't look so good." Dawn shrugged half-heartedly.

"It's the power outage's fault," she explained as she changed color again, this time from blue to red. "Power outages to A.I.'s are what hangovers are to humans. Except we don't have fun when we suddenly lose all of our power."

"Why are you changing color like that?" Riku asked in concern. He reached a hand out towards the A.I., forgetting for a moment that she wasn't physically there. Dawn examined the numbers flashing in and out of existence on the back of her hand for a moment as her color changed to purple.

"I'm running a diagnostic scan on myself," she answered simply. "I want to make sure none of my important systems are damaged. So far, it seems I've only lost a few bits of memory data from the past three months. Nothing important, mind you. Not as far as I can tell at least." Her brow furrowed in frustration. "But I definitely have almost nothing from the last two weeks in my data. I think I might've suffered more damage than I thought after we fell off that cliff." She turned towards Riku. "Do you remember what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks?"

Riku crossed his arms and bowed his head slightly as he thought back over what he had done over the course of the past few weeks. Some of his memories of his time in Atlantis were a little fuzzy. Then he and Dawn had gone off in search of… Riku's brow furrowed. In search of what? He could remember flying from world to world in search of something until he had arrived here, on the Frozen Fields. He could remember peering over the edge of a steep cliff to find a field of Keyblades frozen in the ice and snow at the cliff base. The cliffs edge had proven unable to hold his weight and collapsed, sending him tumbling to the ground. He had almost managed to save himself, but a stone had smashed into the side of his head, nearly knocking him unconscious. The next thing he could remember was waking up in the same bed he was in now.

"Judging from his expression, I would say he doesn't remember much." Both Riku and Dawn turned at the sound of the voice. Xanthos' sister, Jenna, strode into the room with a slightly irritated expression on her face. She stopped at the foot of Riku's bed and examined a clipboard she was carrying in her hands. "You suffered a lot of physical trauma when you fell off that cliff," she continued, tossing the clipboard up onto the table where Dawn stood. "Your spine was shattered, you had multiple fractures on your skull, both of your legs were broken in at least five places each, your left wrist was broken, and your ribs were all cracked. One even came close to puncturing your lung. The fact that you're alive is nothing short of a miracle."

"What does any of that have to do with my memories?" Riku managed to ask before Jenna shoved a thermometer in his mouth.

"The fact that the only mental damage you suffered, aside from a blow to your ego I'm sure, is a few memories missing from the past couple of weeks is nothing to sneeze at," she smirked as Riku's cheeks flushed red. "You should be a vegetable. Consider yourself lucky, kid." She pulled the thermometer out of his mouth and glanced at it before setting it aside.

"Don't call me kid," Riku said.

"Whatever you say, kid," Jenna said as she scribbled something onto her clipboard. "To be perfectly honest, you seem to be fine now." She grabbed a bag from under Riku's bed and tossed it onto his lap. Riku gave the bag a confused look and opened it up.

"Your clothes were pretty much shredded," Jenna explained as Riku pulled his clothes from the bag and set them next to him on the bed. "My apprentice, Nikki, was kind enough to repair them for you. Be sure to thank her when you get the chance."

Riku nodded. "I will." He swung his legs off of the bed and got to his feet.

"And before I forget, my brother said that he wanted to see you when you finally got out of here," Jenna added as she turned to leave. "Don't make him wait too long; he's far more impatient now than he was back before the war."

"I'll keep that in mind," Riku said. Jenna gave him a smile and stepped out of the room, letting the door shut itself behind her. Riku sighed and stretched his arms above his head. Satisfied, he went to peel off the pastel-green shirt he was currently wearing but stopped when he realized that Dawn was watching him with a slightly bored expression on her face.

"Do you mind?" He asked. Dawn laughed and rolled her eyes.

"I'm an A.I., remember?" She said. "You could be naked for all I care. It doesn't affect me one bit." She gave him a nonchalant smirk. Riku sighed.

"Will you please just look away?" He asked politely. Dawn let out another laugh and conceded, turning away from him and humming a tune to herself that sounded to Riku like the theme from Tetris. He quickly stripped out of the hospital garb and threw on his freshly repaired clothes in a matter of mere seconds. He glanced down at his clothes in an attempt to find where they had been torn only to find, to his surprise, that there was no evidence of them being damaged. Shrugging it off, Riku grabbed hold of Dawn's portable storage unit as the A.I. turned off the projector and clipped it to his belt.

"What do you say to a little exploring, Dawn?" Riku asked, cracking his knuckles eagerly as he left the medical ward.

_LD_

_Hang 'Em High Landing Site_

_Lynfael_

Sora watched through a pair of night-vision binoculars Nanaki had provided him with as one of the three security patrols circling the area around the _Hang 'Em High_ passed in front of an open hangar door, where at least half a dozen other guards were keeping lookout. In total, thirty well armed soldiers stood between them and getting inside the ship. Normally, Sora would've laughed at those odds. He had taken on a thousand Heartless single-handedly. But the thought of going up against so many guns unnerved him slightly. He wasn't sure if he could outrun a bullet.

Next to him, Nanaki scanned the tops of the cliffs overlooking the ship through her own pair of binoculars, occasionally cursing under her breath. "Like I thought," she muttered. "They've got three snipers up on those cliffs. Even if we create a distraction for the guards down there," she gestured at the ship, "we'd be taken out before we ever make it in."

"I have an idea," Roxas said. Sora and Nanaki both lowered their binoculars and glanced over at the blond. Roxas turned his attention completely on Sora. "Do you remember when we were attacked by all of those Nobodies back on Port Royal?" Sora nodded, wondering where Roxas was going with this. "Remember how the Samurai didn't attack us? Instead, they turned on the other Nobodies and then bowed to me when they left. What if I still can control them?"

"Control the Nobodies?" Nanaki scoffed. "I'd pay to see that trick."

"Roxas used to be a Nobody," Sora told her, before turning to back to the blond. "Do you think it'll work?"

Roxas shrugged. "It's worth a shot," he said. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"You know, I really, _really _hate it when people say that," Nanaki mumbled. "Something always goes horribly wrong."

"Okay," Roxas said as he straightened up. "Here goes nothing." He closed his eyes and concentrated. It took a couple of moments for him to remember how to summon the Nobody companions that had accompanied him on numerous missions he had gone on for Organization XIII. When it came back to him, he felt some sort of invisible ripple flow out of him, spreading quickly across the universe. It was a slightly unnerving feeling. It made him realize, for the briefest of moments, just how large the universe really was.

**You called, my liege?** Roxas heard a muffled gasp followed by a dull thump as something fell to the ground and opened his eyes and found himself face to face with a pair of Samurai. Nanaki's eyes were wide with shock and she was covering her mouth with one hand as she stared up at the Samurai. Roxas only spared her a brief glance before looking back at the Samurai. In perfect unison, both Samurai bent at the waist in a formal bow to Roxas, who returned the gesture.

**What would you have us do, Lord Roxas?** Roxas turned his head towards the Nobody on his left, feeling a little surprised that he had known that it was her who had spoken, and the fact that he knew she was female.

"We need to get into that ship down there," Roxas explained. "The enemy has three patrols of eight people circling the ship and six more are inside the hangar door. There are also three sharpshooters up on that cliff top over there." He pointed in the direction Nanaki had been looking. "We need a distraction so we can slip in. Can you handle that?"

**Of course.** The Samurai on his right said, clearly male. **Do you need them disposed of?**

"No," Roxas said hurriedly. "Just, keep them busy long enough for us to get inside. Don't kill them unless you absolutely have to. Okay?" Both Samurai nodded. Roxas grinned. "Thank you both." The Samurai both bowed and vanished in swirls of Darkness.

"So?" Sora asked. "What did they say?"

"They're going to distract the guards for us so we can sneak in," Roxas explained. "So I hope you guys are ready because if there's one thing I remember about the Samurai, they always-" He was cut off by a loud scream as one of the snipers fell off of the cliff top to the hard ground below. The other two snipers turned their attention towards where five Samurai now stood and began firing wild shots at them. Roxas let out a sigh. "They always carry out orders quickly."

Sora peered down the slope in front of them towards where the guard patrols were. All three groups were running towards a group of about ten more Samurai that had appeared at the base of the cliff around the body of the fallen sniper. Bullets flew through the air and were expertly deflected by the Samurai's blades. Sora turned back towards the others.

"That's our cue," he said with a satisfied grin. "Let's go!" He vaulted over the boulder they had been using for cover and skidded down the slope on his backside. Roxas quickly followed suit, albeit more gracefully than Sora and slid down on his feet while Nanaki pulled her goggles over her eyes and grabbed her hover-board before riding down after the other two.

Sora somersaulted directly into a sprint the moment he reached the bottom of the slope, with Roxas at his heel. Three flashes of light lit up the darkness and attracted the attention of the six guards still at the entrance to the hangar.

"I think they see us!" Roxas shouted as one of the guards tossed a handful of lit flares out in their direction, casting a series of sinister red lights between them and the hangar door.

"Spread out!" Nanaki shouted as her hover-board caught up to the two teens, she kept one hand on the holo-controls while the Keeper's Crest appeared in her left hand. "It makes it harder for us to get hit!" She let out a small cry of shock as a bullet narrowly missed her ear. Sora leapt to the side as a volley of rounds struck the ground in front of him and took cover in the darkness out of the radius of light cast by the flares. Roxas summoned both of his Keyblades to his hands and threw them as hard as he could towards the guards. Two of the guards ducked out harm's way only for a third to be struck by both. The man barely had time to cry out in pain before he was thrown further into the hangar and out of sight.

Roxas smirked as he caught his Keyblades and continued his charge. Nanaki zipped past him on her board, leaping off of it at the last second before it crashed into two more of the guards. Nanaki laughed wildly as she landed directly behind the three remaining guards. One of them spun on his heel and drew a knife from its sheath on his shoulder. Nanaki's laughter stopped abruptly as the knife sliced open her cheek. The guard grinned in satisfaction as he saw the blood on her cheek, but it was short lived. The curved 'teeth' of the Keeper's Crest swung up and slammed into the guard's face with enough force to knock a couple of his teeth loose.

The man howled in pain for a moment before Nanaki's foot struck the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. She spun around as another guard raised a large hammer above his head and swung it towards her head with surprising speed. Nanaki's eyes widened in fear as the hammer rushed towards her face. Before they closed in calm acceptance.

The blow never came. Nervously, she opened her eyes to find a mess of spiky-brown hair less than a foot from her. Sora stood between her and the guard with the hammer, creating a barely visible barrier of pure energy to stop the hammer in its tracks. Nanaki stared at Sora's clothes in shock. They were no longer black with red and gold accents. Now they were mostly blue with flame like patterns at the hem of his shorts and at the end of his sleeves, but what truly amazed Nanaki was the fact that he was floating at least six inches off of the ground. The guard stared down at Sora with a look of pure surprise on his face. Sora grinned and thrust his empty palm out towards the guard. The barrier flew away from Sora and sent the guard flying.

"How did you-" Nanaki began to ask as Sora flashed his signature grin.

"It's my Wisdom Drive," Sora explained as the guard struggled back to his feet. "Long story short, my clothes are magic." He raised his Keyblade so that it was level with the guard's chest as the man stood up. "Take this!" A trio of bright, glowing blue orbs shot out of the Oblivion's tip and flew towards the guard. One orb struck the handle of the hammer just below the head and melted it straight through, causing the head to fall to the floor of the hangar with a loud thud. The other two slammed into the man's chest and sent him flying into the remaining guard.

Both men were thrown from the hangar with excessive force and landed heavily on the ground outside. The guard that had been wielding the hammer started to get back to his feet almost immediately. Sora smirked and aimed his Keyblade at the controls to the hangar door. Two orbs of magical energy crashed into it and caused the system to go haywire. The hangar door closed quickly before the guard had time to fully recover, trapping him on the outside.

"Okay, that was pretty cool," Nanaki said, giving Sora a high five as she walked over to her Skimmer. "You've got some pretty fancy tricks there, kid." Sora grinned and placed his hands behind his head in his trademark fashion.

"It was nothing," he said. "Just doing what I do best."

"I'll say," Nanaki said as she powered down her board, returning it to its portable cube form. "What happened to Blondie?"

Sora gave her a quizzical look and then smacked himself. There was a flash of light and his clothes reverted to normal as Roxas appeared out of thin air, gasping for breath. Nanaki raised an eyebrow at him.

"Warn me next time!" Roxas shouted as he scrambled to his feet. Sora just laughed.

"Donald used to say that to me all the time," he said with a grin. "What can I say, I needed an extra bit of speed to save Nanaki and I didn't exactly have time to say 'Hey Roxas! Hope you don't mind, but I need to go into my Wisdom Form and you're the only companion close enough to serve as the base for it. Heads up!'" Roxas gave Sora a look that showed he clearly wasn't amused. Nanaki, however, was cracking up.

"I'm sorry I didn't meet you guys sooner," she said. "It's probably a blast hanging with you two."

"I wouldn't call it a blast," Sora said thoughtfully.

"We're kind of a magnet for trouble," Roxas agreed. Nanaki shrugged.

"I can live with it," she said as she attached her board to her belt. "Let's get going, you've got damsels to rescue from distress, and I've got a one-way ticket off this rock to secure."

_LD_

_Hang 'Em High_

_Engineering Bay_

Naminé peered cautiously around one of the hundreds of large computers that filled the Engineering bay of the _Hang 'Em High_. Two guards armed with rifles patrolled the grid-like pathways nearby while a group of technicians in white coats complained about being stranded. She swallowed nervously as they both turned their backs to her before diving behind the closest computer across the pathway, briefly appearing as a faint shimmer in the dim lighting.

She reminded herself to thank Xanthos for the invisibility spell when she got the chance as the guards traveled further away. Not only had she been able to trick the guard watching her cell into opening the door for her because of it, she was now safe from the prying eyes of anyone else that probably had orders to shoot first and ask later.

She glanced around the computer to watch as the guards traveled further away from her. She let out a silent sigh of relief and knelt next to the console beside her and placed her hand on it. A label on the side informed/ her that this was one of three consoles in the room that contained Navigation Gummi blocks. If she could disable those, that would buy time for her and Kairi to find a way to escape. A small jolt of electricity passed from her finger tips into the computer. The lights on the console flared brightly for a brief moment before fading to black as the system crashed.

Smiling at her handiwork, she darted away from the console and began her search for the second one. It didn't take too long to find as it was only three consoles away. A jolt of electricity later and she had, for the most part, crashed the Hang 'Em High's Navigation system.

"Just one more to go," Naminé whispered to herself as she darted back and forth between consoles, searching for the final Navigation console.

"All units, be advised, we have an escaped prisoner," Naminé froze as she heard one the voice come over one of the guards' radios from the other side of the console she was currently behind. Her hand immediately flew up to cover her mouth and nose, stifling the sound of her breathing.

"Package Number Two has escaped from Cell Block E," Patrol Nine's voice continued. Naminé's eyes widened in surprise. She had only escaped five minutes before and they were already onto her. She hadn't been expecting that. "Extreme caution is advised. She is highly dangerous. Security footage shows she can turn invisible. Heat sensors are recommended. Capture her alive at all costs."

_Oh, no._ Naminé groaned mentally.

The two guards glanced at each other and nodded. Both of them pressed a small button on the sides of their helmets and their visors flared orange in the dim lighting before they raised their weapons and turned, to Naminé's horror, directly towards her.

Naminé felt fear sink in as both guards stared at her for a moment before letting out cries of shock. One of the guards took aim at her and fired seven shots. Naminé let out a scream and ducked behind the closest console, abandoning her invisibility spell as she did so. The other guard grabbed the top of his partner's gun and forced it to aim at the floor.

"They said _alive_, you idiot!" He shouted. "What the hell's your problem?"

"I freaked out!" The other guard shouted back. "I didn't sign up to fight someone who could turn invisible! What did you expect me to do?"

"I expect you to follow orders!" His partner growled as he aimed his rifle at the console Naminé was hiding behind. "Make yourself useful and call for reinforcements." The other guard pulled out his radio and began calling in back up as his partner slowly approached the console Naminé was hiding behind. "Come on out, little girl," he called. "Hands above your head."

Naminé obeyed and stepped out from behind the console with her hands above her head, palms facing the guard as he neared her. The guard grinned and Naminé smiled sweetly. Several bolts of lightning shot from her fingertips and struck the guard's gun. The guard let out a cry of pain and dropped his weapon, shaking his hands violently from the sudden shock. Naminé summoned the Rejection of Fate into her hand and leapt at the guard, intending to knock him out. Several loud cracks filled the air as bullets whizzed past Naminé's head.

The blonde threw herself aside as the other guard fired on her with a pistol. She thrust her hand around the side of the console and sent a fireball flying in the man's general direction. The man let out a startled yell and fell backwards in an attempt to avoid the flames. Naminé dashed from behind cover and sent another fireball at the two guards. Her aim was off and the fire instead struck another computer, which promptly exploded.

Ignoring the cries of pain from the two guards as shrapnel from the computer dug into their skin, and the shouts from the dozen or so technicians in the room, Naminé bolted for the exit. She came to an abrupt halt as she found it blocked by at least seven armed guards who were pointing guns and a couple of swords towards her. Naminé turned around and ran towards another door she had seen. At least four more guards appeared as if from nowhere and blocked her last resort.

Naminé slowed to a stop next to a table covered in technical equipment near the center of the room. The guards advanced towards her, carefully avoiding the consoles while never losing sight of their objective. Naminé swallowed hard and backed into the table. She heard the distinct clicks of more weapons being readied on her left. She turned her head to see the technicians all aiming handguns at her. She raised the Rejection of Fate in a defensive stance while her eyes roamed the room, looking for anything that might help her escape.

Her eyes fell on a small charm that seemed out of place amongst the various tools and pieces of computer equipment. The charm was an oval shape and made out of what looked like silver. In the center of the oval was a picture of a red, diamond shaped jewel surrounded by fire against a black background.

"Drop your weapon and surrender," one guard said. "You will be taken back into custody."

Naminé's eyes lit up and she ignored the guard. It was a summoning charm, just like the ones Sora had collected on his last adventure. Her hand shot out and grabbed hold of the charm. "Lend me your power," she whispered into the charm before tossing it into the air. The guards and Naminé all watched the charm fly up into the air and remain at the zenith of its ascent, glowing with a dark red light. The room swiftly filled with a dark smoke that swirled around into the shape of a tall person in a dark robe. Naminé swallowed nervously as a wave of dread passed through her.

"_**Rejoice,"**_ the smoky figure said in a deep, sinister tone as a pair of glowing yellow eyes took form in the smoke and looked straight at Naminé. _**"For very bad things are about to happen."**_

_LD_

_Hang 'Em High_

_Engine Room_

"Is this what you meant by 'we're kind of a magnet for trouble'?" Nanaki asked as she pressed her back against Roxas'. She and Roxas were trapped on a catwalk overlooking the three massive Firagun engines by a large group of a hundred or so guards. The desert night was slightly visible through the cracks in the hull caused by the missile pods Sora had fired at the engines.

"If you're referring to the getting separated from Sora and being surrounded by a bunch of numbskull guards who probably couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, then yes," The blond nodded. "That would be exactly what I mean. I'll admit, I've never been in this particular situation before."

"How did we even get separated from him?" Nanaki asked, as she scanned the crowd around them.

"Who knows?" Roxas said. "It was probably when these guys started chasing us."

"Keep quiet, you two!" A guard demanded.

"They breed these bastards like rabbits, don't they?" Nanaki commented as she flourished the Keeper's Crest in her hands.

"Looks like it," Roxas agreed as he spun the Oblivion and Oathkeeper around before holding them in front of him in an 'X' shape. "They also didn't make them smarter."

"When will they learn?"

"Probably never."

"How many do you think there are?"

"I don't know. Fifty?"

"How about we say five thousand? It makes it sound more badass when you tell people about it."

"I like the way you think, Nanaki."

"Thank you, so do I."

"I said shut up! That's an order!" The same guard shouted again. Nanaki scoffed at him.

"Go to hell," she said. "How's that for an order?" She and Roxas glanced at each other and grinned before leaping at the closest guards, both laughing wildly as they did so.

_LD_

_Hang 'Em High_

_Bridge_

Kairi winced as the door to the bridge slid open with a hiss and Seven tightened his grip on her upper arm. She had been taken from her cell several minutes before to 'serve as a bargaining chip' as Recovery Two had put it. Sora charged into the room, Keyblade at the ready and his eyes immediately locked onto hers.

"Kairi!" Sora cried out. Kairi breathed a sigh of relief. Sora was here. Everything was going to be okay now. She tried to break out of Seven's grip but he only tightened it with a growl. Sora glared daggers at the Recovery Agent.

"Let her go," he demanded in the most assertive tone he could muster. "_Now_."

Seven chuckled, which Kairi found disturbing. He still sounded like he was growling. Kairi glanced up at Seven's concealed face and saw a dark figure appear in the reflection, just behind where Sora was standing.

"Behind you!" Kairi shouted, whipping her head back around to look at Sora. Sora turned and saw a pair of katana descending towards his neck. Sora brought the Oblivion up with incredible speed and countered both blades.

"You're pretty quick, huh, kid?" Recovery Two said as she leapt back from Sora. "But you're going to have to be faster than that." Sora gave Two a confused look, and then winced as his left cheek was sliced open. Blood flowed down from the wound like a river. Sora stared at Two in complete shock.

"Like I told you," Two said smugly. "You're going to have to be a lot faster if you want to have any hope of beating me." She let out a confident laugh as Sora glared at her.

Kairi couldn't take anymore. She was tired of always being captured and forced to remain on the sidelines. She wasn't going to just sit around and watch Sora fight two Recovery agents all by himself. She spun in Seven's grip, ignoring the spike of pain that shot up her arm from where he was gripping her and placed the flat of her palm against his visor.

"Let me go!" She shouted. A burst of Blizzard magic erupted around Seven's helmet, encasing it and his shoulders in a block of jagged ice. Seven's grip on her slackened as he attempted to break the ice off of him. Kairi pressed her feet against Sevens chest and kicked as hard as she could. Seven's grip was torn from her arm as her kick sent him stumbling back several feet.

Kairi flipped in midair, landing gracefully on her feet. A flash of light emanated from her hand as Destiny's Embrace appeared. Kairi let out a battle cry and charged at Two as quickly as she could. Behind her, Seven snapped off a large chunk of ice from in front of his visor and raised his pistol so that it was aimed at Kairi.

Sora's eyes widened in horror as he realized what was about to happen. He turned his back on Two and immediately rushed as quickly as he could towards Kairi. "No!" Kairi stopped as she heard Sora shout and glanced behind her as Seven pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang as a single shot flew from the gun. Kairi's eyes widened as she fell to the ground, her blood trailing behind her.

_LD_

* * *

_Olette: So why was this chapter so late?_

_Shadow: I have my reasons._

_Olette: Writer's block?_

_Shadow: Yup. And I do want to thank **Shire Folk **for helping me overcome it. Without his help, this chapter still might not be done._

_Olette: That bad?_

_Shadow: Like you wouldn't believe._

_Anyway, thanks to all of you for over two hundred reviews! Honestly, I never thought I 'd seethat many when I first started out. You all have no idea how much that actually means to me._

_So what did you all think? Good? Bad? Meh? Happy to know that I'm still alive? Your opinions are wanted! Feel free to drop a review._

_Contest time! Who can name who the summon Naminé found is? Here's a hint: He once devoured the soul of a monk. It tasted like chocolate. Using Google is cheating, by the way. I haven't decided what the prize for winning will be yet, but I'll announce it to the winner in a PM when I do.  
_

_Before I go, here's a bit of fun trivia for you: Lynfael is actually based off of a short story I did back in my freshman year of high school. I came across my old notes a few days ago and decided to include it as an original world.  
_

_Here's to another year of Looming Darkness and hopefully another update soon now that I'm over this writer's block._

_Until next time!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons  
_


	27. Darkness Within

_Dren Yol Lok, Jul._

_No, you're not dreaming. It didn't take me a month and half to publish a new chapter! I know, shocking._

_News time: A new world has been confirmed for Dream Drop Distance: Prankster's Paradise. Apparently, its supposed to be based off of Pinocchio. So we'll see._

_Skyrim, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary have been raping my social and writing lives and are part of the reason why this chapter is so late._

_My bad._

_Disclaimer: I own everything that's mine. Which is basically everything in this chapter except for the characters I didn't create._

_Enjoy!_  
_  
_

* * *

Chapter Twenty Seven: Darkness Within

_Sunday, June 27__th__, 4794 P.C._

_Yen Sid's Study_

_Mysterious Tower _

Yen Sid let out a low sigh as he stared up at the stars that were always visible in the sky. It had been almost thirty years since he had abandoned his title as Keyblade Master to become the Watcher. For almost thirty years, he had watched the stars in the sky, listening to them as they told him what was happening in the universe. And today was no different.

A pair of stars in particular held his attention above the others this night, however. The two stars were among his favorites to look at, because they had been among the most interesting ones of their time in the sky since they had appeared fifteen years before. One of the two shone as bright as the brightest stars, while the other, though slightly dimmer, still shone brighter than the other stars. For a long time, Yen Sid had watched these two stars drift slow closely to each other that they may as well have been one. But now, the brighter of the two was beginning to fade.

Yen Sid bowed his head sadly. "Sora. Kairi. I pray the two of you are safe."

_LD_

_RGLAC Hang 'Em High Bridge_

_Lynfael_

Sora could only watch in dull shock as Kairi fell to the ground, her violet-blue eyes unfocused even as she stared right at him. Her head hit the blood-splattered ground and her eyes slowly closed. "Kairi?" Sora asked quietly. The auburn-haired teen didn't respond. She didn't even twitch to acknowledge if she could hear him. "Kairi!" Sora tried to run over to Kairi but found that his legs wouldn't obey his mind. Instead, all he managed to do was fall to he's knees.

"Our client isn't going to be happy about this," Recovery Two said to Seven in an uncaring tone as Sora fell down next to Kairi. "He's definitely going to cut our pay. Did you have to shoot her?" Seven shrugged in response.

Sora's panic faded away as he stared at Kairi's unmoving form, replaced by a pure rage he had never felt before. "You bastard," he growled in a voice that shook as he fought to control his anger. Seven turned his helmeted head towards him. Hatred spiked within Sora as he looked at his reflection in the large golden visor. "You shot her."

"So?" Seven growled as he readied his pistol. It was obvious to him where this conversation was going to lead.

"I've lost her too many times," Sora growled as he slowly rose to his feet. "I'm not going to let that happen again. Not like this."

"You think you can stop us?" Two asked. "We're the best of the best. We're Recovery Agents, little boy. The best of the best. We're on a different level than you."

"I don't care who you are," Sora said. "Or how strong you are, for that matter. If you hurt Kairi, you'll answer to me."

"Fine then," Seven growled. He raised his pistol and fired a single shot at Sora's head. Sora's arm became a blur a split instant before the bullet could leave the chamber. There was a sharp crack that reverberated around the room as the bullet struck against Sora's palm, which he used to shield his head. Silence fell over the bridge as Seven and Two waited for Sora to fall. Instead, the teen smirked coldly.

He lowered his hand and held it out towards Seven. The Recovery Agent took a step back in surprise. The bullet was crumpled against Sora's palm, which had turned as black as night from the Darkness that now covered it. As the two Agents watched, the Darkness seemed to come alive and began to spread across Sora's body. It snaked around the rest of Sora's hand and formed long, jagged claws over his fingers. It rose up his arm and spread visibly across his chest, changing the color of his clothes to the deepest black imaginable. It covered his other arm, and gave him another set of claws before spreading to his face. Darkness began to float off of Sora's body in faint wisps of black smoke. Sora's eyes snapped open, now entirely yellow and glowing faintly.

Seven wasted no time in reacting. He raised his pistol and emptied the clip as quickly as he could. Six shots rang out against Sora's Darkness covered skin, and not a single round broke through. At same time, Two dashed towards Sora with lightning-fast speed and swung one of her two blades into the back of his neck. The tip of the blade shattered, much to Two's surprise, and the pieces scattered all around Sora's feet. Two let out a small gasp of surprise and cast the broken blade aside.

Sora didn't seem fazed by either one of their attacks. His glowing yellow eyes were fixated on Seven, never once straying from the Agent's reflective visor even as Two had tried to attack him from behind. The Darkness covered teen stepped towards Seven, the shards of Two's sword cracking and breaking under his feet. Seven let out a growl of frustration and charged at Sora.

Sora let out a growl far more sinister than Seven's and leapt over the armored man as he attempted to punch the teen. Sora spun around as he landed behind the brute and grabbed hold of the back of his armor. With a grunt of effort Sora tore Seven off of his feet and hurled him headfirst into one of the dozens of workstations. The weight of Seven's armor combined with the force created by Sora's throw caused the station to crumple.

Seven rose from the wrecked station like it was nothing and charged at Sora again. Sora sidestepped the next punch Seven threw at him and retaliated with one of his own. Seven was lifted off of his feet and knocked back. The armored man flipped in midair, landing on his feet and immediately rushing back towards Sora. Sora ducked under a kick from Seven only to be blindsided as his head was stomped into the floor by Two.

Seven grabbed Sora by his ankle as the teen bounced back off of the floor and threw him across the room into the sliding doors that led out of the bridge. Sora flipped himself a split-second before impact and landed feet first against the doors, which caved under the impact and were sent crashing into the hall beyond. Seven straightened up and reloaded his pistol with a full clip. Sora stood back up and gripped one of the broken doors with a clawed hand. With a grunt, Sora hurled the door at the two Recovery Agents. Two leapt above the door, tapping it lightly with an armored foot as she did so while Seven kicked it aside.

Sora charged at Seven again, only to be intercepted by Two. She kicked him as hard as she could in the side of his head, knocking Sora off of his feet and over a workstation. Sora landed on the other side and kicked the workstation into Two's legs, throwing her off of her feet. Her head slammed into the top of it, cracking the surface slightly. She looked up in time to see Sora's claws racing towards her.

She rolled to the side as Sora's claws grazed the side of her armor, barely scratching the paint. Seven leapt over her body before she could get back up and fired four rounds from his pistol in Sora's direction. The bullets struck against the Darkness covering Sora and clattered uselessly to the ground. Sora let out a chuckle that sounded inhuman. Seven growled and lunged at Sora.

Sora deflected the punch Seven threw at him, redirecting the man's momentum and slammed his fist into the back of his helmet. Seven crashed visor-first to the floor and slid several feet behind Sora. He shook his head as he pushed himself up onto his knees. He had been careless. Angrily, he slammed his fist against the floor, denting it, before turning back towards Sora and charging once again.

Two leapt at Sora's back with a ferocious cry, a long curved dagger gleaming sinisterly in her left hand. Sora spun around and grabbed the dagger by its blade with one hand before snapping it clean off of its hilt. His other clawed hand shot out and grabbed Two by her other arm. He spun around swiftly and hurled the purple-armored woman into Seven, knocking both of them to the ground. Sora growled and tossed the broken blade of Two's dagger aside before advancing on the two Agents.

Seven shoved Two off of his chest and aimed his pistol high above Sora's head. He fired a single shot, which shattered the support for an overhead display screen. The screen's weight broke it free from the rest of its support, and it fell directly on top of Sora. Bits of shattered glass, metal and plastic flew across the room. Seven stood up, with Two struggling to her feet behind him. Sora stood exactly where he had been when the screen crashed into him. The boy shook his head back and forth quickly and growled menacingly at Seven.

Sora reached out next to him and plunged his sharp claws deep into a workstation before tearing it out of its permanent attachment to the floor. Seven winced slightly as the metal shrieked and groaned. Sora swung the workstation back and hurled it with surprising strength at Seven. Seven ducked under the flying workstation, causing it to slam into Two's back. Two let out a cry of shock and pain as she was nearly knocked over.

She turned back around as Sora charged at them again. He stopped right between the two Agents and grabbed them both by the tops of their chest pieces and pulled them towards him, forcing both Agents to hit their helmets together. Sora released them and punched Two directly under her ribs. Two felt her breath knocked from her lungs as she stumbled back, grateful for the armor covering her body. That blow would've seriously damaged some vital organs without it. Two bullets fired from Seven's pistol as the large man regained his balance. Sora dodged them effortlessly and slashed Seven across his chest with his claws, leaving four long gouges in the armor. Sora spun and kicked Two in the side of her head and sent her sprawling across the floor before she could completely recover from his first punch. Three more shots glanced off of Sora's shoulders as Seven emptied the rest of the clip in his pistol. Sora spun back around to face Seven before he could react and elbowed him hard in the gut. Seven's body curled forward, bringing his head into range of Sora's fists. Two blows snapped Seven's head from side to side before a third snapped his head back. Sora spun and swung the bottom of his fist into the back of the man's head, sending him stumbling forward where he was greeted by a knee to the gut.

The force of that blow lifted Seven off of his feet, where Sora grabbed him and slammed his back into the ground with enough force to take Seven's breath away. Seven grunted in pain. This kid hadn't been this powerful when he had captured the two teenage girls. What had changed? His thoughts came to an abrupt end when Sora's foot connected with the fork in Seven's leg, powerful enough to be felt despite the armor, as well as sending Seven flying across the room.

A chair flew at Sora's blind spot, but the teen seemed to know it was coming. He jumped into the air and flipped over it, landing on the other side where his yellow eyes locked onto Two. The woman hefted an assault rifle in one hand and her pistol in the other as she took aim. Sora stood there as she unloaded both weapons of their ammunition. Bullets clattered off of the Darkness reinforcing his skin. Two groaned in frustration as the last bullet bounced off of Sora's forehead and fell to the floor. She cast both weapons aside and drew a pair of short daggers from the back of her belt.

She lunged at Sora, slashing at his throat with her knives. Sora made no move to stop her, seemingly secure in the knowledge that the Darkness would protect him. Beneath her helmet, Two smirked. She pressed her thumbs against the hidden switches on her blades, charging the steel with a temporary burst of magical energy. Bright green light formed along the blades a split second before they reached Sora. Sora seemed to sense the change in the weapons and attempted to leap out of the way, but wasn't fast enough. The two daggers penetrated the darkness and plunged deep into the teen's shoulders. Two leapt away from Sora in satisfaction as the boy roared in pain. He gripped both daggers tightly and tore them angrily from his body. Blood laced with Darkness streamed down his arms as he glared up at Two with his yellow eyes. The daggers clattered to the ground and were promptly crushed under Sora's foot. The Darkness flowing from Sora's wounds quickly sewed them shut. Leaving the boy seemingly unharmed. Sora looked up from the blood at his feet and growled at Two.

Before he had time to advance on her, he was intercepted by Seven, who had leapt back into the fray. Sora twisted to the side as Seven's fist passed dangerously close to the side of his head. Seven growled and kicked at Sora's midriff with enough force to send him stumbling backwards. Off to the side, Two grabbed hold of her rifle and ejected the clip to slide in a new one.

Sora ducked under Seven's next punch and deflected a blow from the opposite elbow. He knocked the man's arm aside and slammed the flat of his palm against the larger man's chin with tremendous force, knocking his head back. Sora swept Seven's legs out from underneath him. His black-clawed left hand shot out and grabbed hold of Seven's ankle as he fell. The larger man fell heavily to the ground with a grunt and aimed his pistol at Sora's chest. The pistol went off with a loud bang, but the bullet missed its mark as Sora casually leaned to the side. Seven growled in frustration and pulled the trigger again, only to be met with a click. Sora grinned at Seven with rows of spiked teeth that appeared to have been made of Darkness before yanking on his leg as hard as he could. Seven was lifted off the ground and thrown heavily into the ceiling. He remained there for a moment, suspended by his momentum before he fell back down head first. A large crack appeared in the side of his visor as he crashed back down to the ground.

Bullets flew in rapid succession from Two's rifle, striking uselessly off of Sora's back and drawing his attention back towards her. As the last bullet shot from the chamber, the purple-armored woman cast her weapon aside and drew her remaining sword from its place on her back. Sora let out a growl and dropped to all fours as Two took up a defensive stance. Sora's muscles tensed for the briefest of seconds before he launched himself at Two with surprising agility, becoming a black streak that shot across the room and struck Two.

Two smirked beneath her helmet, despite the pain she felt from Sora slamming head first into her stomach. The force of the blow threw her back several feet, but not before she slipped a small object into the hood of the teen's jacket. Her helmet was knocked off as she slammed against the glass viewport that ran the length of the room, revealing her cropped, jet-black hair and dark gray eyes. The Darkness covered teen growled at her and began to move towards her. Two slumped to the floor and grinned up at him. Sora was blasted forward as the grenade Two had slipped into his hood went off.

He slammed face-first into the floor and remained still. The back of his jacket had been ruined and smoke rose off of his newly exposed, Darkness-covered flesh. Two got to her feet and sneered down at Sora's form for a moment before looking up at Seven as he forced himself to get back up. "I tried to tell him he was no match for us," Two said. Seven started to nod, but stopped as Sora began to move again. Two gave Seven a perplexed look and glanced down at Sora as the teen. "Shit."

A low growl emanated from Sora's throat as he got back to his feet. He turned his head slowly towards Two. He raised his arm so that his clawed hand was pointed at her as an orb of pure Darkness began to form in his palm. Two swore loudly as she realized what was about to happen and dove for her helmet. Sora let out a roar and threw the orb at Two's exposed back. Two's armored hands gripped her helmet tightly and jammed it on over her head a split-second before the orb struck the metal floor next to her. There was a deafening screech as the orb exploded, shredding through the metal and tossing Two through the reinforced glass viewport, shattering a large section of it.

Two let out a cry of pain as she slammed into the hull of the _Hang 'Em High _below. The metal buckled and caved slightly beneath the weight of her armor, leaving a large, human shaped dent. She forced herself back up, ignoring the intense pain coursing through her body and glanced up at the broken viewport of the bridge more than a hundred feet above her. Groaning in frustration, she began looking around for a maintenance access hatch to let her back inside.

Back on the bridge, Seven glared at Sora from across the gaping hole the Darkness had left in the floor. This kid was more trouble than he was worth. Sora's glowing yellow eyes fell on Kairi's still form as he turned towards away from the viewport. The boy let out a sorrowful whine that turned into a growl as he turned his gaze away to look over at Seven. Twin orbs of Darkness formed in each of his clawed hands as he began to slowly advance on the remaining Agent. Seven tossed his freshly reloaded pistol aside, finally accepting the fact that bullets wouldn't be enough to stop this kid. Red lightning began to spark around his fingertips as he raised his fists. This was going to be one interesting fight.

_LD_

_Hang 'Em High Engineering Bay_

Namine and the guards all stared as the smoke cleared from the summoning. The man Naminé had just summoned was dressed in a sinister appearing robe. The upper section of the robe was dark blue on the sides with a large stripe of black that ran down the middle and ended in a point just below his waist. The pauldrons rested on his shoulders in three layers, each black in color and with their sharp edges facing away from the rest of his body. The sleeves of his robe were short, barely covering his thin biceps. On his forearms he wore a pair of large, bracers. Jet-black, fingerless gloves covered his hands, allowing his long, sharpened nails to be seen. The bottom of the robe was gray with a black accent and reached all the way to the ground, concealing his feet. His hood concealed most of his head, but the lower half of his face was hidden by a black cloth, leaving only his solid yellow eyes visible. The skin that was visible was deathly white, the only bit of color coming from the green tattoos around his left eye. Two were a pair of checkmarks that were inked above his eye while a jagged lightning bolt was marked underneath it.

The man glared around the room with narrowed yellow eyes, sending a collective shiver through everyone present. There was something wrong about him, something unnatural. He stretched his long, thin arms high above his head with several loud cracks. "Alright then, which one of you released me?" The man asked. His voice was deep; though not quite as intimidating as it had been when he first appeared out of the smoke. In response, every soldier present pointed at Naminé, who blanched as the man turned to look down at her. Naminé swallowed hard. He was at least two feet taller than her, which only added to his terrifying appearance.

"Are you absolutely sure?" The man asked again, glancing around at the soldiers, all of whom nodded vigorously. The man shrugged. "If you say so." He turned back towards Naminé and leaned in closer to her. Naminé winced slightly. This man reeked of Darkness. She could smell it on him. "Let me guess, these guys in the gray armor are your enemies?"

Naminé nodded. The man in the robe let out a low sigh as he turned towards the guards. "Then, as thanks for your assistance, I shall take care of them for you." Several of the guards couldn't help but laugh.

"In case you haven't noticed, the two of you are outnumbered," one of them sneered. And there are several hundred more of us on this ship. Even if you managed to somehow make it past us, you wouldn't make it out of here alive." Naminé's spirits sank instantly. She had hoped that with the help of her summon, she could have made it off of the ship with Kairi, but now she almost regretted leaving her cell instead of waiting for Sora and Roxas to come to the rescue like they were bound to.

"That does seem to be a bit of an issue," Naminé's summon said, gently stroking his chin through the cloth that covered the lower half of his face. "How about we even those odds a little bit?" He raised both of his pale hands, now glowing with a sickly-green light. A split second later, the guards closest to Naminé and the robed man began howling with pain as they began to glow as well. They dropped their weapons and clutched tightly at their clothes and skin, begging for the pain to stop. Then the affected men fell silent, no longer screaming in pain as the sound of flesh being torn from bone filled the air as each of the affected men tore the flesh and muscles from their bones, casting them aside like bloodied piles of used clothes. Their skeletons reached inside their bones and pulled their organs out, tossing them among the piles of their flesh. Dark red blood dripped slowly off of their arms, pooling at their feet. An evil red light filled the now empty eye sockets of the skeletons as they picked up their discarded weapons and turned to face the other guards, who stared back with looks of pure horror on their faces. Naminé felt a wave of nausea pass over her as the stench of blood filled her nostrils.

Clearly satisfied, the robed man turned towards her. "If you weren't sure, the skeletons are on _our_ team," he said as Naminé looked at him with a terrified expression. He turned to face the remaining guards that hadn't run screaming out of the room. Fire blazed to life around his right hand while ice magic swirled around his left. "Right then, who's first?"

One of the still living guards panicked and shot the robed man three times in his chest. The man looked down at the holes the bullets had left in his chest, shrugged, and engulfed his attacker in a column of flame. Naminé could only watch in a state of near shock as the man she had summoned and his skeleton warriors brutally slaughtered every guard in the room until the walls, floor, and ceiling were plastered with blood and gore. Several men were frozen in large blocks of ice. Some had been decapitated while others had had their faces literally melted off. When the last of the guards fell, half of his body burnt beyond recognition, the other half encased in ice, the energies sustaining the skeleton warriors dissipated and the bones clattered to the floor.

"That was fun," Naminé's summon said cheerfully. "I can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself that much." He hummed happily to himself as he wound his way back towards Naminé through the bodies. The blood covering the front of his robes slowly slid off, leaving them perfectly clean. "I certainly hope there are more of them around." He glanced down at Naminé and let out a snort of laughter.

"The look on your face is a memory I will treasure forever," he said casually. "You've clearly never seen someone kill someone before, have you?" Naminé shook her head in response. "No need to thank me. It's all in a day's work. But is it really work if you enjoy what you do?"

"Y-you killed them," Naminé muttered weakly. The robed man laughed, a sinister, cold sound that sent shivers running up and down Naminé's spine.

"Of course I killed them," the man said. "What did you expect me to do? Sing them to sleep?"

"I didn't expect you to kill them," Naminé said. "I was expecting you to rough them up a bit. I thought that was how most summons worked." The robed man examined his abnormally sharp nails with a slightly bored expression. At least, Naminé thought it was a bored expression. It was hard to tell with most of his face covered by a mask. "Who are you anyway?"

"Who am I?" The man feigned surprise and pretended to be offended. "You mean you don't know?" Naminé shook her head nervously. The man cleared his throat and raised his hands above his head as thunder echoed around them. _**"I am Richard! Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead,"**_ his voice returned to normal as the lightning faded, "and Mayor of a little village up the coast. It's very scenic during springtime. You should stop by for a visit." He handed Naminé a pamphlet, which he had produced from nowhere.

Despite the fact that she still felt horrified by the carnage she had just witnessed, Naminé fought back a sudden, unexpected urge to laugh. "Wait a second, wait a second. Your name is _Richard_?"

Richard sighed. "You were supposed to pay attention to everything after that part," he grumbled as he turned to walk away.

Naminé couldn't help but grin. "Sure thing, _Dick_." Richard stopped walking.

"Heh," he said, as he formed an orb of fire between his palms. "That's pretty funny." He spun around and sent the fireball streaking towards Naminé. The blonde's instincts kicked in at the last second and she jumped up into the air, barely feeling the heat of the flames as they flew past.

"What was that for?" Naminé shouted. "You could've killed me!"

Richard shrugged. "I slipped. Honest." Naminé let out a sigh.

_Why me?_ She asked herself as she bent down to pick up the currently empty summon charm. _Sora gets a genie, an alien that plays an instrument, a fairy, and a chicken that throws baseballs. What do I get? A pathological, bloodthirsty, homicidal maniac. Great. Just great._

Richard watched her as she raised the small silver medallion towards him. His yellow eyes narrowed suspiciously the charm began to glow with energy. "Let me guess; now you're going to put me back?"

"That's the plan," Naminé said as the charm began to glow.

"I'm going to have to disagree," Richard said. He snapped his fingers once and an arrow crafted from a bright green energy flew towards Naminé from somewhere behind him. Before Naminé could react, the arrow had impaled the charm, shattering it. Naminé stared down at the broken pieces of the charm in shock while Richard whistled happily.

"What was that for?" Naminé asked as she tossed the broken chain still clutched in her hand aside. "I don't exactly need you running around slaughtering everyone we come across. Then all of the guards will figure out where I am before I find my sister and get out of here."

"I am the epitome of subtleness," Richard said, feigning offense. "I once slaughtered three whole villages without them being aware of me whatsoever." He paused for a moment as Naminé stared in horror at him. "Does them running from a rain of fire, screaming in terror count as being unaware?"

Naminé sighed and squeezed the bridge of her nose tightly between her thumb and forefinger. "Are you always like this?"

"Only when I haven't eaten," Richard replied. "You don't suppose there's a nursery around here, do you?"

"What does a nursery have to do with anything?" Naminé asked in exasperation.

"Well what else am I supposed to eat?" Richard placed his hands on his hips and leaned in closer to Naminé. "I doubt there are any dwarves or gnomes around to sate my appetite."

Naminé let out a groan. She wasn't sure how much more of him she could take. "I'm going to go find my sister, so she and I can get off this ship. Since I can't put you back in the charm, you might as well come with me." She was already starting to regret her words.

"And why should I help you?" Richard asked as he took an ornate dagger from one of the guards and tucked it away inside his robes. "Sure you released me from that prison of a charm, but as far as I'm concerned, our debt is square. What's to stop me from killing you and taking all your stuff?"

"I'll probably need the help," Naminé admitted. "It's a big ship and there are a lot of hallways. If you help me out, I'm willing to bet there'll be plenty of opportunities for you to-" she let out another sigh before continuing, "-kill people."

Richard stopped his looting and seemed to consider her offer for a moment. "A big ship you say?"

"Yes."

"Full of guards that you might have to fight and potentially kill?"

"I'd rather not do any kill-"

"I look forward to our future partnership," Richard said proudly as he began striding towards the exit. "Come, then. We need to save your sister."

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to end up regretting this one day?" Naminé muttered as she half-heartedly followed Richard out of the room.

"You know," Richard added casually, "you are the seventh person to say that about me."

_LD_

_Ansem the Wise's Study_

_Radiant Garden_

Leon tuned away from Ansem's computer as he heard the secret door in the main part of the study begin to open. His eyes narrowed nervously and he slowly reached for his gunblade. He let out a sigh of relief as King Mickey entered the room. Even though he had been expecting the King, he was slightly on edge.

Nine stars had vanished from the night sky over the course of the past four days, a fact that deeply troubled Leon. Ever since Traverse Town had been lost to Darkness, people who somehow survive the loss of their world seemed to be appearing in Radiant Garden with increasing frequency. And to top it all off, it had been three days since an assassin had attempted to take Leon's life. It had happened during a conclave of the leaders of the various political parties to discuss how to handle the rapidly increasing population of Radiant Garden. The assassin had set off a smoke bomb that had shrouded the council chambers with a heavy black smoke. Unfortunately for the assassin, Leon had kept his gunblade concealed by his side. Now the man was being kept on board the medical station _Angel on My Shoulder_ with two guards stationed outside of his room at all times while the wounds Leon had given him healed. Leon shook his head to clear his thoughts and smiled warmly at the mouse king.

"I'm glad you could make it," he said as the King sat down in one of the two chairs Leon had placed in the room.

"Of course," Mickey said. "How're things going for you, Leon?" He stared up at the current leader of Radiant Garden in slight concern. Leon sighed. Mickey knew. Not that Leon was surprised that he knew. The attempt on his life was the biggest news story, just a little above the debates about how the government was going to handle the rapidly increasing population.

"As well as they can be," Leon replied as he sat down in the other chair. "People are on edge after the assassin's attack the other day. Not to mention we can't expand the city walls much further to make sure there's room for all of these people. I've sent messengers to the northern cities, asking if they'd be willing to help give homes to the refugees, but I don't know if they'll agree or not. They're all very loyal to the crown and without royal approval, I can't be sure if they'll help us or not."

"Things are worse than I expected," Mickey said thoughtfully. "We'll need them on our side sooner or later, especially if it comes down to a war against both Maleficent and Xehanort. Speaking of which, what happened when you proposed that Radiant Garden joined the Alliance?" Leon grimaced. He had known this was going to come up.

"They all were pretty much unanimous against it," Leon said grimly. "They're more than willing to take in refugees as long as we don't run into any food or overpopulation issues. But they don't want to join for a war that may or may not happen."

Mickey sighed in disappointment. Having Radiant Garden in the Alliance would've been greatly beneficial. They needed all the allies they could get. As it stood, the Alliance was made up of the combined forces of Disney Castle, Twilight Town, Chronos, and Xanthos. Mickey decided it would be best to count Xanthos as his own force since he was the only surviving warrior of the Keyblade War.

"As disappointing as that is, I'm sure you didn't ask me to come here to discuss politics," Mickey said with a small smile. "What is it you wanted to show me?" Leon turned towards Ansem's computer with a nod.

"Tron, are you there?" He asked.

"Yes, User Leon," Tron's voice said over the speakers in the room. The computer monitor turned completely blue as the security AI spoke. "I am present. Would you like me to play the audio file for you and User Mickey?"

"Yes," Leon replied. Mickey gave Leon a confused look.

"Audio file?"

"We intercepted highly encrypted transmission coming into a place several miles northeast of here this afternoon," Leon explained as the computer screen changed color from blue to a dull purple.

"Beginning playback," a metallic, monotone female voice said.

"_-jective completed. Engines damaged duri-. Assaulted by unidentified-.. We have been forced to crash-land on nearby world for repairs. Keyblade Princ-. -eat, Keyblade Princess is secure. We will set this message to repeat. This is the RGLAC-"_

Mickey's eyes went wide as Tron shut off the file. "Leon, you don't think they mean-"

"I do."

"Kairi."

_LD_

_Hang 'Em High Engine Room_

_Lynfael_

The Oblivion Keyblade in Roxas' hand glistened with an eerie light as it slammed against the back of yet another guard's helmet. The man fell off of the catwalk with a scream, landing on several other guards below and providing Nanaki with an escape from a small group of three battlemages, who were attempting to surround her. The purple-haired Wielder shouted a quick thanks to him before casting a Reflega spell between her and the battlemages. Several Blizzara spells glanced off her shield, striking the other guards instead.

Roxas turned his attention back on the guards attempting to surround him on the catwalk. Fortunately for him and Nanaki, one of the commanding officers had ordered them to avoid using firearms and grenades while they were so close to the _Hang 'Em High_'s engines. So now, he was faced with the sharp points and edges of several dozen swords. One guard lunged at Roxas only to have his blade deflected by the Oathkeeper. The guard stumbled past Roxas as he tried to maintain his balance on the narrow catwalk. Roxas deflected a blow from another guard before spinning around to kick another off of the catwalk. Two more guards rushed at Roxas, one swinging his blade at the blond's ankles, while the other slashed diagonally at his chest. Roxas leapt above the blade aimed for his legs and kicked both men square in the chest, causing them to stumble backwards a few feet. Grinning with satisfaction, Roxas charged

Down below, Nanaki slammed the heel of her boot into one of the guard's faces. She grinned with satisfaction as she felt the man's nose break before she spun around in a tight circle to face more of the guards rushing towards her. She swung her Keyblade in a wide arc, relieving the men closest to her of their weapons. The men halted their charge and stared dumbly at their now empty hands. Nanaki shook her head at them and raised her hand.

"Pulse!" A wave of bright purple energy burst forth from her palm and sent the soldiers flying across the large room. Her heightened senses picked up on the sound of a blade cutting through the air as it headed for her. She rolled to her left and quickly got back to her feet. The guard who had attempted a strike at her blind spot stumbled past her. Nanaki ducked under another blade as it slashed at her throat and struck the guard in the back of his knee with one of the spikes on her Keyblade's 'teeth'. The guard let out a cry of pain and fell backwards; driving his blade through the man's left side.

Roxas twisted to the side as a sword attempted to impale him. The sharp steel barely missed him and instead sliced a small hole in the side of his shirt. He brought the Oathkeeper down and disarmed the guard holding the blade. The man leapt away from Roxas as the blond followed up with slash from the Oblivion, the obsidian tip narrowly missing the man's armor. Another guard stepped forward and hacked at Roxas with a large broadsword. The blond teen stopped the attack by crossing his Keyblades above his head. Roxas clenched his jaw as the blow shook through his arms, threatening to disarm him.

"Wind!" Roxas shouted as the guard applied more pressure to his sword, forcing Roxas down onto one knee. A powerful gust of wind formed into a tornado around him, tossing the closest guards into the air and over the railing of the catwalk. The guard trying to break through Roxas' guard was thrown high into the air while his broadsword was sent spinning into one of the main support columns for one of the catwalks above the one Roxas and the other guards were on. The guard must have taken extra care to make sure the blade was as sharp as possible, because it sliced straight through the beam and embedded itself in the wall beyond. Roxas and the other guards on the walk all stared up at the beam.

There was the sound of grinding metal, like nails on a chalkboard that sent a shiver up Roxas' spine as the catwalk above him began to collapse. "Uh oh," Roxas said. He leapt backwards as the catwalk fell, crushing nearly fifteen guards that had been gathered on the catwalk Roxas was on in the process. The blond winced, silently grateful to whatever gods may be listening that he had moved when he did.

Nanaki grinned grimly as she glanced at the blood on her blade. She spun and deflected another guard's attempted slash at her exposed back. His blade went clattering across the metal floor. The man glanced down at his now empty hands with a look of mild surprise on his face before looking back up at Nanaki, who shot him a sweet smile and spun, her booted foot making contact with the side of his face. The man cried out in pain as he nearly lost his balance. Nanaki's boot slammed down on another guard's foot. Both injured men collided with each other and fell to the ground. Grinning in satisfaction, the pur Nanaki jumped high into the air over the two guards and tackled another pair.

On the catwalks above her, Roxas disarmed the last of the guards surrounding him with a quick strike from the Oathkeeper. The blond grinned smugly at the man who turned tail without a second thought and ran away; tripping over a small pile of unconscious bodies that Roxas had left in his wake after the upper catwalk had collapsed. The teen shook his head and peered over the edge of the railing in time to see Nanaki leap nearly ten feet in the air to tackle a pair of guards. She stood up from the men and looked up at Roxas with a grin. Roxas returned the grin and glanced around. All of the guards that had surrounded them in the engine room were unconscious, unable to fight, or dead (in the case of a few Nanaki had fought). The only exception was the guard Roxas had just disarmed, who ran from the room, shouting some nonsense about demons.

"Twenty-four for me!" Nanaki shouted gleefully. "How many did you get, Roxas?"

Roxas glanced around himself. "Twenty-five," Roxas called back. He jumped down from the damaged catwalk and landed slightly less than gracefully on top of a cart laden with several small Gummi blocks. Nanaki's mouth dropped.

"What?" She groaned and opened her palm, dispelling her Keyblade in a thousand twinkling stars. "You beat me? Damn, I was certain I outdid you." Roxas let out a laugh.

"Didn't we guess there were fifty of them?" He reminded her with a smug smirk. "If you only got twenty-four, then that would mean I took care of the other twenty-six. Last time I checked, twenty-four was less than twenty-six."

"Wait a sec," Nanaki said suddenly, holding her hand out towards Roxas to get him to stop talking. "Didn't you just say you only got twenty-five?"

Roxas quickly replayed their conversation through his head. "Yeah…" He muttered. "Why?"

"If there were fifty of them, then where's the last guy?" Nanaki asked. In response, a large, heavy battleaxe came spinning through the air towards her from her blind spot, but still within Roxas' point of view.

"Duck!" Roxas shouted pointing to the battle axe. Nanaki spun around to see what Roxas was pointing at, her eyes widening in shock as she saw the silver glint of the battleaxe fill her vision. The force of the axe digging into her right shoulder sent Nanaki flying across the room. A pained cry escaped her lips as her blood trailed behind her. She struck the floor hard and bounced three times before sliding to a stop against the bottom of the still damaged starboard engine. Her head was throbbing and parts of her vision had gone blurry. Her fingers clutched numbly at axe, slippery from her blood as she attempted to grab hold of it. It took several tries, but she finally managed to gain a decent grip on the weapon. She took several deep breaths to calm her nerves before gripping the dull edge of the axe and tearing it from her shoulder. She let out a piercing scream of pain and collapsed forward, panting heavily.

She glanced up as a large shadow fell over her. A thickly-muscled man towered over her. He was dressed in a mostly black suit of armor, accented with red. His torso was protected by an 'H' shaped plate with a pair of smaller red, articulated plates on both sides and the bottom. The pauldrons protecting his shoulders were angular, attached just above his elbows, providing them with enough protection while not compromising his range of motion. His helmet was mostly black, with a blood red stripe running across the top. The front of the helmet featured cap-like protrusion, along its rim and a beak-like protrusion under the chin. The man's face was covered by a black armor deeper in the helmet than the protrusions with a narrow, gold polarized visor that allowed him to see. The words '_Recovery Nine_' were painted in white over the place where his mouth would be with a pair of red crossbones behind it.

Recovery Nine sneered down at Nanaki from behind his helmet and bent down to pick his axe back up. A sudden blow to his back sent him stumbling forward, towards Nanaki. Roxas had leapt across the room and thrown himself heavily into Nine's back, coming to Nanaki's rescue. Despite the pain it caused her, Nanaki raised her hand and concentrated her remaining pools of energy into one attack. "Burst!" She shouted. A bright flash of purple light lit up the room for a moment as a bolt of pure energy shot from Nanaki's palm and blasted Recovery Nine off of his feet and all the way across the room. Nine hit the ground with a pained grunt, rolling for several feet before coming to a stop several feet away from the door. His axe went spinning through the air after him and clattered to the ground next to his legs.

"You okay?" Roxas asked Nanaki as he knelt by her side. He glanced wearily over at Nanaki shook her head in response.

"I'm out of energy," she panted. "I can't heal myself like this." She let out a loud, shuddering gasp as she attempted to move, only to cause herself further pain. Across the room, Nine was starting to get back to his feet. Roxas quickly looked up at the man and then back down at the blood staining the majority of Nanaki's right side. He plunged his hand deep into one of his pockets and fished out a Hi Potion. "Drink this," he said quickly, pressing the bottle into Nanaki's left hand. "It should help stop the bleeding."

"Thanks," Nanaki said, flicking the stopper out of the bottle with her thumb. Before downing the entire bottle in three gulps. Her entire body shuddered violently and she started make gagging sounds. "I take that back, that crap is disgusting. Couldn't you just use a Cure spell?"

"On a wound like that?" Roxas pointed out. "I might make it worse. I'm not so good with magic." Nanaki opened her mouth to reply but was cut off as Nine let out a bellowing roar. He charged towards the two teens with his battle axe raised high above his head. Roxas glanced at him out of the corner of his eye before turning back to Nanaki. "Let me take care of this guy. You just sit tight."

"Like I have any other choice?" Nanaki called after him as Roxas strode towards Nine. The blond smirked.

"Insolent brat!" Nine roared as he closed the distance between him and Roxas with powerful strides. "Learn your place!"

"My place?" Roxas repeated as Nine swung at him. The blade passed through thin air as Roxas twisted out of the way, moving fluidly so he was standing directly behind Nine. "That's the best line you've got?" Nine spun around and brought his axe down at Roxas. The blond quickly deflected the attack with the Oblivion and slashed at Nine's head. Nine leaned back and the obsidian blade completely missed its mark. Roxas grunted in frustration and leapt to the side to put some room between him and Nine. Nine recovered quicker than Roxas had expected and slashed with his axe.

The sharp tip of the blade dug into the blonds' forehead and trailed down past the edge of his right eye and halfway down his cheek, leaving a deep gash behind. Roxas let out a cry of pain and leapt further away from Nine. Roxas stumbled back to his feet, blinking blood out of his eye. From the amount of blood flowing from the gash, he was practically half-blind. Nine let out a cold chuckle and flourished his axe effortlessly in one hand.

"Had enough, boy?" He asked.

"Have you?"

Nine turned and was almost blindsided by Nanaki as she leapt back into the fray. He easily sidestepped her attack and elbowed her hard in-between her shoulder blades. Nanaki cried out and nearly fell forward onto her front. Nine raised his axe and swung at the purple-haired teen's back. The axe struck against the Oblivion as Roxas dashed to stand between Nanaki and the Recovery Agent. Nine let out a growl of frustration and kicked Roxas in the fork of his legs. The unexpected blow brought the teen to his knees as pain shot through him.

"Cheap shot," Roxas groaned. Nine ignored him and focused on Nanaki as the girl threw herself at him again. Her Keyblade struck heavily against his armored shoulder and bounced back, surprising Nanaki to the point where she almost missed the next swing Nine threw her way.

"Careful with that thing!" She growled as the blade narrowly avoided her throat. Her knuckles turned white as she tightened her grip on the Keeper's Crest. She rushed at Nine, knocking his axe aside with a blow that nearly tore her Keyblade away from her. Pain flared in her shoulder, causing her to nearly collapse to the ground as she attempted another attack. The man grunted in satisfaction, and deflected Nanaki's attack with a simple flick of his wrist. Nanaki leapt away before the man could swing at her again. Roxas shot past her, completely blocking Nine's vision as he unleashed a fury of rapid attacks at the larger man's chest. Nine attempted to use his axe as a shield but was still forced to backpedal until he was forced against a set of large power generators.

"Pity," Nine said with a grunt as Roxas managed to circumvent his defense and land a blow against his chest. "I figured this would be simple. Take out a couple of trouble-making kids. Instead, I find a pair of more than capable fighters that took down several squads of guards." He spun his axe around as Roxas swung with both Keyblades at once. To the blonds' surprise, both of his Keyblades were forced apart, leaving his front wide open. Nine's free hand quickly curled into a fist and slammed into Roxas' sternum. Roxas let out a gasp as his ribs cracked and his breath was knocked away. "Nothing's ever easy."

"_**Dying is."**_

Nine turned at the sound of a deep, sinister male voice filed the room. Before he could find the source, there was a loud crack, followed by the _fwoosh _of flames leaping to life, engulfing Nine's head in a ball of flame that melted off his helmet and reduced his head to ash in mere seconds. Nine's axe clattered to the ground. Before the body could fall, a man with pure white skin, glowing yellow eyes and dressed in a dark robe appeared and grabbed Nine's body by the chest piece, ignoring the fact that the stump of the neck was still spewing blood and it was splattering across the man's robes.

"Where are you keeping the princess? And don't you dare try to tell me she's in another castle!" Richard demanded of the headless corpse. Several seconds of silence filled the room as Roxas and Nanaki stared at the man in confusion and slight shock. Realization suddenly dawned on Richard. "Wait. I did that wrong." He dropped the body, looking slightly dejected.

"I told you to take him by surprise!" Naminé groaned as she walked up alongside the warlock. "I didn't say 'Go vaporize his head, Richard. That'll get us the answers we need.'"

"Interrogations are hard," Richard mumbled. Naminé glanced around the engine room.

"What happened here?" She asked aloud. "Did Kairi break herself out?"

"Actually, we did this," Roxas said from where he had fallen after Nine had punched him. He let out a gasp of pain as he attempted to stand back up. "Ow. Hey, Naminé." Naminé's hands flew to her mouth as she stared at Roxas.

"Roxas?" She said, her eyes wide with shock. "What happened to you?" Roxas grinned at her.

"Nothing much," Roxas replied as he pulled Naminé into a tight hug. "Just kicking some bad guy butt, saving a damsel in distress. Not that you seem to be in much distress." Naminé smiled up at him and hugged him tighter.

"Try spending ten minutes with Richard," Naminé said as she hugged Roxas tightly. Roxas gave her a slightly confused look.

"Who's Richard?" He asked. Naminé pointed at the undead warlock.

"I'm Richard," Richard said, rubbing his chin through the piece of cloth that covered most of his face. "Your sister is rather… man-ish, Naminé." The corner of Roxas' eye twitched. Nanaki snickered in the background. "But I suppose she has her feminine qualities." Nanaki burst out laughing, interspersed with the occasional 'Ow' as her laughter caused her muscles to pull at her wound.

"I'm not her sister, moron," Roxas said in a surprisingly even tone, despite the fact that his face clearly showed his irritation with the warlock. "I'm her boyfriend."

"I didn't think I'd find you here," Naminé said as she and Roxas released each other. "But where's Sora?"

"I have no idea," Roxas said as he watched Richard place the unconscious forms of several guards into provocative and creative positions. "Nanaki and I got separated from him when we ran into a bunch of guards after we got on the ship."

"Who's Nanaki?" Naminé raised an eyebrow at Roxas.

"I'm Nanaki," the purple-haired Wielder said proudly, shakily standing on her feet and looking slightly pale from blood loss. "You must be one of the girls we're here to rescue." She looked over at Roxas. "Good, that was easy. Now let's go save the other one and get the hell out of here." Naminé shot Roxas an inquisitorial look as Nanaki turned towards the exit and began walking away.

"What's with her?"

Roxas shrugged. "No clue. But she promised to help me and Sora rescue you and Kairi as long as we took her with us when we leave this world."

"That's all?"

"That's all."

Naminé stared after Nanaki as the purple-haired wielder spoke with Richard. _Why does she want to leave so badly? What could make her not want to stay?_

"You're looking for the other prisoner?" A voice asked weakly from nearby. Several flashes of light filled the room as Roxas, Naminé and Nanaki all summoned their Keyblades and turned to face the source of the voice. A wounded guard was leaning against the side of a fuel tank, panting heavily and holding his hands out in front of him.

"Do you know where she is?" Roxas asked. The guard nodded.

"One of the Recovery Agents had some of my men bring her up to the bridge," he replied, his voice shaking as his eyes darted from one Keyblade to another. "Just before you all broke in."

"How do we get to the bridge from here?" Nanaki asked, clearly struggling to hold her Keyblade up. Roxas shot her a nervous glance. The Hi Potion he had given her didn't seem to have worked its magic just yet and the blood loss was clearly getting to her.

"Down the way you two came in," the guard pointed to Roxas and Nanaki. "Follow the hall to the end and take the lift there up to the bridge. There's only going to be one hall, so follow that there." The guard collapsed to his knees, now gasping for breath.

"Thank you," Naminé said. "Alright, guys, let's-" There was a loud _fwoosh_ sound as the guard burst into flames. The three teens all cried out in surprise.

"Richard!" Naminé groaned exasperatedly. "He answered our question!"

Richard shrugged in an attempt to act innocent. "What can I say? Interrogations are hard."

_LD_

_Suramahn's Maw_

_Western Edge of the Vierri Territory_

_Lynfael_

Derrick carefully observed the canyon below him through a pair of binoculars. The Recovery grunt forces had managed to throw together a hastily coordinated, yet effective defense against the horde of Samurai Nobodies that had appeared around all edges of the canyon. It had been just over an hour since he had watched three teens break into the downed _Hang 'Em High_ and, though he didn't want to admit it, he was getting worried. For one, his charge was being held prisoner somewhere within the ship. For two, he couldn't perform a rescue without running the risk of revealing himself to the Keyblade Wielders. It was the second one that ended up causing him the most grief. If it were up to him, he would've already broken in and retrieved his charge. Less than three minutes in and out.

"Hey."

Derrick lowered his binoculars and turned his head to look at the young man who had spoken. Atticus Brightheart stood next to him, gazing down at the ongoing battle. He was a young man in his mid-twenties who possessed a regal air about him, despite being the leader of a small yet powerful group of mercenaries, the Seven Point Sun. He had long, blond hair that was tied into a ponytail at the base of his neck. His much shorter bangs framed his face perfectly. His eyes were a bit odd. The left one was a violet-blue in color, while the right was startlingly orange. A small, crescent shaped scar marred his flesh on the corner of his mouth.

The rest of his outfit was mostly the standard battle dress uniform issued to all SPS soldiers. Designed for maximum stealth and protection, the armor only covered areas of importance and was decorated in black and gray camouflage. Atticus' shins and knees were protected by a single piece of armor as were the outsides of his thighs. His chest and stomach were protected with two separate plates, allowing maximum movement without sacrificing protection. The chest piece wrapped his torso and covered his upper back. Only his left upper arm had the standard pauldron on it. A short combat knife was magnetically kept in a sheath attached to the pauldron. His right one was missing to prevent limiting his range of motion in combat and he had also ditched the standard helmet. Underneath the main armor was a layer of black, bullet-proof material designed to protect against small-arms fire. A katana was attached to the back of his armor and a pair of automatic-pistols rested in their holsters on either side of his waist.

"When did you get here?" Derrick asked, turning back towards the canyon and placing the binoculars over his eyes again.

"Not that long ago," the blonde said. "I was interested in seeing how well these guys would fare against the Samurai. When I saw that you were here too, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to catch up."

"You still could've said hello," Derrick pointed out. He watched as yet another Samurai fell to the gunfire of the Recovery force, vanishing in a puff of white mist.

Atticus chuckled. "Hello," he said. Derrick rolled his eyes and ignored him. Atticus laughed and sat down next to the older man. "So what brings you, a Templar, all the way out here to our little, wasteland of a world? I don't think it was just to visit, seeing as you didn't even stop by our hideout to catch up. And last time I checked, all seven Princesses were on other worlds."

"One of the Recovery Agents kidnapped the sixth princess," Derrick explained. "You need to get your intel guys to start cracking down on little details like that. In any case, I'm here to make sure she's properly rescued."

"Is that so?" Atticus said thoughtfully. The two of them were quiet for a few minutes as they watched the fight in the canyon start to wind down as both sides rapidly lost their numbers. "Well, you're doing a fine good job at it," he added sarcastically. "Tell me, Derrick. If your duty as a Templar is to protect the Princesses of Heart, then why aren't you in that ship actively trying to rescue her instead of sitting up here, watching the fireworks and eating canned vegetables?" He gestured at the two open tin cans filled with peas and corn resting on the ground next to Derrick.

"The Templar Law forbids me from direct contact with the Princess unless absolutely necessary," Derrick explained. "So I can't go breaking in there in an attempt to break her out."

"You should be nominated for Templar Employee of the Month," Atticus said. "I'm pretty sure having her captured by a group of dangerous soldiers is cause for a little concern. You know, making it 'absolutely necessary'?"

"Normally, it would be," Derrick said calmly. Atticus tilted his head to the side slightly. This was the one thing he hated about conversations with this man. He kept bouncing back and forth from being upfront and professional to being cryptic or choosing his words in a way that made Atticus want to tear his own hair out.

"Would you care to explain?" The blond asked, finally sitting down next to Derrick.

"It would seem that the sixth is in a romantic relationship with the Keyblade's Chosen One."

Atticus' mouth dropped open slightly. "The Keyblade's Chosen One?" Derrick nodded. "You're being serious?"

"Of course I'm serious," the older man said, watching as a guard was felled by a Samurai. "I wouldn't joke about something like that."

"How do you know he's the Chosen One?" Atticus asked, taking a drink from a small silver flask he had produced. "From what you've told me, there've been hundreds of 'Chosen Ones' before. Hell, one of them even started the Keyblade War! What makes him any different?"

"I just know," Derrick said, accepting the flask from Atticus as the blond passed it to him.

"Well, I'm convinced," Atticus said with a groan as he laid down on his back. "But then again, you've never steered me wrong before. So, if you say he's the Chosen One, then he's the Chosen One. But that doesn't explain where your confidence comes from. Just because the Chosen One is destined to stop the Infinite Night, doesn't mean he can do more than that."

"I have the utmost confidence in him," Derrick said. "He's just like his father. He'll go to any lengths to rescue the person closest to his heart."

"Hold up a sec," Atticus sat up and stared at Derrick, who still stared down at the dwindling battle below. "You know the kid's father?"

Derrick smiled slyly and turned to look at Atticus, shaking the bangs of his spiky, gravity-defying, caramel-colored hair out of his eyes. "Something like that."

_LD_

_Hallway Outside Bridge_

_Hang 'Em High_

"_When you wish upon a star…"_

"How much longer do we have to listen to this?" Nanaki grumbled.

"_I will kill you, near or far."_

"Please, for the last time, stop singing," Roxas pleaded to Richard as the three teens, closely followed by the undead warlock, who looked slightly put out, rounded yet another corner on their way to the bridge.

"Oh fine," he grumbled. "Some people just have no appreciation for my immense musical talent. I have composed many successful operas all on my own, you know."

"I doubt it," Naminé said.

"Now you're just being mean," Richard muttered, poking the side of her head with one long finger before looking up at the scene in front of them. The doors to the bridge had been torn completely out of the frame. One lay, crumpled off to the side while the other was lying amongst a pile of wreckage inside the bridge. The entirety of the bridge looked like a tornado had blown threw it.

Workstations that were supposed to be anchored to the floor had been torn up and thrown around. Sparks flared up from the wreckage of several pieces of equipment. Glass shards from overhead displays lay around the floor. Shell casings from bullets were scattered among the glass. Bullet holes were torn into several of the walls. Deep black burn marks dotted the floor and walls in some places. A low whistle came from a breeze outside as it entered through the shattered sections of the viewport, causing several loose papers to dance around the room.

Naminé fought back the urge to gag. The stench of Darkness flooded every corner of the room. It was almost unbearable. Her eyes strayed to the numerous claw marks across the walls and work benches and her thoughts immediately jumped to the possibility of Heartless. But they weren't like the claw marks she had seen any Heartless leave behind. These claws seemed thicker, which wasn't a comforting thought. All of that, combined with the large hole in the middle of the floor that led to a lower level filled Naminé with a feeling that was a cross between nausea and dread.

"I like the ambience here," Richard said, striding into the bridge. "Chaotic, battle-worn. My kind of interior decorating." He placed his hands on his hips and glanced around cheerfully. "Look! It even comes with a blood-covered body!" Nanaki let out a grunt of disinterest and slumped down against the closest wall, looking paler than before. Richard's words however had piqued Roxas' and Naminé's curiosity. They looked around to where Richard was standing pondering the body he had mentioned.

"Kairi!" Naminé and Roxas cried out in unison as they caught sight of a mess of auburn-hair. They rushed over to her, shoving Richard aside. She was lying face down in a pool of what appeared to be her own blood. A bullet hole was clearly visible in her right shoulder. She wasn't moving.

"Kairi, speak to me!" Naminé whispered frantically as Roxas checked for a pulse. There was so much blood. Tears were burning behind her eyes already, threatening to spill down her cheeks. "Come on, Kairi. Wake up!"

"I've got a pulse," Roxas said in relief. "It's faint but it's there." He kneeled next to Naminé and turned Kairi slightly in the blonde's arms. "The bullet went straight through her." Roxas said. "I don't know how long she's been like this, but if we don't hurry, she could die." Naminé's face blanched. The thought of losing Kairi, her Somebody. No, her sister, was unbearable.

"Would you like me to say a few words?" Richard asked. Naminé and Roxas both glared at him.

"No!" They snapped.

"Where the hell is Sora?" Roxas grumbled as he fished two Hi Potions out of his pants. "He's the only one who knows Cura-"

A loud explosion from nearby cut off the rest of his words as a black object came sailing into the bridge from the hall, closely followed by Recovery Seven. Attached to Seven's right arm was large, circular device that sparked occasionally with a bolt of red electricity. Seven pointed his arm at the object and activated the firing mechanism. With a dull thud, an orb of compressed, red lightning shot towards the object and exploded the instant it made impact, throwing up a thick cloud of dust.

Roxas quickly stood up and summoned his Keyblades to his hands. Seven seemed unaware that there were others on the bridge. His cracked visor was directed towards the settling cloud of dust. To Roxas and Naminé's astonishment, Sora stepped out of the dust, unharmed, but completely covered in Darkness. Sora growled at Seven.

"Sora?" Roxas said in slight shock. Sora turned his head to look at Roxas, fixating his unblinking yellow eyes on him and growled menacingly. Naminé stared up at the spiky-haired teen, her mouth agape.

"What happened to him?" She asked. "Sora! Kairi's hurt! Snap out of it!" Sora turned his gaze on her and she fell quiet. He snorted and looked back up at Seven as the Recovery Agent threw a punch at his head. Sora sidestepped the blow and slashed Seven in the side with his claws, tearing through the armor and into flesh. Seven let out a growl of frustration and kicked Sora in the stomach. Sora rolled with the blow and came up on his feet. He lunged past Seven and struck the man hard between the shoulder blades. Seven spun around and punched at Sora's head again.

Sora grabbed Seven's wrist with his right hand while his left shot up to Seven's throat, clutching a gleaming medal object. Seven's eyes widened in shock as Sora pressed the item to his throat. He hadn't even seen the kid grab hold of his gun. Sora grinned nastily at him for the fraction of a second before he pulled the trigger.

Roxas, Naminé and Nanaki watched in horror as the bullet tore through Seven's throat and blood splattered across Sora's face. Seven couldn't even cry out in pain. That one bullet had shredded his vocal chords. Sora released Seven's wrist and grabbed him by the front of his armor to slam him into the ground. Seven tried to sit back up only to have Sora's foot slam down on his chest holding him down as he aimed the pistol again. Seven more shots rang out as Sora emptied the clip into Seven's throat. Seven's body fell limp and Sora tossed the gun aside.

"Bravo!" Richard cheered. "Simply splendid! Encore!" Sora ignored him and picked up Seven with both hands. He lifted him high enough so that the Agent's toes barely touched the ground before he turned and hurled his body out of the viewport. Everyone watched as Seven's body vanished into the darkness of the night outside before they looked nervously at Sora.

"Sora?" Naminé called out. Sora's head whipped around and focused his gaze on Naminé. "It's okay, Sora. The fight's over. Kairi's safe." Sora stared at her silently. Roxas swallowed hard as he waited for Sora to react in some way. His heart was pounding anxiously in his chest. Sora turned the rest of his body so he was facing them. For the briefest of moments his eyes turned blue and he opened his mouth.

"Run!" He rasped. "Take Kairi and go befo-" His eyes turned yellow once again and his sentence ended abruptly. His yellow eyes looked from Kairi's bloodstained form to Roxas with his weapons drawn. Roxas silently cursed himself as he realized that Sora now saw him as a threat.

"Oh no."

Sora let out a roar and lunged at Roxas, razor sharp, blood covered claws outstretched towards the former Nobody's throat.

_LD_

* * *

_There you have it. Another cliffhanger. What can I say? I love cliffhangers.  
_

_A new poll is up on my profile page, for those of you who haven't seen it. The cake is..._

_If you'll recall, I had a little contest going on with the last chapter to see who could figure out who Naminé's summon was. Johan Oresso, hydra , and Shire Folk all correctly guessed it. Naminé's new summon is... Richard from Looking For Group! Congrats to the winners. I still haven't decided on a prize yet, but when I do, I will let you know. _

_By the way, if you haven't read Looking For Group, go do it. It's worth your time._

_New chapter should be out before Christmas. Hopefully I'll have time to squeeze in a Christmas-themed one-shot while I'm at it. No promises though._

_As always, reviews are welcome._

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons  
_


	28. Anti

_Happy New Year!_

_And a late Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!_

_So yeah. I'm back and one of my resolutions for this year is to actually put out more than one chapter a month. I've been really bad about that lately, haven't I?_

_Has everybody seen the Jump Fiesta Trailer for Dream Drop Distance yet? If you haven't, go look it up on Youtube. It's worth it. More about KH:3D after the chapter because I don't want to keep you waiting._

_Disclaimer: (Insert generic and possibly witty disclaimer here)_

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter Twenty Eight: Anti

_Sunday, June 27__th__, 4794 P.C._

_RGLAC Hang 'Em High Bridge_

_Lynfael_

Sora's claws narrowly missed slicing into Roxas' shoulder as the blond rolled out of the way. Roxas exited the roll on his feet, the Oblivion and Oathkeeper clutched in his hands and ready to strike. Sora growled at the blond. Roxas flourished the Oathkeeper and rested it on his shoulder while he held out the Oblivion towards Sora. He motioned with two fingers towards the Darkness covered teen, encouraging him to attack. Sora growled and pounced towards the blond. Roxas spun as Sora's claws drew nearer and avoided the attack. Before Sora could react, Roxas slammed the hilts of both Keyblades into his back. Sora let out a grunt and collapsed against the ground.

"Roxas, be careful!" Naminé shouted to him. She didn't sound angry, just concerned. She was watching the fight anxiously as she and Nanaki knelt next to Kairi. "Sora's still in there somewhere!" Roxas opened his mouth to respond but was cut off as Sora's foot shot up and struck the bottom of his jaw, forcing the blond to bite his tongue. Roxas stumbled back with a gasp of pain, and spat several droplets of blood out of his mouth. Sora flipped himself back up and stared at Roxas with his unblinking yellow eyes. A low growl emanated from his throat.

Roxas spun his Keyblades around in his hands and charged at Sora with a shout. Sora fell onto all fours and dug his claws into the ground before propelling himself forwards. Roxas slid to a halt and braced himself as Sora barreled towards him. The blond raised the Oathkeeper above his head and brought it down on Sora's head as his dark claws stretched out towards him. Sora hit the ground face first and slid past Roxas. The blond turned to watch his brother force himself back into a standing position and readied his Keyblades. Sora turned to face Roxas and cracked his neck side to side.

Before Roxas could react, Sora became a blur of Darkness that streaked across the room and slammed heavily into him. The blond was torn off his feet and thrown into one of the few workstations still intact. Roxas cried out in pain as his back hit the workstation. His grip slackened on the Oblivion and the obsidian weapon clattered to the ground. He started to fall forward but was instead knocked to the side by a punch thrown by Sora. He hit the ground hard and quickly rolled to his feet, holding the Oathkeeper in a defensive stance with both hands as Sora continued his attack.

"We have to stop this," Naminé said nervously as she watched Sora break past Roxas' guard and slash at the blonds' exposed chest. "Roxas can't fight back against Sora properly."

"Worry about it in a minute," Nanaki said hurriedly. Naminé glanced over at the purple-haired teen. She was digging around in a small bag she had been wearing under her torn cloak and was pulling out several Elixirs and placing them next to Kairi's head. "Right now, we need to do what we can to heal this wound or your sister is going to bleed to death." She gestured down at Kairi's body. Naminé spared Roxas one nervous glance, before nodding in agreement and turning towards her sister and Nanaki.

"What do we have to do?" She asked. In response, Nanaki tossed her an Elixir. Naminé reacted on instinct and grabbed hold of the golden bottle as Nanaki pulled the top off of hers.

"Just repeat what I do," she explained. Naminé watched as she leaned over Kairi, placing one hand on the ground to support her weight as she carefully began to pour the Elixir directly into the wound. The bright yellow liquid sizzled as it touched the bullet hole, steam rising from it as it was absorbed into Kairi's body.

The auburn-haired teen's eyes snapped open suddenly and she let out an earsplitting cry of pain as Nanaki continued to pour the Elixir into the wound. Nanaki winced but didn't falter. She had to make sure to get as much of the Elixir into the wound as possible.

"Aren't you supposed to drink potions like this?" Naminé asked nervously.

"Under normal circumstances, yes," she said as calmly as she could, but her voice still shook. "But with wounds like this, it's better to apply directly. The nice thing about Elixirs is that it enters the bloodstream one way or the other, so it's generally faster to just pour it into the wound like I am now."

Roxas twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding Sora's claws when Kairi's cry pierced through the air. Sora flinched back away from Roxas and turned his head around to look at Kairi. He let out a whimper that turned into a growl as he realized that Nanaki was the reason Kairi was crying out. Roxas' eyes widened slightly as he realized that he was no longer Sora's focus. The Darkness-covered teen turned towards the three girls and fell onto all fours, preparing to charge across the room.

Kairi's cry of pain died down as the last of the Elixir in Nanaki's bottle dripped onto the bullet wound, becoming a barely audible groan as she stared up at Nanaki. The purple haired teen smiled kindly at her and backed off, tossing the empty Elixir bottle aside. Nanaki placed her hand over the wound and cast a Cura spell on Kairi. Kairi's eyes squeezed shut as a wave of pain racked her body.

"Oh no you don't!" Roxas shouted at Sora. He aimed the Oathkeeper at Sora's back and created a swirling orb of bright Light on its tip. Sora glanced behind him and Roxas fired the orb off of the Oathkeeper like a gun. The kickback lifted Roxas off of his feet and propelled him backwards through the air and into a conveniently placed chair. The orb of light crashed into Sora and exploded violently, blasting him across the room and into the hallway leading away from the bridge, narrowly avoiding Richard as he flew past.

"I can understand it if you don't like me," Richard called over to Roxas, "Most people don't. But is it really necessary to throw things? That's just childish."

"How about you help me instead of just standing there?" Roxas snapped at the warlock.

"Technically, I'm sitting," Richard pointed out, gesturing to the chair he had fashioned for himself out of the wreckage of the bridge, without even using a single piece of an actual chair, Roxas noted. "And it why interrupt a good show? I'm enjoying this. The dark one is behind you, by the way." Roxas spun around and was greeted by Sora's foot, which slammed into his chest and kicked Roxas into the front viewport of the bridge. The glass shattered and Roxas found himself tumbling to the main body of the ship a good fifty feet below. He landed hard and rolled for several yards before coming to a stop.

He let out a low groan and forced himself back to his feet. Twinges of pain shot through his ribs and up his back with every movement and the cut on his cheek was bleeding again. "Damn it," he muttered under his breath as he called his Keyblades back to his hands. He looked back up at the bridge in time to see the dark form of Sora leap down after him. With a grumble of irritation, Roxas hefted his Keyblades and prepared for Sora's next attack.

The Darkness covered teen landed heavily several yards away from Roxas, leaving a considerable sized dent in the hull of the ship. Sora didn't seem to notice, however. His faintly glowing yellow eyes were fixated on Roxas.

"Sora," Roxas said, taking extra care to make sure his tone was calm and even. "I know you're in there. You need to stop this. Kairi's safe. This fighting isn't getting us anywhere. So can you please stop?" Sora growled and pounced towards Roxas. The blond groaned in frustration and ducked under his brother. Sora sailed inches over Roxas' head and slammed into the hull of the ship a few feet behind him.

"I'll take that as a no."

_LD_

Sora let out a roar of frustration and collapsed to the stained glass platform beneath him. Try as he might, he couldn't break his way back through his own Darkness. He stared down beneath him at the image of himself sleeping with the Kingdom Key in hand. The platform looked different from the last time Sora had seen it when he had fought Roxas in the World That Never Was.

The four circles that had featured the images of Kairi, Riku, Donald and Goofy had increased, and the images of the four had changed. Kairi and Riku's circles now displayed them with their current looks, not the ones Sora had seen them in before he had first started wielding the Keyblade. Kairi's circle itself had changed shape, becoming a heart that glowed faintly, making it stand out against the rest of the platform.

Donald and Goofy still looked the same, except their expressions were less serious and both had huge grins on their faces

Three new circles had formed along the edge of the others. One contained the image of Roxas, who had a smug smirk on his face, and another showed Naminé smiling softly. The third was faded, the only part of the platform that wasn't lit and clearly visible at all.

Sora frowned as he stared at the dimmed circle. He could vaguely make out the silhouette of a girl, but any defining features were lost to him. He let out a sigh and stared up at the murky Darkness that surrounded the platform as he tried to think of a way to take control of his body back.

"Let me out of here!" He shouted in frustration. His voice echoed all around him for several moments. "This is my body, don't I get a say?"

"No."

Sora nearly jumped out of his skin. The last thing he had been expecting was an actual response. He looked around for the source of the voice, but he was all alone.

"Hello?" Sora called out into the Darkness. "I know you're there."

"Of course I'm here. Where else would I be?"

"How should I know?" Sora asked. "I'm not even completely sure where 'here' is."

"We are in your heart." The voice seemed slightly annoyed at the fact that Sora hadn't figured it out. "Well, not your physical one, anyway, your spiritual one. The one the Heartless seek to claim."

"And why are we in my heart?" Sora asked, looking around for the source of the voice. "But more importantly who are you?" As the question left his lips, tendrils of smoke-like Darkness seeped onto the platform of Sora's heart, twisting around as it took on a humanoid shape. Sora watched in interest as the Darkness parted and he stared at the source of the voice.

The person standing opposite of him now looked, more or less, exactly like him. The only noticeable differences were the other person's hair was jet black, even darker than the Darkness surrounding the platform. His skin was so much paler than Sora's it seemed to glow and his eyes were a vibrant golden-yellow. He wore a simple black robe that was open in the middle, revealing his chest and notably more muscular build. The boy smirked at Sora.

"I am you," he said in a complacent tone. "Well, not all of you. I'm your Darkness personified."

"You're my Darkness?" Sora repeated.

"The sentient part," the other replied. "I wasn't even that before today. So I suppose I should probably thank you." He bowed slightly to Sora. "You can call me, Anti."

"You've lost me," Sora said, eyeing Anti suspiciously.

"What else is Darkness, but hatred or rage?" Anti asked. "When that dude in the white armor kidnapped Kairi, your anger began to grow. When he shot her, you developed an instant hatred towards the man and wanted nothing more than to tear his worthless heart out and grind it under your heel. Or am I wrong?" Sora remained silent. He couldn't deny it, even though he wanted to. When he had heard the gun fire, seen Kairi fall and watched as her blood pooled around her, he was overtaken with bloodlust. He had never felt anything like it before. He had never wanted to kill anything. Ever. But then, he had blacked out, and woken up on the platform he stood on now.

"No. Of course I'm not wrong," Anti said. "I do reside in your heart, after all. You can't hide anything from me. I know everything there is to know about you. Would you like to know your greatest weakness?" Sora didn't say anything. He simply stared at Anti as he grinned sinisterly at Sora. "It's her." He pointed to the image of Kairi's face on the platform. "Ironic, isn't it? That a pure Light can create such a powerful Darkness? Your love and devotion to her is what created me, Sora. That love and devotion took the form of Darkness when she was shot. And here we are."

"So you're controlling my body," Sora concluded. The fingers on his right hand twitched, guided by the natural instinct to summon his Keyblade to his hands. Anti shrugged.

"Yes and no," he said. "I'm divided from myself. I am the spiritual representation of your Darkness while your Anti-Drive, your physical Darkness, has control of your body. Although your Anti-Drive is much stronger than it used to be. Another wonderful side affect of your love, if I might add. I would be in complete control your Anti-Drive hadn't taken form before I became sentient enough to be in control. But don't worry. When your Anti-Drive deactivates and you regain control, I will become whole again. And the next time you drive into your Anti-Drive, it will be me in control." Anti smirked at Sora.

"So all I have to do is avoid Driving into my Anti-form?" Sora asked. Anti's smirk vanished. "Easy enough."

"Such confidence," Anti said, he's casual tone vanishing in an instant. "But avoiding driving into Anti-form isn't enough. As time passes, your Darkness will grow stronger. I will grow stronger." He and Sora were glaring at each other now, slowly beginning to circle one another. "In due time, it won't matter if you stop Driving all together. I will be able to take over whenever I please." His smirk returned and he glanced around at the Darkness around them.

"And I will use the Keyblade to tear down the worlds. Casting them one by one into Darkness. No one will stop me. Not your friends. Not Maleficent. Not even Xehanort. And I'll do it all in your name," Anti grinned evilly at Sora. "Maybe I'll even make your Princess my personal slave. How does that sound?"

Sora practically bit his tongue off to hold back a retort. It was obvious that Anti was trying to fuel Sora's anger, and Sora had a hard time holding it back. The worst part was he was succeeding. _Easy, Sora._ He told himself. _Deep breaths. There's nothing to worry about. This is your heart. Not his. He can't actually do anything he says. He's all talk right now. Just stay calm and think rationally._

Anti laughed a cold, cruel sound that caused Sora's hair to stand on end. "All talk am I?" Sora's eyes widened in surprise. How could Anti have heard what he was thinking? "How about I give you a taste of what I'm capable of, even in my current state." Anti held out a hand in front of him and a large flash of purple flame tinged with black cast a ghostly light across his face for a moment.

The flames died, revealing a Keyblade in Anti's hand. The teeth and head were black with a red outline and possessed a round, cog-like shape. The handle was red and the guard had the same coloration and cog-like shape as the teeth. The shaft was primarily colored in shades of grey and sports a copper-colored gear in the center, with two black chains wrapped around it. Two more chains were wrapped around the base of the shaft in a similar fashion. It also had two blue, reptilian eyes, one in the head of the blade and one embedded in the hilt. Its Keychain was comprised of three small, copper gears and ended in a charm resembling two halves of a gear arranged in an S-shape.

"Tell me, Sora," Anti said with a sadistic grin spreading across his face, "are you prepared to die?"

Sora took a deep breath in to calm himself. He wanted to be angry at Anti, but at the same time, he knew that anger would only fuel him. So he had to remain calm at all costs. A bright light lit up in his right hand as he summoned the Kingdom Key into existence. "I'm not going to die," Sora declared. "But now that you've told me what you have planned, I'm not going to just lie down and let you take control of my body either."

Anti shrugged and fell into a fighting stance that reminded Sora of how Riku looked when he fought by holding his weapon in one hand up by the side of his head. "Have it your way then," Anti said. Sora's grip tightened on the Kingdom Key and with a cry, he darted towards Anti. He threw the Keyblade ahead of him and it went spinning rapidly towards Anti. The embodiment of Sora's Darkness smirked and countered with a slash from his own Keyblade. The Kingdom Key was sent clattering across the platform before vanishing in a flash of light.

Anti looked up and saw Sora less than a foot from him, throwing a punch towards his face. Anti leapt back, just beyond Sora's reach. "Is that all you've got?" The momentum from Sora's punch caused him to spin around as he missed and Anti laughed. "You look ridic-" He never got to finish his insult as Sora's momentum brought him back around as the Kingdom Key appeared in his hand again. Anti's golden-yellow eyes went wide with shock as the Keyblade bashed him on the side of the head and sent him flying across the platform.

"You were saying?" Sora said with a grin as Anti slammed into the platform. Anti let out a snort of frustration and leapt back to his feet. Darkness swirled around his free hand, quickly forming a swirling orb which Anti flung at Sora. Sora swung the Kingdom Key like a baseball bat at the right moment before the orb could strike him. Anti smirked as his own attack shot back at him. He leaned to the side and the orb of Darkness sailed off into the gloom, vanishing quickly. He leapt high above the stained glass platform and swung his Keyblade behind his head.

"Too slow!" Bolts of purple and black lightning rained down on Sora as Anti swung his Keyblade in a wide arc. A domed shield of pale light covered the spiky-haired teen with barely enough time to shield himself from Anti's onslaught. The lightning hammered against Sora's Reflect spell for several seconds before dissipating in a shower of sparks. Sora dispelled the barrier and as greeted by the cog-like teeth of Anti's Keyblade with no time to react.

Sora cried out in pain and shock as he was sent crashing across the platform. Anti let out a sadistic laugh and casually rested his Keyblade against his shoulder. "You're pathetic," he sounded almost disappointed. "I expected more… well, more. You are the Keyblade's Chosen One, are you not?" Sora clutched at his chest as the pain from the blow Anti had dealt him throbbed violently. "You're hardly putting up a fight." Sora forced himself back to his feet and summoned the Kingdom Key back to his hands.

Anti smirked as Sora charged him with a roar. Sora stabbed at Anti, who easily sidestepped the attack, only to find Sora's free palm inches from his face. Anti's eyes went wide as Sora grinned triumphantly. "Firaga!" A large fireball blasted from Sora's hand and struck Anti on the left side of his face before exploding with enough force to send both Sora and Anti sailing to opposite sides of the platform.

Anti howled in pain, clutching the side of his face as he rolled to a stop toward the center of the platform. A dark cloud of Darkness-tainted smoke rose from the burn. Sora only managed to catch a glimpse of his foe before his own momentum carried his body over the edge of the platform and into the abyss below.

_LD_

"That was an uninspired and disappointing climax," Richard pointed out, gesturing at the broken viewport where Sora had jumped out from in his pursuit of Roxas. "I was hoping for more blood and severed limbs, so I'll give it three bodies out of five."

Naminé and Nanaki paid no attention to the warlock. Their eyes were glued to Kairi, carefully watching her to see if she was going to wake up. It had taken two and a half Elixirs, but the bullet hole in Kairi's shoulder was healed, leaving only a pair of faint oval-shaped scars on both sides of her shoulder. Kairi's breathing had returned to normal and her eyes were closed again.

Naminé was in a state of mild panic. She wasn't sure if Kairi was completely healed or even alright, Sora was being driven by Darkness and fighting Roxas and if her ears weren't lying to her, a large group of soldiers were headed towards the bridge at that moment. There were shouts coming from somewhere beyond the bridge and they were growing louder. Naminé glanced over at Nanaki, who had slumped back against one of the few still standing workstations and breathed a heavy sigh as she listened to the sounds of the approaching soldiers.

"Sounds like we're about to have company," the purple-haired teen said out loud, stating the obvious. "We'd better grab your sister and hightail it out of here 'cause I really don't want to get into another brawl. I'm too tired."

"That won't stop them from chasing us," Naminé pointed out as she stood up. "We'll have to fight them eventually." Nanaki grinned slyly at her.

"Not if we use what resources we have available to us," she said with a wink. Naminé shot her a confused look to which Nanaki replied by tilting her head towards Richard, who had abandoned his chair made from the wreckage of the bridge and was sitting instead on a throne crafted from an odd assortment of body parts. Silently wondering where Richard had found the time and the body parts to make the throne, Naminé gave Nanaki a look that said _You-Can't-Possibly-Be-Serious_. Nanaki only grinned and turned towards the warlock.

"Oh Richard," she called to him in the sweetest tone she could manage. "Would you be a dear and help us?"

"There's that word again," Richard said in a disgruntled tone. "Help. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not exactly the helping kind. Actually, I'm definitely not the helping kind. I'm the slaughtering kind. If you were to ask me to burn down a village, slaughter its people and use their bones as musical instruments, I would do that gladly. But I don't help." He crossed his arms and twisted on his throne so that he was looking away from the two teens with an air of having been insulted.

"Would you help us if it meant you got to fight off a lot of soldiers?" Nanaki asked. "You can kill them if you want. I don't really care." Richard eyed her suspiciously.

"It depends," he said.

"Depends on what?"

"Can I keep their ears?" He asked eagerly. Naminé and Nanaki exchanged confused looks. Neither of them looked entirely sure on how to respond to that.

"Sure?" Nanaki shrugged. "Do I want to know why?"

"Souvenirs," Richard explained as a red, tear-drop shaped crystal with jagged edges formed over his left hand. The soldiers were closer now, and the stern commanding voice of a superior officer could be heard shouting at the others, telling them to kill anyone who wasn't Kairi or Naminé, which only made Nanaki's face grow slightly paler. "So if you'll excuse me…" He turned and strode towards the door, fire forming around his right fist as he went. Naminé watched the doorway nervously; several shadows could be seen in the hall beyond, rapidly growing larger as the soldiers rushed the bridge.

"Come on," Nanaki said to the blonde as she grabbed Kairi from behind and lifted her into the air. "You take her legs and we'll make a break for it while Richard keeps them busy."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but our only exit is blocked," Naminé said, gesturing at Richard as the warlock stood perfectly still in front of the door. "And this is a big ship. We can't exactly climb down the side you know."

Nanaki grinned and set Kairi back down on the floor gently. "Who said anything about climbing?" She reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out a small cube which she immediately dropped. The cube bounced off the floor once and began changing shape in midair. It remained hovering as it flattened itself out until it was the size of a sled, large enough for at least four people onto it. A holographic control panel flared into existence at the front of the sled as a faint blue light pulsated from underneath it.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Nanaki said with a grin as she caught a glimpse of Naminé's slightly stunned look. "It's a Surface Skimmer. I'm not sure how it works, but if you want to outrun a fully-grown Veneschall, there's no better tool."

"What's a Veneschall?" Naminé asked as she and Nanaki loaded Kairi onto the Skimmer.

"Trust me, you don't want to know," Nanaki said with a grimace. She turned back towards Richard who still stood still in the doorway. "You gonna be able to handle them all by yourself, warlock?"

"You clearly don't know me very well," Richard said in a nonchalant tone as the soldiers finally came into view. The fire on his right hand intensified and the crystal blade on his left seemed to glow as he glared intently at the closest soldiers. "Come then, oblivion awaits."

"Everyone onto the Skimmer," Nanaki said in an obviously fake cheerful-tone as Richard began his slaughter. Ignoring the cries and shouts from the soldiers, the purple-haired teen leapt onto the front of the Skimmer remained standing as she began pressing several buttons on the holographic controls. Naminé forced herself to look away as she watched the warlock cut a man in half with his crystal blade. Shuddering, she climbed onto the back of Nanaki's Skimmer and placed Kairi's head in her lap. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

Nanaki placed her left palm against the holographic display over what appeared to be a dial. The display flashed and changed from blue to bright green in color. The anti-gravity generators built into the vehicle flared to life, lifting the Skimmer almost three feet off of the ground. Nanaki slid her goggles down over her eyes and rotated the dial. A small field of domed energy covered the front of the Skimmer as it blasted at full speed towards the front of the bridge.

Naminé let out a small scream an instant before the Skimmer slammed into the wall and tore through it as though it were made of paper. Naminé's scream was drowned out by the rush of wind as the Skimmer sailed out across open air for a moment before it began to descend rapidly towards the top of the _Hang 'Em High_ where Roxas was fighting off Sora. Nanaki let out a whooping laugh as the Skimmer sailed over the two teen boys' heads. Both of them looked up from their fight for a moment to watch as the Skimmer nearly crashed into the hull of the ship, only for its anti-gravity generators to whine as they increased their field output, bringing the Skimmer to a gentle halt two feet above the Gummi plating that protected the _Hang 'Em High_'s innards.

Nanaki let out a wild laugh as she glanced back at Naminé's terrified expression. "You should see the look on your face, Blondie. It's priceless."

"Don't call me 'Blondie'," Naminé said breathlessly as she placed a hand over her heart which was hammering at what felt like a million miles per hour against her ribs. "Could we please not do that again?"

"I refuse to make promises I know I won't keep," Nanaki said with a wink before she looked up at Roxas in time to see the blond bash his brother across the back of his head with the blunt side of the Oathkeeper. "Hey, Roxas!"

Roxas brought the Oathkeeper back down to deflect a swipe from Sora's claws in time while he stabbed at the Darkness-controlled teen with the Oblivion's tip. Sora hissed and leapt back several yards in a single bound, golden-yellow eyes locked onto Roxas' blades. Roxas threw a brief glance over his shoulder at his new purple-haired friend. "What? Can't you see I'm a little busy?" As if on cue, Sora lunged at him, claws outstretched and menacingly sharp. Roxas twisted to avoid the assault at the last second, but not in time to completely dodge the blow. One of Sora's claws tore through the blonds' jacket and left a shallow cut in the center of his back.

Roxas cried out in pain, stumbling forward in surprise before spinning around to kick Sora to the ground before he could react. "Careful with those!" He snapped.

"I'll keep it short then," Nanaki called as Sora's face smashed against the cold metal of the ship's exterior. "I'm going to take Blondie and her sister and get the hell out of Dodge while the warlock holds off the rest of the soldiers for us. Meet us back at your ship!" Roxas vaulted over Sora as the Darkness-controlled teen slid toward him with blinding speed, clearly intending to knock him down and gain the advantage.

"More soldiers?" The blond shouted in surprise as he landed on the other side of his brother. "There were more?"

"Do you see the size of this thing?" Nanaki gestured at the ship below them. "Of course there were more!" At her words, three bodies fell from the bridge in a flash of green light, with smoking holes left behind in place of their faces. Conveniently for Roxas, the bodies managed to land on Sora, knocking the unsuspecting teen to the ground. Sora's golden-yellow eyes rolled around of their own accord for a moment as he struggled to get back up. He shook his head violently back and forth for a few seconds, like a dog shaking water out of its coat. In a split second, he returned to as normal as someone possessed by Darkness could be.

"I'll take your word for it," Roxas called to Nanaki as he charged Sora again. "Get going! I'll nab Sora and meet you guys back at the _Kingdom_!"

"That's the plan!" Nanaki said as she slammed down on the Skimmer's throttle. Naminé spun around to look at Roxas as the three teen girls began to speed away toward the bow of the _Hang 'Em High_.

"Roxas!" the blonde shouted over the roaring that was rapidly forming in her ears. "Don't let Sora give in to the Darkness! Snap him out of it!" Roxas paused in his charge against Sora and flashed a grin so similar to Sora's that it was almost scary. In that one smile, Naminé couldn't help but feel strangely reassured that Roxas didn't intend to fail and let his brother fall to the throes of Oblivion.

She couldn't resist smiling back…

…only for it to be replaced by a scream as Nanaki drove them down the steep slope of the ship's bow. Naminé tightened her grip on Kairi's shoulders instinctively while Nanaki let out wild laugh that was lost to the air roaring past them. The Skimmer, once again, miraculously came to a sudden-yet gentle halt less than two feet above the stone surface of Lynfael before it took off at a breakneck speed towards a chasm leading out of the valley and into a canyon towards where Naminé assumed Sora and Roxas had landed the _Kingdom_ .

However, the Skimmer came to a screeching halt as the three of them rounded the side of the Hang 'Em High's bow to find well over a hundred soldiers blocking their path with weapons trained on the three teens.

_LD_

"Do you still have confidence in the Keyblade's Chosen One?" Atticus asked Derrick as he watched the battle between Roxas and Sora on the top of the _Hang 'Em High_ through a pair of binoculars.

"I do," Derrick replied. Atticus lowered the binoculars and glanced over at his companion. Derrick had lain himself back against a small rock and had his steel-gray eyes fixed on an oddly blank spot in the night-time stars.

"He's being controlled by Darkness," Atticus reminded him. "How can he stop the Infinite Night if he can't even stop the Darkness from controlling him?" Derrick only smiled. Atticus let out a grunt of frustration and jammed the binoculars back over his eyes in time to watch as Sora grabbed Roxas by the shoulder and threw him heavily against the ship below them.

"He is not the first Keyblade Wielder to be controlled by the Darkness within his own heart, nor will be the last," Derrick explained. "He will stop the Infinite Night. I know it."

"You can't know the future," Atticus said, watching as Roxas froze Sora's legs to the ship before whacking him in the gut with the Oblivion. "Even those who claim to can only see possibilities. The future changes constantly and is always under the influence of every decision made by every sentient being across every world. So how can you claim to _know_?"

"Because he is the only Keyblade Wielder to not only become a Heartless, but be saved from the Darkness of the Abyss by the light of one of the Seven Princesses of Heart," Derrick explained. Atticus shot him a slightly confused look. "Born into Light, the Chosen One will selflessly give himself to the Abyss to save another. By the Light of his Princess, he shall be re born through Light once more.

"That is the first part of the Prophecy depicting the one defining aspect of the Chosen One, the part that was passed on in secret to protect his identity through the Templar Order for thousands of years. Out of all the other 'Chosen Ones' that lived up to other parts of the prophecy, only he has ever lived up to that part."

"That doesn't explain why you have complete confidence in him," Atticus grumbled. Derrick laughed.

"And I was worried you weren't the same stubborn teenager I met almost ten years ago in Traverse Town," Derrick said. "After your explanation about how the future works, I was worried you had gone philosophical on me."

"Only in your dreams, old man," Atticus smirked. "Now, are you going to answer my question?"

"Fine, fine, I guess I've beaten around the bush enough," Derrick sighed. "I never said my confidence was only in him." Atticus stared intently at Derrick, waiting for him to elaborate. "I have confidence in Sora because I have confidence in the friends he surrounds himself with. He goes from world to world and no matter where he is or how far out of his element he goes, he always leaves a mark on the hearts of those he meets. What I'm saying is that my confidence in him is the same confidence his friends put into him.

"With that confidence at his back, I have no doubt in my mind that he can overcome any challenge presented to him. So what if the Darkness grips his heart tightly now? With a little help from the right friends, he can easily overcome it."

Atticus was silent; staring at the man he considered both friend and ally. Neither of them spoke as they watched three teenage girls fly out of the front of the bridge on a Lynfael Surface Skimmer, land on the surface of the Hang 'Em High and drive off, down the slope of the ship's bow only to be stopped by over a hundred armed soldiers. "You seem to know a lot about the Chosen One," he said, a hint of curiosity barely noticeable in his tone.

"I keep in touch with a few people he's close to," Derrick said cryptically. Both of them nearly jumped out their skins as something on the older man's waist stared vibrating loudly. Atticus shot him a confused look as Derrick pulled a small silver orb out of a pouch on his waist and held it in his palm. The orb stopped vibrating and pulsed with a green light as it produced a holographic video image. Derrick smirked over at Atticus.

"Speak of the Devil. Long time no see, your Majesty."

_LD_

"Berel's ass," Nanaki muttered in a low curse as she and Naminé stared at the soldiers. "We're screwed."

"What now?" Naminé whispered as she watched the soldiers taking aim at her, Nanaki and Kairi.

"We turn tail and get as far away from here as physically possible as quickly as this thing can carry us," Nanaki replied with a nervous chuckle.

"You do realize there's a ton of guns pointed at us, right?" Naminé said, gesturing at the soldiers. "I'm pretty sure they'd turn us into Swiss cheese before we'd even manage to turn around."

"I'm not worried about the soldiers," Nanaki said. Naminé raised an eyebrow in confusion. Nanaki pointed at large hill that rested between the soldiers and the gap in the canyon wall behind them. Naminé stared at the hill for a moment, unable to see what Nanaki was getting at. It was just a sand covered hill with nothing on it other than seven, blood red oval-shaped stones set into the side of the hill at even intervals.

Then the hill blinked.

Naminé's heart nearly stopped as she watched massive sand-colored eyelids close over stones and slowly open again. "Umm, Nanaki…" She whispered as cold dread began to settle somewhere in her midriff. "I think the ground just blinked at me?"

"As the ever vigilant voice of reason, I feel we should seriously consider dismembering Naminé before her crazy infects us all," Richard said from next to them. Naminé and Nanaki both gave the warlock perplexed looks.

"How long have you been standing there?" Nanaki asked.

"I've been here the whole time," Richard said. "I find it rude that you didn't notice."

"But you weren't-" Nanaki began before Namine cut her off.

"Nanaki! Hill! Blinking!"

"Oh, right," Nanaki swallowed hard and inched her hand closer to a holographic button labeled _'Reverse'_. "Remember when you asked me what a Veneschall was? You're about to find out."

"Hand's behind your heads! Now!" One of the soldiers ordered. "In case you can't tell, we have you surrounded. Give up now! You will be taken into custody!" Behind the soldiers, the Veneschall began to move. Sand poured off of its body as it rose. Naminé eyes slowly followed its eyes as it rose from the ground.

The only thing Naminé could bring herself to concentrate on was the sheer size of the creature. It stood at over a hundred feet tall on eight long legs that were covered with what appeared to be a shell made up of shifting sand. Its body was made up of a large, bulbous thorax that was covered in several plates of the same sandy shell protecting its legs. Two short arms protruded from the sides of its abdomen, each one tipped with numerous, razor sharp claws. Its head rested at the end of a long, neck that twisted and writhed of its own accord as it stared down at the soldiers beneath it. Its mouth was filled with several rows of foot-long, rotating, razor-sharp teeth. Sand poured from the beasts' maw like drool and dripped onto the shoulder of the man shouting orders at Naminé and Nanaki. The soldier looked down at the sand on his shoulder and turned to look up into the glowing red eyes of the Veneschall. "What the fu-!" His words were drowned out as the Veneschall opened its jaws wider and let out a deafening screech. Naminé's hands flew to her ears as the creature's shrill cry echoed loudly for several agonizingly long seconds. In her lap, Kairi's violet-blue eyes snapped open and she quickly clapped her hands over her ears.

"Do you believe me now?" Naminé shouted at Richard, who seemed to be the only one unaffected by the Veneschall's screech.

"Perhaps," Richard said in a calm tone. "But I am a being of conviction. I stand by my previous decision."

"What is that?" Kairi cried out, her voice almost inaudible over the Veneschall. All around them, soldiers fell to their knees in pain, dropping their weapons to protect their hearing with their freed hands.

"Veneschall!" Nanaki shouted. "Let's get the hell out of here before-" The Skimmer's holographic console flickered suddenly and without warning before vanishing all together. Nanaki stared at the place where the panel had been in disbelief before the Skimmer shuddered violently and folded itself back into its portable cube-shape. The three girls all let out grunts as they fell to the ground. "Well, shit."

The air was quickly filled with the steady sounds of weapons being fired as the soldiers reclaimed their weapons and turned their attention onto beast towering over them. Their weapons didn't seem to do anything other than alert the Veneschall to their feeble attempts to kill it. It let out a growl and raised one of its legs, thick as tree trunks, and brought it down on a trio of soldiers, crushing them effortlessly.

"Ow," Kairi grumbled as she stood up groggily. "What is that thing?"

"Veneschall," Nanaki said hurriedly as she scooped her Skimmer back up and attached it to her belt. "We need to get out of here! Follow me!" Nanaki turned and ran a total of three long strides before she came to a halt as a thought occurred to her. She turned around and looked back at Kairi. "You can't run, can you?" Kairi shrugged and flinched violently as the Veneschall let out another shriek. The three girls glanced back in time to watch the creature's neck whip around, knocking at least fifteen soldiers on their backsides before it swallowed seven men whole.

"I think I can," Kairi said as she and Naminé began running at a pace too slow for Nanaki's liking. "It's not like I have much choice, do I? I don't think being eaten is fun!"

The set up was almost too perfect and Nanaki couldn't resist, despite the situation they were in. "Depends on the guy that's doing the eating, kiddo!" She added with a sly grin. She let out a laugh as both Kairi's and Naminé's faces turned beet-red.

"What the hell is that thing?" Roxas asked as he slid down next to them off of the bow of the ship.

"Veneschall!" Nanaki shouted. Said creature let out a loud screech as the soldiers continued to fight it in vain. "I told you that you didn't want to know what an adult one looked like."

Roxas' eyes bulged. "No kidding. That's a Veneschall?" He threw a quick glance over his shoulder at the beast. "Mother of God! That thing's huge! Is it made of sand?"

"I wonder what would happen if I tried to burn it with the full power of the sun…" Richard pondered to himself out loud. The others ignored him.

"It'll take too long to explain. But long story short, yes," Nanaki said loudly over another screech. "You can't hurt those things." Behind them, Richard raised his hands, both of which were now on fire and shot twin bolts of fiery energy at the Veneschall with a loud _fwoosh_.

"Then what do we do?" Roxas called out nervously.

"Walk up to it and see if it eats you," Richard suggested. The others all fell silent and gave the warlock perplexed looks.

"What will that tell us?" Roxas asked, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.

"That it's hungry," the warlock replied seriously.

Roxas groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Someone please make him stop talking," he asked as they took off running away from the fight between the Veneschall and the Hang 'Em High's soldiers. "Why couldn't the soldiers have killed you?"

"I'm very hard to kill," Richard called back to him as he remained where he was standing. "You can give it a try if you want, though I doubt you'd be any luckier than the countless others who have tried."

"Don't tempt me," Roxas muttered under his breath.

"Who was that guy?" Kairi asked as she threw a glance over her shoulder back at the warlock. "Friend of yours?

Naminé shook her head. "Far from it." Kairi raised an eyebrow at her. "He's a summon I found that decided he didn't want to ever go back into the charm."

"They can do that?"

"Unfortunately," Naminé said before looking to her left at Roxas and catching sight of the blonds' left shoulder. "Roxas! You're bleeding!"

Roxas nodded and spared the four deep scratches a quick glance. "It's nothing too serious, I can still fight."

"Where's Sora?" Kairi asked Roxas. She was already out of breath and looking as if she was going to pass out on her feet. Naminé and Roxas both shot her worried glances.

"Richard blasted him away from me," Roxas explained as the maimed and bloodied body of a Recovery soldier was thrown over their heads with tremendous force. "I didn't see where he went though so be careful."

"You lost me," Kairi said, stumbling a little as she nearly tripped over a large stone jutting out from the ground. "Why should we be careful of Sora? And who's Richard?"

"Richard's the homicidal warlock in the cloak back there," Naminé panted, gesturing with her thumb back towards where the warlock stood, watching as the Veneschall tore apart the last of the soldiers.

"Your summon?" Kairi asked her blonde sister. Naminé nodded in response. "But what about Sora?"

"You're about to get your answer," Roxas said darkly, sliding to a halt as he caught sight of movement above them. In a flash of light, he summoned the Oblivion to his right hand and fell into a fighting stance similar to Sora's.

The others all came to a sudden stop as a black streak fell out of the sky and slammed into the earth in front of them, shattering the ground and leaving a shallow crater. Thick clouds of dust rose from the point of impact. Roxas' eyes narrowed as he tried to get a clear view at his target. A bright flash of orange-ish red light from behind them revealed a dark, human-like shape standing in the center of the crater.

"There you are," Roxas whispered as his grip tightened on the Oblivion in an attempt to stop himself from shaking. Nothing he had done to Sora so far in this battle hadn't even fazed him in the slightest and Roxas was coming close to reaching his limit. He didn't know how much longer he could keep it up. Especially now that Kairi was awake and he didn't know how she'd react. "You ready to finish this, Sora?"

From within the fading cloud of dust, Sora answered with a low growl.

Kairi felt her heart practically come to a stop as the dust settled and Sora came into view. His glowing, yellow eyes were fixed on her. His obsidian claws glittered under the pale moonlight. "S-Sora?" She whispered. Sora growled.

"You guys keep going," Roxas said gravely. He turned back around to look at Naminé. "Follow Nanaki to the ship, she knows where it is. If I'm not there after ten minutes, then take off." Naminé nodded and opened her mouth to speak, only for her words to become a cry of surprise and worry as Sora suddenly appeared next to Roxas in a dark blur.

Roxas turned back around and let out a shout as he found Sora's face inches from his own. Sora let out a roar and before Roxas could even bring the Oblivion up to defend himself he head-butted the blond with enough force to knock him back several feet. Roxas slammed into the ground and came to rest, unconscious, at Naminé's feet.

"Roxas!" Naminé dropped to her knees by Roxas' side and gently cupped the side of his face as she tried to wake him up. "Wake up, Roxas. Come on!" She shook him as hard as she dared. Her eyes focused on Roxas' forehead. A large gash was leaking a large amount of blood from where Sora's head had made contact with Roxas'. Naminé immediately cast Cure on it before looking up to see where Sora was.

She saw Nanaki standing between where Sora had been standing and where Naminé now knelt with Roxas. The Keeper's Crest reflected the moonlight brightly off of its lavender blade. Naminé leaned to the side to peer around Nanaki and spotted Sora. He stood exactly where he had been when he had knocked Roxas out, and to the blonde's surprise, Kairi stood in front of him. Fear rippled through Naminé as dozens of different scenarios of what could happen to Kairi played themselves out in her head in less than a second, and none of them ended well.

"Sora," Kairi said gently as she took a step towards the Darkness-controlled teen. A deep rumble emanated from within Sora's chest, a subtle growl. Kairi stretched a hand out towards him. "You need to stop. Please. Come back to me." Naminé and Nanaki watched the exchange with fascination. Sora allowed Kairi to place her hand over his heart before he finally reacted.

A blood-curdling roar left his throat and he raised a single clawed hand above his head, poised to strike. Nanaki pounced, yelling a wild battle cry as she sprinted towards Kairi and Sora. Kairi's hand never left Sora's chest, even as he began to swing his claws back down towards her.

"You're not him," Kairi said, a hint of anger in her voice. "You're not my Sora. Give him back." Sora's claws were less than an inch from Kairi's throat when a bright flash of blinding-white light flared up between the two of them. Naminé and Nanaki both cried out in shock as the light continued to intensify, making it impossible to see Kairi and Sora.

_LD_

Sora breathed a sigh of relief as he stared down at the dark void below his dangling feet. As he had tumbled over the edge of the stained glass platform, Sora had stabbed the Kingdom Key into its side at the last second, allowing him to hang from the side of the platform by both arms. Somewhere out of his sight, he could hear Anti groaning in pain. Sora grinned smugly and with a grunt of effort, pulled himself up onto the Kingdom Key so that he was standing on it rather than hanging off of it.

Using the Keyblade as a springboard, Sora leapt up into the air and grasped the edge of the platform. "Had enough, you arrogant prick?" He asked Anti as he pulled himself up onto the platform. "Or do I still need to beat some sense into you?"

"Neither," Anti growled from somewhere out of sight. Sora got to his feet and called the Kingdom Key back to his hand in flash of light as he walked towards the center of the platform. The sound of rushing air filled his ears as Anti materialized out of nowhere inches away from him. Sora's eyes went wide as Anti's hand grasped him by the throat and hoisted him into the air. Sora gasped, struggling to breathe as Anti slowly tightened his grip.

"Do you know what you are?" Anti asked, sneering up at the spiky haired teen as Sora dropped his Keyblade. "You're worthless and weak. That's all you've ever been and that's all you'll ever be. Weaklings like you don't deserve the powers they've been given. Only strong people like me deserve that power: people who will use that power to shape the worlds in their image and bring about a perfect paradise."

"That doesn't sound like paradise," Sora managed to grunt out through gritted teeth. "That sounds like Hell."

"It's paradise to me," Anti said with a smirk as he tightened his grip further, making it impossible for Sora to make any sounds. "But you won't be around to see it. Such a shame."

"Neither will you!"

Anti and Sora both gave a start as a female voice reached their ears. Anti looked around and was greeted by the 'teeth' of the Kingdom Key less than a foot from his head. He was forced to drop Sora to the ground as he ducked under the blade. Sora collapsed to his knees, coughing violently as he drew in breath. He looked up and to his amazement; Anti was being driven back by someone who looked similar to Kairi.

She was dressed in a black cloak identical to the ones worn by the former Organization XIII. Her facial structure and hairstyle were extremely similar to how Kairi had looked before the Islands had been lost to Darkness and Sora had set out on his first journey. The only noticeable differences were that this girl's hair was jet black and styled only slightly different and her skin was slightly paler than Kairi's had ever been. Clutched in her left hand was the Kingdom Key, which she swung with astounding speed and skill at Anti, who was being driven further and further back from where Sora was kneeling on the ground.

"Annoying bitch," Anti snarled as he summoned his gear-like Keyblade back to him. "I thought I had taken care of you!"

The black-haired girl said nothing as she leapt over Anti and stabbed at his shoulder in midair. Anti blocked the attack with the flat of his blade and rolled to the side as the girl landed and spun around to continue her attack. Sora was terribly confused. He could understand Anti being there, because he looked like Sora and represented his Darkness, but he couldn't comprehend who the girl was or why she was in his heart.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt someone else place a hand on his shoulder. Sora's jaw dropped open in surprise as he looked around to see who was touching him. A grinning, spiky-haired blond teen stared back. "Roxas?" Sora exclaimed. "But how? I thought you had your own body now." Then it occurred to Sora, that while this boy looked like Roxas, there were several noticeable differences.

The blond was dressed in clothes similar to the ones Roxas wore. His jacked was white on the right and black on the left. The collar of the jacket was red and pleated. Underneath this, he wore what appeared to be a grey vest with a single button and several white, angular patterns decorating it. Beneath that, he wore a plain, high-necked, black shirt. A chunk of dull green and grey armor on his midsection was visible under his vest, and he had yet another piece of the armor on his left shoulder, though neither seemed to provide adequate protection and seemed pointless. A pair of crisscrossing leather straps met in the center of his chest where a heart-like silver emblem shone brightly. His pants were similar to Roxas' only the boy's pants ballooned outward slightly before narrowing down about halfway down his calves. His boots were an oddity themselves, as they looked like an armored version of normal street shoes.

Like the black-haired girl fighting Anti, the boy clutched a Keyblade in his hand, although he held it with a reverse grip unlike how most people would wield a sword and the Keyblade clearly had been designed for that style. The black handle was offset from the Keyblade as opposed to being aligned with it, and the guard is equally misaligned. The guard was a dull gold color and joined with the shaft of the Keyblade to fully enclose the handle. The shaft was grey, thin, and had a very slight curve outward and was surprisingly short in overall length. There are three thin, dull gold lines that decorate the middle of the shaft. Two short bars connect the main blade to the 'teeth'. The 'teeth' themselves were grey like the blade and had a curved, wing-like shape. They were comprised by five curved bars that decreased in size the lower they were on the Keyblade. The Keychain sported a green gem with two silver feathers spiraling around it.

"No, I'm not Roxas, but good guess," the blond said with a grin that was uncannily like Sora's.

"Then who are you?" Sora asked as he got back to his feet. "And what are you doing here?"

"We're here to make sure you stay in control," the blond said. "So you need to get out of here. We can handle Dark-boy over there, so don't sweat it."

Sora glanced over at Anti as he deflected the girl's next attack and landed a punch in the small of her back, sending her tumbling away from him. He looked back at the blond who was staring intently at Sora. "That still doesn't tell me who you two are," Sora pointed out.

The blonde smiled and stepped away from Sora and towards the fight. "Just think about that letter the King wrote you. If it doesn't come to you, you could always just ask him," he replied cryptically. Sora's brow furrowed in confusion as a blue-tinted light began to surround him. "But you've spent too much time with your Darkness, right? Go spend some time with your Light." The light intensified around Sora, making it impossible for him to see anything. From somewhere nearby, Sora heard Anti's defiant shout which was quickly silenced as the sound of rushing air filled his ears.

_LD_

Naminé and Nanaki looked around as the light rapidly faded away. To their amazement Kairi was unharmed and Sora's appearance had returned to normal. Naminé breathed a sigh of relief and turned her attention back to the unconscious Roxas lying next to her. Kairi stared up at Sora as the last of the Darkness visible on the side of his face faded, leaving behind his natural, slightly tanned skin. Sora opened his eyes, once again a brilliant cerulean color rather than the harsh golden-yellow that had been moments before. He blinked several times before his eyes found Kairi's.

"Hey, Kairi," he said hoarsely. He winced in pain as he spoke. His throat felt raw and shredded, like he had been shouting at the top of his lungs all day.

"Hey yourself," Kairi said with a wide smile as she pulled him into a tight embrace. Sora smiled softly and wrapped his arms around her.

"I thought I lost you," he whispered as they held onto each other. Kairi nuzzled her cheek against Sora's chest and pulled away from him just enough to show him that the bullet wound was healed.

"I know," she said. "And it's alright. I'm all better now." Sora smiled widely and leaned in to give Kairi a kiss when Nanaki gave a loud, interruptive cough. Sora and Kairi looked around at the purple-haired teen that had an eyebrow raised at them.

"In case you've forgotten," Nanaki said, directing her words mostly towards Kairi, "there's a Veneschall very close by that would like nothing more than to turn us into dinner. So if you don't want to get eaten, I suggest we high-tail it outta here and get all cozy with one-another later." Sora and Kairi broke apart, their cheeks flaming red.

"There's really a Veneschall nearby?" Sora asked, looking around. "I don't see anything."

"That's because it's on the other side of the ship," Nanaki said. "Now can somebody pick up the blond so we can go before we die? I don't want to become Veneschall chow!"

"I wouldn't worry too much about that thing," Richard added, once again startling everyone by his sudden and unexplained appearance.

"Quit doing that!" Nanaki shouted, clutching at her heart. "And why shouldn't we worry about the Veneschall? They're the most dangerous predator in all of Lynfael."

For an answer, Richard pointed behind him. "Look at what I made!" He explained with a joyous tone. Richard had brought the Veneschall back with him, and the entire thing had been turned to glass. Nanaki's mouth fell open as she stared up at the creature.

"That's a Veneschall?" Sora asked. "It doesn't seem so scary to me."

"You should've seen it before it was turned to glass," Naminé said.

Nanaki opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to come up with something to say before she gave up with a groan of annoyance and started heading in the direction of the _Kingdom_. "Let's just go. I can't wait to get off of this rock," she grumbled before adding under her breath "I can't believe it. I've run away from those things at least twenty times and now some pathological warlock comes and effortlessly kills one. Unbelievable."

Sora grinned and gave Kairi a quick kiss before walking over to where Naminé and Roxas were. "I don't know about you guys, but I've had it with this place." Naminé and Kairi both nodded in agreement and moved to help Sora place Roxas on his back before following Nanaki. Richard however remained behind the others for a few moments as he stared up at the glass Veneschall, trying to find some way to bring it along with them.

"So who's the guy in the cloak?" Sora asked Naminé as they walked away.

"Just trust me," Naminé said with a groan. "You _really_ don't want to know."

_LD_

* * *

_What's that? I didn't end on a cliff-hanger for once? The world must be coming to an end!_

_Well, not really. Unless you believe in that whole December 21st, 2012 bull._

_Anyways, 3D related topic! My brother recently posed an interesting question to me; since Dream Drop Distance is coming out, how do I plan on working with that?_

_I finally have a response. Since Looming Darkness is still in it's infant stage (in my opinion) I can work with some of what 3D will provide me. Mostly for worlds and what-not. But because Looming Darkness and 3D basically take place at the same time, Looming Darkness is officially AU. However, if I can make some canon material presented in future games work into the plot. I will._

_That's it for now. Reviews are welcome. Any artists out there? If you're up for it, I'd like to see some Looming Darkness artwork. Not necessary, but I think it'd be pretty kick-ass. _

_See you all next time!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons_

_P.S. My beta just suggested that I do this because several of her favorite FF authors are doing this, if I made a Facebook page, how many of you would actually join it? I'll probably put this as up a poll. So you can either vote there when it's up, or you can PM me. Or leave it in a review. Anyway, peace!_


	29. Oathbreaker

_Well, here we are again. It's always such a pleasure. Remember when you tried to kill me twice?_

_No? Really? Okay. I can live with that._

_I know what you're thinking: 'Holy crap! He's actually publishing TWO chapters in one month? The world must be coming to an end!' Trust me, I'm almost as shocked as you are._

_ On a completely unrelated note, please go vote in the poll on my profile page.  
_

_Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, blah blah blah. We get it._

_Enjoy!  
_

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Oathbreaker

_Sunday, June 27__th__ 4794 P.C._

_The Castle That Never Was_

_Hall of Empty Melodies_

Keila let her breath out slowly to calm her nerves as she stared across the platform. Charden Flamberg stared back; at least that's what Keila assumed. It was impossible to tell with his round sunglasses hiding his eyes. She drew in another breath and quickly analyzed her opponent. Charden held himself with a sense of casual serenity, only occasionally breaking it to adjust the silk top hat on his head.

"I'll ask once more," Charden said in a calm tone, "are you sure you wish to do this?"

Keila held out her hand in response. In a flash of purple light, her new Keyblade appeared. The Darker Than Dark had a pink handle and a rectangular, lilac guard with long spikes on each of its corners. The long blade was dark purple with concave edges. It was decorated by two indigo diamonds, and ended in a spike resembling those on the Nobody symbol. The lilac-colored 'teeth' were shaped like a large, hollowed-out arrowhead with a parallel pink spike in the center that attached the 'teeth to the actual blade. The Keychain was a diamond that vaguely resembled the Keyblade's 'teeth'.

Keila examined the blade briefly with a small smile. She had found the Keychain in the room Maleficent had given her in the castle and after she had attached it to her Keyblade, she had instantly been drawn to it, despite its 'girl-ish colors'. Its sharp, angular edges gave it a slightly sinister appearance and something inside her told her that it was more than twice as powerful as her Inverse Kingdom Key. 'Wielders Intuition', as her mother had often described it, was the instinct all Keyblade Wielders possessed. It heightened their senses, physical, magical, and spiritual. It was how Wielders were able to find stronger weapons to use in combat during the old days, or so her mother had said.

Not that any of that really mattered to Keila. She just wanted to maximize her full potential and in her mind, she needed the most powerful Keyblade she could get her hands on to achieve that goal. The Darker Than Dark was a step in the right direction. Keila tightened her grip around the handle and swung the Keyblade over her head in a flourish before falling into a fighting stance.

"Ready when you are," she said. Charden smiled at her.

"Very well then," he turned to look up at one of the platforms higher in the room where Kyoko leaned against the railing, watching the pair below. "Kyoko, please time us for three minutes." The black-haired girl grinned widely and pulled out her cell phone to check the time.

"You got it, Charden!" She called down cheerily. "Begin in… three!" Charden reached inside his black overcoat and produced an ornately decorated dagger. "Two!" With his teeth, Charden pulled off the glove from his white hand and let it fall to the floor. "One!" Quick as lightning, Charden slashed at his exposed right palm with the dagger, leaving a deep cut in his flesh. He put the dagger away and smiled up at Keila as his blood flowed onto the floor faster than it should have. "GO!"

Keila sprinted towards Charden as Kyoko signaled the start of the match. In less than two seconds, she had closed more than half the distance between the two of them. Keila smirked smugly as she drew nearer and nearer to the man. Their agreement was, if Keila could land a single blow anywhere on Charden's body, she would win. When Charden had first proposed the rule, Keila had felt insulted and she had yelled at him for a good five minutes, in which she used the full extent of her colorful vocabulary to insult him before Echidna had interrupted on Charden's behalf, insisting that landing a blow against Charden would be an astounding feat for, as she had put it, someone of Keila's level.

_Piece of cake._ Keila told herself as she swung her Keyblade behind her, ready to finish the fight with a single, powerful blow. _He doesn't even have a defense up. All he's doing is standing there with that smirk on his face._

"Don't be so quick to rush into a fight without first making sure you aren't stumbling blindly into a trap," Charden said in a lecturing tone. "And never underestimate your opponent." Keila's resolve faltered for a brief moment as Charden's words cut through her, leaving a painful feeling of unease in her stomach. She took her eyes off of the man for a brief second and glanced down out of nervousness. She nearly cried out in shock.

Instead of pooling on the ground, Charden's blood had spread out to form a web of bloody trails across the entire platform of the Hall of Empty Melodies. But that wasn't the part that startled Keila. Rising from numerous places where the blood trails were thicker were numerous, scythe-wielding skeletons made from blood, all grinning at her with bloody-teeth. The blood skeletons didn't have legs like normal skeletons. Instead, their hip bones were only half formed and instead ended in a long tail that remained attached at all times to the blood trails.

"What the hell are these things?" Keila shouted as she fell into a defensive stance. Her head snapped back and forth as she looked around her. The web of blood trails on the floor covered the entire platform and there were a good thirty or so skeletons rising from it on all sides, she was surrounded. Charden's words about walking into a trap suddenly made a whole hell of a lot more sense to her. Charden smiled at Keila.

Up above them, Kyoko was laughing softly to herself. _Keila doesn't stand a chance against Charden._ She said mentally as she watched the Keyblade wielding teen below. _His Tao power, Blood, is a force to be reckoned with. He controls his blood like another limb on his body, shaping it and manipulating as he wishes. He can absorb his victims' blood through his own, which means that when he strikes his enemies, they are already as good as dead. This girl is as good as finished. But the best part is, because of all the blood he's collected, Charden has an amount of blood _way_ over the usual amount normal humans have at his disposal, giving him almost limitless power. And he can't even be killed through blood-loss! He's so cool!_

"Wherever you go, you must be very cautious in meeting something more ferocious than yourself," Charden said. Keila glared at him. "Unless you know you can definitely overpower your opponent, you can't act without thinking."

Keila quickly recovered from her momentary shock and sprang into action. She hurled the Darker Than Dark at Charden, grinning with satisfaction as seven of the blood skeletons were struck and splattered back against the ground. Her Keyblade never reached Charden. With a flick of his wrist, the Taoist summoned up a thick wall of blood between him and Keila. The Darker Than Dark embedded itself in the blood wall before vanishing in a flash of light and reappearing in Keila's hand. Keila let out a grunt of frustration and spun to attack the closest skeleton. Charden released the blood wall and allowed it to flow back into his body.

The skeletons all rushed towards Keila in an attempt to overwhelm her by sheer force of numbers. Keila's Keyblade was a blur as she struck them down left and right, splattering the ground with the blood and making it hard to maintain a solid footing. She slipped, and to her disgust, landed in a pool of blood formed from the remains of the most recent skeleton she destroyed. The other skeletons closed in rapidly, scythes of blood glinting with an evil crimson light.

"Shield!" Keila shouted. Her shadow beneath her seemed to come alive. It rose from the ground and enveloped her entire body in a dark shroud. Charden watched with mild interest, even halting his blood skeletons from attacking. The shadows twisted and writhed around Keila for several moments before splitting apart, become whip-like tendrils that lashed out at the skeletons.

"Two minutes!" Kyoko called from above. "Come on, Charden! Show her who's boss!"

The shadows parted from around Keila and the teen stood back up. "There, that wasn't so hard," she said with a grin. Charden smiled at her and tilted his hand so that the cut on his palm was aimed at her.

"Bloody Rain," he called out. Blood shot from the wound, taking the form of hundreds of laughing skulls and flew across the room like a lance. Keila fought back the urge to wretch in disgust. She leapt to the side to avoid the attack and found herself quickly surrounded on all sides by more blood skeletons.

"Oh, come on!" Keila shouted angrily. "I don't have time for this! Shadow Form: Mimicry!" She flicked her wrists at the ground and the shadows answered to her call. The shadows created by the skeletons rose up, taking on a three-dimensional form as they mimicked the original skeletons. Charden gave an impressed chuckle and silently commanded his blood skeletons to turn and attack their shadow counterparts.

The shadow skeletons quickly revealed themselves to be more effective than the blood skeletons. The blood skeletons' attacks merely passed through the shadow bodies of their shadowed replicas. The shadow skeletons stood still for several seconds, allowing the blood ones to attack with no avail. Then they attacked and the blood skeletons splattered across the floor. Keila turned to grin coldly at Charden.

"What was that about 'meeting something more ferocious than yourself'?" She asked in a taunting voice as she began to advance on the Taoist. Charden continued to smile, unperturbed by Keila's words or actions.

"Impressive," he said. "I can't help but notice that your skills are better suited for stealth and assassination. Why do you bother with the aggressive approach of a battle-crazed warrior?" Keila spun her Keyblade above her head and swung it down by her side.

"One minute!" Kyoko called from above.

"Because Keyblade Wielders aren't cowards like assassins are," Keila said ignoring Kyoko. "We prefer to tackle our problems head on!" At her last word, she put on a burst of speed and let out a wild battle cry as she charged at Charden. The Taoist only smirked. Keila drew her blade back, a confident smile spreading across her face.

"Never let your guard down," Charden said suddenly when Keila was only feet from him. His fingers twitched and the blood covering the floor came to life, becoming a rope of blood that wrapped itself around Keila's body before she even had time to take another step. Keila's eyes went wide with shock as the blood ropes tightened around her legs and immobilized her. Keila fell, face first onto the floor and struggled against her bonds. She gave up struggling as she realized that she couldn't even get her hands to budge. Without being able to make the proper gestures, she couldn't summon the shadows to her aid.

"And… time!" Kyoko shouted joyfully from above. "Way to go Charden! I knew you wouldn't let yourself be beaten!"

_LD_

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Keila pounded her fist angrily against the dull, tiled wall of her shower as she shouted at the water pouring over her. She let out a groan and slumped down against the wall, not even caring that the water was now hitting her face.

_Why?_ She silently asked herself. _Why is it that no matter how hard I try, no matter how many hours I put into making myself better, I'm always outdone by someone else?_ She hugged her knees tightly to her bare chest and let out a frustrated scream.

"It's not fair!" She grumbled. "Why is it that I'm never good enough? At this rate I'll never…" Her voice trailed off before she could finish. It was hard for her to say it out loud. She didn't want to hear herself say those words. She knew enough about self-fulfilling prophecy to know it was better to not tell herself what _could_ happen. If she did, she would subconsciously make it happen and push herself further from her dream.

She could still remember the stories her mother had told over the years about Keyblade Wielders and how the Masters were nearly invincible. She remembered listening intently and wanting nothing more than to be a Keyblade Master, just like the ones in her mother's stories. But her mother had told her, time and again that she could never become a Keyblade Master because there weren't any Masters left that could perform the Mark of Mastery ceremony. But Keila refused to give up on the only dream she had ever had.

From an early age, she had learned that her mother was a chronic liar. It wasn't too difficult to notice. The only problem came from trying to tell her lies from the truth. That was why Keila refused to abandon her dream, there was still a chance that her mother was lying to her and there was a Master out there who could make her into one.

She glanced up from her bare knees and caught sight of her slightly distorted refection in the chrome faucet in front of her. The way her reflection had been warped, her hair looked liked it was spiked and standing up at numerous odd angles. _Just like that Sora person I fought weeks ago_. She noticed. _The one who looks just like me for some reason. Keyblade Master Sora…_

Her eyes went wide as realization hit her. "Keyblade _MASTER_ Sora!" She exclaimed, accidentally hitting her head against the wall in her excitement. "Ow!" She quickly scrambled to her feet, almost slipping and falling as she did so to turn off the water. She threw back the shower curtain and stepped out of the tub and onto the dull gray bath rug. "My mother was lying! If he can become a Master that means someone out there must've administered the Mark of Mastery exam on him!" She was practically giddy with her excitement as she grabbed her towel and began drying off.

"Who cares if he's the enemy?" She said with a broad smile. "All I have to do find him and ask him who I need to go to? Simple enough." Her grin slowly slipped away and her excitement gave way to sadness. "Except I attacked him last time we met…" She wrapped the towel around her torso and stepped out of her bathroom and into the bedroom she had been assigned. The room itself was nothing special. All of the walls were the same metallic gray color as the rest of the Castle That Never Was. There was a lone bed barely large enough to fit a full grown adult with white sheets pressed into the corner of the room next to the window where the incomplete moon of Kingdom Hearts could be seen hanging in the sky. Keila strode over to her bed and sat down.

_Even if I did find that Sora guy again, he'd probably just assume I came there to fight and attack me. _She hung her head and stared down at her feet, wincing slightly at how her toenails looked. _I guess I'll have to come up with another plan._

The sounds of a dark corridor opening up in the room caught her attention. She looked up to see who exactly had the nerve to enter her room without knocking first. To her surprise, she found an old comrade of her mother's staring back. Naleten smirked emotionlessly at her, sending a shiver of unease traveling up Keila's spine. He held up a pale hand towards her, revealing a small slip of paper held between his index and middle fingers with the words '_Orders_' written on it.

_LD_

_Ansem the Wise's Study_

_Radiant Garden_

Leon breathed a sigh of relief as Mickey tucked the small, silver orb he had used to place the call inside one of his pockets. The mouse king grinned up at his friend.

"See?" Mickey said with a grin. "Sora's got everything under control. Nothing to worry about." Leon gave him a half-hearted smile in return.

"That doesn't mean he can stop anyone who might try to kidnap Kairi every time," he pondered out loud. Mickey tilted his head to the side.

"I know that look," he said as his smile rapidly faded to a grimace of concern. "What's buggin' ya?"

Leon sat down in the chair closest to him and swiveled it around so he could look Mickey in the eyes for once. "Someone knew who Kairi was," Leon said. "Someone here in Radiant Garden." His gaze shifted so he was staring at his gloved hands, which were now clenched tightly into fists. "I thought the Restoration Committee were the only ones who knew. But I was obviously wrong. Someone else, someone with authority to send an assault cruiser to the edges of the galaxy to capture a teenage girl without question." Mickey's ears drooped sadly.

"I'm going to figure out who's behind this," Leon said. Mickey looked up, surprised at Leon's determined tone of voice. "Whoever they are, they got their information about Kairi from somewhere and I'm willing to bet it was Maleficent was behind it."

"How can you be sure?" Mickey asked. "I mean, sure, it does sound like Maleficent would be behind something like that. But how can we be sure that it isn't some other enemy we aren't aware of yet? We've got Maleficent, her allies from a bunch of other worlds, her Heartless, the Nobodies, the Apostles of the Star, Xehanort and any allies he might have. The World Order is in shambles now thanks mostly to Maleficent and the Heartless, so knowledge about other worlds and things like the Keyblade, Keyholes and the Seven Princesses are becoming common amongst all of the worlds.

"We can't afford to jump to conclusions because we're on edge, Leon. And believe me, it's not just you. Sure, we've got a bunch of strong fighters on our side, but we're outnumbered on all sides. If we dive blindly in situations like this, we'll only make ourselves vulnerable, especially because I believe Maleficent is trying to do the same thing she did over a year ago by capturing the Princesses to open the Door to Darkness."

Leon's head whipped around in surprise, though his cheeks were still flushed from the slight embarrassment he was still feeling from the out-of-character break in his normally calm demeanor. Mickey's words had stung slightly as he had helped Leon realize that the leader of Radiant Garden had briefly lost sight of the larger picture. But the information about Maleficent's possible plans surprised him.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Leon asked. Mickey shook his head in response.

"We're not sure about anything anymore," he answered truthfully. "I've got a spy in Maleficent's allies, but from what he's reported, she's trying a bunch of different ideas at the moment. She's probably trying to come up with a failsafe in case whatever her main plan is fails. But opening the Keyhole of Darkness here in Radiant Garden seems most likely. I got word from my scouts just yesterday: all of the Princesses of Heart except for Kairi have been captured and taken away from their home worlds."

Leon slumped further down in his seat, an unfamiliar feeling of hopelessness spreading throughout his chest.

"But that's not the worst of it," Mickey continued. Leon let out a groan.

"How did I know you were going to say that?" He grumbled.

_LD_

_Cliffs Overlooking Hang 'Em High Crash Site_

_Lynfael_

Keila let out a groan as she stepped out of the Dark corridor and into fresh air. She sniffed and winced. _Well, as fresh as it can be with the smell of smoke, fuel and blood hanging in the air. _She glanced around and caught sight of the wreckage of a large Gummi ship dominating the majority of a sand colored valley. Bodies were littered around the wreckage. Several had been torn apart and were soaked in their own blood.

She let out a noise of disgust and turned away from the sight, continuing to look around for the contact her orders had mentioned. He wasn't hard to spot as he was the only other living thing around for miles and was waving eagerly at her. Keila let out a groan. She could see the smile plastered across the visible part of her contact's face. _Just my luck, they're probably one of those happy go-lucky types._

"You're Keila, right?" The contact asked as he jogged cheerfully over to her. Keila nodded. "Thought so! Name's Devin Mayes! Pleased to meet'cha!" Devin was dressed rather simply compared to many other people Keila had seen across numerous worlds. He wore a pair of black jeans and equally black combat boots. His chest was covered by a dark navy blue t-shirt that outlined his muscles perfectly. A long sleeved, brown over coat was draped over his shoulders and held in place by a gold wire with a small ruby attached to it that rested at the base of his throat. A long, pale blue staff with an emerald adorning one end and a two foot blade on the other was strapped to his back. He had short, jet black hair that was spiked slightly and had bangs that ended just above his eyebrows and a pair of brilliant hazel eyes.

Devin offered his hand to Keila, who stared at it like it was a snake readying itself to bite her. After a few moments of awkward silence broken only by the soft whisper of the night breeze, Devin slowly lowered his hand.

"So…" Devin said, giving Keila a nervous sort of grin. "How was the trip? Was there much traffic?" Keila raised an eyebrow at him. Devin let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay, look. We're going to be stuck together for the next several hours, so would it kill you to open up and talk a little bit? It doesn't even have to be much. Just a simple 'how's the weather?' 'Fine, thanks. Could be a little warmer but I'm not complaining.' 'That's splendid. What's your favorite pastime, Devin?' 'Oh, you know, researching ancient weapons and studying various arcane techniques.' Conversations like that. It's not really all that hard, you know."

"You really don't like quiet, do you?" Keila noted.

Devin responded by rolling his eyes. "It's a mage thing. We're not a particularly quiet group of people."

"Any particular reason why?" Keila asked. "I don't see why mages can't stand the quiet. It doesn't really make any sense."

Devin began walking towards the edge of the cliff and Keila caught sight of what appeared to be a rope anchored into the rock that was dangling over the edge. "Perhaps a demonstration is in order," he suggested. "Do you see that ship over there?" He gestured at the wreckage of the _Hang 'Em High_.

"It's kind of hard to miss," Keila pointed out. "It does take up more than half of the valley. So don't worry, I don't think you've gone insane yet."

"Ha ha ha," Devin said in a sarcastic tone. "That ship crashed here early this morning. Long story short, it was carrying a bunch of soldiers. Said soldiers were defeated and the survivors fled in whatever intact Gummi ships they still had inside. Now, the ship is just an eyesore in this beautiful landscape."

"There's nothing but rocks and dust here," Keila reminded him. "I wouldn't call it beautiful." Devin let out a groan of frustration.

"Will you please let me finish?" He said. Keila smirked, keeping the surprise she felt at enjoying Devin's torment to herself. "As I was saying, it's an eyesore. So I'm going to get rid of it."

"I can't wait to see this one." Keila smirked at him. "But I don't think you have a handkerchief big enough to cover that ship."

"Don't need one," Devin said as he drew his staff. He grinned at Keila as he twirled it around in his hand several times before thrusting its jeweled end towards the _Hang 'Em High_ with a shout of "_TOROLSH_!" To Keila's surprise, the air around them pulsed with a powerful energy that nearly knocked her off her feet. A bolt of bright blue energy burst from the staff's jewel with a thunderous boom that shook several rocks loose from the cliffs and even caused a rockslide on the opposite end of the valley.

The bolt of energy streaked across the night sky and struck against one of the engines of the _Hang 'Em High_. There was a surge of purple and black energy that rapidly covered the wreckage for a brief moment before vanishing into nothing, taking the wrecked ship with it. Only the empty valley remained, devoid of all signs of the crash except for the gouge in the ground from where the ship had slid to a stop.

Keila's mouth dropped open in shock. She looked fearfully over at Devin, who seemed a little drained of energy but had a satisfied grin on his face. "See? I could've just left it alone," he explained. "It wouldn't have impacted my life in the slightest. But I couldn't resist the chaotic pull of showing off and making a big scene. Now then, shall we go complete this little mission of ours?"

Keila nodded in silent agreement as she eyed Devin nervously. He was powerful, and apparently unstable. Sort of. And that didn't exactly make her feel comfortable. Devin chuckled and walked over to a large stone that had obviously been reshaped by unnatural forces. The mage shot her a grin and placed his palm against the stone. Nearly invisible cracks in the stone lit up suddenly with a pale purple light. The ground shook violently as the stone slowly raised itself, revealing a hole in the ground with a spiral staircase leading down into the dark depths.

"You coming or what?" Devin called out to Keila, who continued to stare in his direction with a look of mixed awe and nervousness. When she didn't respond, he merely shrugged and began to descend the staircase. Keila quickly recovered and followed him, jogging slightly to catch up, with the stone slowly moving back into place behind her, encasing the two teens in darkness. Keila didn't mind, especially since Devin's staff was casting a gentle, white light around them to guide the way. She could clearly see the outlines of the stairs as they went deeper and deeper into the stone and it was impossible to not see Devin as the mage was the only other living thing.

They descended the stairs for what felt like hours, even though Keila knew it had to be only minutes since she was pretty sure she'd start feeling tired, hungry, and thirsty or any combination of the three if it had been hours. Devin seemed unaffected. He happily descended the steps, whistling a cheery tune as he did so.

_LD_

It took them nearly two hours to reach the bottom of the staircase, where they were greeted by a thick wooden door. Devin pushed the door open eagerly and led the way into a large stone chamber. At his command, a dozen orbs of light flew from the tip of Devin's staff and flew to various parts of the room, casting away almost all shadows. Unrecognizable characters had been incised into every inch of the stone walls, but both teens eyes were focused on something else entirely.

A giant stone carving of a lion's head rested at the end of the chamber complete with a beautifully carved mane that seemed to flow despite being made of stone. It was astoundingly perfect in every detail, twenty feet tall and almost as wide, carved out of the dark blue-veined stone that makes up most of the tunnels they had spent the past half hour squeezing through. The lion's eyes seem to glare, the mouth seems to snarl, and the whole thing looks like life itself frozen in stone, as though just waiting to pounce, if it could only force the rest of its body through the stone wall that held it. Not all that surprisingly, Keila fell in love with it at first sight and stood right before the stone face, running her hands over the detailed carving and cooing delightedly.

"I don't enjoy many things," she explained when Devin raised his eyebrows at her, "but if there's one thing I'm a sucker for, it's beautifully carved stone."

"I don't blame you," Devin said cheerily. Keila's eye twitched. His ever positive attitude was getting on her nerves already. "It truly is a magnificent piece of work. But this is where my usefulness reached its end. I can't get past it without the key, and I haven't the faintest idea where it might be. So do your thing, oh great and powerful Wielder."

"Then why did I have to meet you here?" Keila asked. "I could've just been told where this place was and found my own way in."

"I'm here in case you need support," Devin explained. "We don't know what waits for us beyond this carving. What if it's crawling with giant spiders? Or trolls? And I'm not talking about those annoying pricks on the internet with nothing better to do."

Keila rolled her eyes and stepped up to the lion's snarling mouth for a better look as Devin casually examined the walls of the chamber around them, studying the strange symbols carved into the stone and continuing to list the various things that could be waiting behind the carving. Keila did her best to ignore him and began searching for the keyhole. Over the years, her affinity for shadow magic had given her superior vision in dim lighted to pitch black settings, a talent that helped her spot an engraving in the back of the lion's jaws in the shape of a keyhole. With a grin, Keila summoned her Keyblade to her hand and aimed it at the carving. There was a flash of blue light followed by a loud click. The teen Wielder stepped smartly back as the lion's jaws grated slowly open. The upper lip rose steadily, operated by some hidden mechanism, revealing huge jagged teeth, above and below. The jaws continued to open, until the lion's mouth gaped wide, revealing a tunnel big enough to have a fully grown adult walk through it without needing to duck their head.

"And that's our ticket in," Keila said with a suddenly excited grin. "Let's go!"

Devin grinned eagerly as he followed Keila through the lions' jaws and down the tunnel that served as its 'throat' into the next chamber, which turned out to be just a simple stone cavern but with the images of terrible weapons carved in rows upon the stone walls, like ornaments in Hell. None of them were identified and Devin knew why; either you knew what they were and what they could do or you had no business trying to tell them apart. Devin practically bounced from carving to carving like an excited child in a candy store. Clearly, he knew some of the weapons by sight and reputation from his extensive studying.

"There's Sunwrack," he said in an awed tone, pointing at the carving of what looked like a simple crossbow. "It's for putting out the stars one at a time. Beside it here is the Juggernaut Jumpsuit, makes you impervious to all harm, scientific, magical, spiritual, you name it. And here, the Time Hammer, for changing the past through brute force."

"Fascinating," Keila said, watching as magical fires ignited in empty grates set at even intervals along the sides of the hallway.

"This one's Winter's Sorrow. Huh, it really does look like a child's toy, but all you have to do is break the crystal, and it'll unleash the Fimbulwinter: an endless season of cold and ice, all across the world, forever and ever and ever." He stared at the cracked image of Winter's Sorrow in curiosity. "I wonder why the image is cracked. Everything else in here seems to be intact."

"Yeah, strange," Keila muttered, only half-paying attention to Devin as she watched the room light up around her as she walked further in. They passed the carvings of what Keila assumed were images of the other weapons that had been contained within the Armageddon Codex and the chamber beyond lit up as a hundred magical flames ignited along the walls. Coins, jewels and beautifully crafted suits of armor and weapons were piled high in all corners of the room but Keila paid them no attention. A large, circular dais filled the center of the room. Lines were carved with expert precision into the stone and each one glowed with a pale-silver light but Keila's eyes were fixed on the one thing on the dais' center. Oathbreaker.

It wasn't much to look at. Just a long stick of ironwood deeply carved with pre-human symbols floating of its own accord above a carved ebony altar. Keila stepped onto the dais, not even noticing that the lights in the carved lines beneath faded and died as she did so. Devin abandoned his excited examination of the carvings when he caught sight of it and went to stand next to Keila. The pair of them stood before it for several long minutes both in awe of the weapon before Devin finally reached out with a surprisingly steady hand, and took the stick down. He grimaced, as though just the touch of it was disturbing to him. He hefted it in his hand once, and then turned abruptly and gave it to Keila, as though the weapon was a live snake that wanted nothing more than to sink its fangs into him. Keila accepted it gingerly. It felt surprisingly heavy to her, weighed down with spiritual weight rather than physical, a burden to the body and to the soul.

All because of what it was, and what it could do.

"But…it's just a stick," Keila said as she turned it over in her hand, examining the symbols that covered it. "Is that it? I mean, is that all of it? Just a heavy stick? Does it change into something else if you strike it on the ground? Or are we just supposed to beat people over the head with it?"

"This is Oathbreaker," Devin said his voice shaking with a mixture of excitement and terrified nervousness. His mouth was very dry, and his hands were beginning to sweat as he stared at the weapon. "Exactly as the books described. There's no doubt about it. It undoes all agreements, all bonds. Right down to the atomic level, if necessary."

At Devin's words, Keila held Oathbreaker further away from her body. "All right," she said, "now you're scaring me."

"Good," Devin said. "Because it scares the crap out of me. Legends say its as old as the beginning of time, perhaps made by whatever shaped everything as a fail-safe. But there's no record of it ever being used, Maybe because whoever used it last, did so to wipe all memory of themselves from existence."

Keila nodded and slide Oathbreaker into a modified strap on her jacket, securing the ancient tool of perfect obliteration to her back. "Let's get out of here," she said. "I don't know about you, but now that we've got what we came for, I've decided that I've had enough of this dusty old place ."

"_Don't be so quick to depart, mortals." _

Keila and Devin both froze in place. They shared a quick, equally nervous look and slowly turned to look behind them. The stone statue of the woman holding the tray of gold and gemstones was glowing with a faint, blue light.

"I may be crazy," Devin said, "And I wouldn't be surprised if I was since it's a common side effect among mages, but did that statue just talk to us?"

"_I am no statue,"_ the statue replied before Keila could respond. _"I am Caritas, embodiment of the Third Virtue, Charity. I have been imprisoned within this stone avatar for countless eons."_

"Yup, we're crazy," Keila said. "I think we should leave before it takes hold and we have to kill one another for sustenance."

"Umm, I don't think that it's a good sign if cannibalism is your first thought regarding a talking statue."

"_Please, be silent and listen," _the statue of Caritas pleaded. Keila and Devin fell silent. _"When the Templar Order built these sanctuaries to protect and safeguard some of the universe's most terrible and ancient secrets, they attempted to seal the Seven Capital Vices as well. Using their vast knowledge of sealing magic, they successfully bound six of the seven Vices to their scattered sanctuaries._

"_The other Virtues and I had offered our assistance and we subdued each Vice one by one for the Templars. But in doing so, we began to vanish. With our opposites sealed, the universe had no further need for embodiments of the Virtues. One by one, we sealed the Vices. And one by one, we faded from existence. _

"_When it came time to seal the last Vice, Avarita, only I was left. She and I waged battle in this chamber for what felt like decades before the Templars finally arrived, bringing with them that terrible weapon you carry now. The mere presence of Oathbreaker weakened Avarita and myself. Victory was within our grasp, though I knew I would cease to exist after Avarita was bound for eternity, I could not think of a more noble cause to perish for. _

"_The Templars had modified their usual seals so they would seal Oathbreaker along with Avarita, binding them both to the stone of this temple. Oathbreaker was the final piece in the sealing ritual and as you know, it is one of the single most powerful weapons in existence and has been so before recorded history on any world. And the Templars, well, were only human._

"_They underestimated the power of Oathbreaker, before the seal could be complete, Oathbreaker destroyed them. Avarita made her escape before it was too late while I could only watch in horror, for it had been my suggestion to seal Oathbreaker away. It was my fault those Templars died. But even in death their magic could not be undone. _

"_I was still within the seal and it bound me to this statue. Rather than being sealed with me, Oathbreaker became the key to my prison. But now, you have removed the key. You possess Oathbreaker! And I, I have a favor to ask of you."_

Caritas fell silent, allowing her words to sink in. Keila and Devin shared looks of awe mixed with unease.

"What do you want us to do?" Devin asked.

"_Not you, child,"_ Caritas said in a slow tone. _"Her. The Wielder of the Keyblade. Possessor of Oathbreaker."_

"Me?" Keila pointed at herself in confusion. "Why me?"

"_You wield the Keyblade,"_ Caritas replied. _"Only a Wielder could unlock a Templar Sanctuary for they sealed these temples with their own Keyblades. And only by a Wielders hand can you undo the seal that binds me."_

Keila considered Caritas' words for about a minute. "What do I get in return?" She asked. "I'm not exactly big on helping strangers without some sort of reward."

"_And you will be rewarded,"_ Caritas said in a reassuring tone. _"Though my powers are significantly weaker after all this time, I can offer you the answer to one question. Any question. And the answer will be the truth. But I cannot answer in this form. So please, release me."_ The tray in Caritas' hands vanished in a flash of light revealing a large, crystalline pink heart with a jet black Keyhole marring its surface.

Keila's eyes went wide as nearly a thousand different questions and possibilities assaulted her mind in the fraction of a second. The answer to _any_ question. A truthful answer. If she chose her words right, she could wind up ruling the universe, or discover the key to immortality. But she already knew what question she wanted to ask. Devin's eyes darted back and forth between Keila and the notepad he now clutched in his hands as he frantically wrote down everything that was happening.

The Darker Than Dark appeared in Keila's hand with a flash of purple-light. "All I have to do is release you and you'll answer my question? Right?" She asked as she aimed her Keyblade at the heart in the statue's hands.

"_Correct."_

A small orb of swirling light formed around the Darker Than Dark's tip. Keila's mind fixated on her mother's orders Naleten had delivered. _Complete this task for me, my daughter, and I will see to it that your dreams shall come true…_ "Then tell me," Keila asked, "when my mission here is over, will I become a Keyblade Master like my mother promised?" The orb of light at the tip of her Keyblade became a beam that flew into the center of the keyhole in the heart. There was a loud clicking sound, like that of a lock coming undone. The heart pulsed with a bright light, temporarily blinding Keila and Devin with its brilliance.

Caritas let out a joyful sigh as the light faded. The statue had vanished and only she and Devin were in the room. Keila's mouth fell open in disbelief.

"She lied to me!" She shouted as her anger began to rise. "So much for being the embodiment of Charity or whatever she called herself! That stuck up bit-" Her ranting came to a halt as Caritas' voice, now at a much louder volume and with a force that threatened to drive both teens to their knees, boomed throughout the chamber.

"_Wielder of Shadows."_ Keila swallowed hard as Caritas addressed her with a name only she had ever used for herself. _"I have your answer. Your fate is bound to two beings of Darkness and unless you free yourself from them, you will NEVER become a Keyblade Master."_

_LD_

* * *

_I'm not sure if that qualifies as a cliffhanger or not. Oh well. _

_Before anyone asks, no, this is not a filler chapter. It has a purpose. I wrote it to provide a little insight into Keila's motivation and to introduce some elements that have important roles later on in the story._

_Fun fact: This chapter was originally over fifteen thousand words. However, I removed several scenes because most of them will fit into the next few chapters better than they would fit into this one. And a couple were just failtastic. So I deleted those two altogether._

_That's it for now, my friends. As always reviews are welcome and appreciated. Your feedback is very important and actually helps me become a better writer._

_I don't know how soon I'll get the next chapter out. I'm trying to help my younger brother through a rough patch in his life so I can't make any definite promises, but it should be out before Valentine's Day. _

_Once again, please go vote in the poll on my profile page. _

_Until next time!  
_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis. _

_Shadow Horizons  
_


	30. Sweepers

_I'M ALIVE!_

_Yes, you read that right. I've returned from the realm of 'Dear Sweet Merciful God. Why Has This Taken So Long?'_

_Long story short: family drama, combined with work drama, combined with writer's block, combined with discovering Mass Effect seriously delayed this chapter. And I apologize for making you all wait. _

_To (hopefully) make up for it, I present the longest chapter so far in Looming Darkness. This chapter totals at over twenty thousand words!_

_But I've kept you waiting enough.  
_

_Disclaimer: After three months of no updates, I am DEFINITELY not worthy.  
_

_Enjoy!  
_

* * *

Chapter Thirty: Sweepers

_Silence. _

_Silence and darkness._

_Endless darkness._

_Naminé stared blankly at the darkness around her as she sank deeper into the abyss. How long had she been falling in the suffocating dark? A minute? A day?_

_The blonde teen tilted her head, watching with interest as bubbles of light formed behind her, as if she her sinking was disturbing the stillness of a non-existent ocean. She watched the bubbles vanish into the darkness behind her feet for several minutes. Or was it several weeks? Naminé still couldn't tell._

_All of a sudden, the bubbles stopped forming, and it occurred to Naminé that she was no longer sinking through an ocean of darkness. Her feet were definitely touching a very solid surface. Naminé's pale blue eyes darted back and forth across the darkness, trying to spot anything aside from herself. But all there was to see was the abyss._

_A pale, grayish-blue column of light slowly shone down from somewhere high above in the abyss, nearly blinding Naminé, who had grown so accustomed to the darkness. Slowly, the light grew, banishing away the darkness and revealing that the ground Naminé stood upon was made of several large tiles made of what appeared to be stained glass pieces in countless colors. The stained glass tiles were lined up side by side in a long, perfectly straight line._

_The light pushed the darkness back further, revealing innumerable, carved marble doors set at perfect intervals on either side of the stained glass path as the darkness retreated to just behind the doors, giving the impression that they led to nowhere, except to the black abyss beyond.. Each door was nearly identical. The only differences between them all were the ebony plaques placed on the left hand side of each one. Carved into each plaque were a wide variety of symbols, clearly a language Naminé had never seen before. _

_Curiosity overtook her, and Naminé strode over to the closest door and grasped the crystalline handle and pulled on it. The door refused to budge. Naminé's brow furrowed in confusion. She pushed against the door, with no avail. The marble refused to budge._

"_They won't open for you."_

_Naminé jumped as another voice spoke from somewhere behind her. She spun around and immediately spotted a man dressed in a black cloak with the hood pulled up, concealing his features from view._

"_What do you mean?" The blonde asked. In response, the man gestured around at the doors with his hands._

"_These doors lead to the memories of a heart other than your own," he said in a perfectly emotionless tone. "They are not yours to open."_

_Naminé raised her eyebrows at him. "You do realize that one of my special talents is interacting with and manipulating memories, right?" _

_The hooded man nodded. "I know you can," he said. "But these memories are bound with a very powerful magic and can only be opened by the heart they belong to."_

_Naminé let out a sigh. "Alright, so if I can't open them, then who can?" She asked. "Whose memories are they? And why are they in my dream?"_

_The man chuckled softly at this. "I don't remember saying this was a dream," he said. "Take a look around you. We're inside your heart at the moment, the place where the memories that don't belong have come to rest."_

"_If this is my heart, then who are you and why are you in here?" The blonde teen asked. "How did you get in here?"_

"_You brought me in here, Naminé," the man said. "Don't you remember? The day you became your own Somebody, no longer being just Kairi's Nobody? You used your powers to rifle through the memories of Xanthos, and in doing so, you stumbled across something you weren't supposed to know, which triggered a hidden magic sealed within Xanthos' body and banished you from his heart and mind, at a minor cost to his physical health, of course. The magic that banished you from his mind left me behind in your heart to find the memory you took."_

"_So, in a way, you're Xanthos?" Naminé asked. _

"_I came from his heart, didn't I?" The man replied._

"_You said that I took a memory from Xanthos? What memory?"_

_The cloaked man shrugged. "I do not know. And that is why I am here. Through one of these doors is the memory I seek, and you are going to help me find it."_

"_Why do I have to?" Naminé asked. "I thought that was your job, so why don't you do it yourself?"_

"_Are you saying you want to miss out on a detailed trip into the memories of a very powerful Chaser?" The man asked, his tone suggesting that he already knew what Naminé would do._

_Naminé let out a sigh. No. There was no way she would even consider passing up an opportunity like that. Xanthos' memories would undoubtedly lead her to learning more about the Keyblade War, something that, to her knowledge, no one had ever been able to learn very much about. Who in their right mind would pass up an opportunity like that?_

"_Lead on," Naminé said, a hint of eagerness creeping into her tone as she looked up at the cloaked man._

_The man let out a chuckle and held out his right hand. In a flash of bright, purple light, a Keyblade appeared in his grip. The Keyblade had a spiky, black guard resembling demonic wings, a horned, demonic head just above the handle, two barbed shafts, and teeth resembling a battle axe split into three almost claw-like protrusions. It resembled the Oblivion to a degree, but with two shafts and a different head. It also contains two demonic, blue eyes; one on the Keychain and the other towards the tip of the blade. Its shaft and head were adorned with several twisting, silver patterns, adding to the sinister appearance of the blade._

"_Then let's go." The man turned towards the nearest door and aimed his Keyblade at it. A loud clicking sound resounded from some hidden mechanism inside the door and it slowly opened inwards, revealing what appeared to be a wall of bright light. The man shouldered his weapon and gestured for Naminé to walk through the door first._

_The blonde teen nodded and stepped through the doorway into the light. How long she stood in the light, Naminé couldn't say, but eventually the light faded, leaving Naminé standing in the middle of a dark, dank alleyway in the middle of winter. Strangely enough, she wasn't cold, even though the snow around her was piled as high as two feet in some places. It took her a moment to realize that she was now in one of Xanthos' memories. _

_She looked around at her surroundings. The city she had ended up in was made of mostly stone and was surrounded by several high walls that seemed to serve a dual purpose for protection, and dividing the various districts of the city. Naminé didn't have much more time to get a better look at the moonlit architecture before Xanthos himself strode past her, albeit looking several years younger than when Naminé had met him. He was dressed in the same black cloak both he and the former Organization XIII wore and he had his hand clenched tight around an Oblivion Keyblade._

_Naminé quickly followed him as the Chaser wound his way through the snow covered streets, clearly looking for someone or something. He stopped a few times to peer around corners, always taking extra care to avoid the men and women in matching guard uniforms. This went on for several minutes until finally, Naminé caught sight of someone else in the city beside the guards and Xanthos, a man in his late twenties, who was clearly drunk, that was stumbling around the alleyways of the city, shouting obscenities and racial slurs about 'cat-people'. _

_Next to Naminé, Xanthos was giving the man an emotionless smirk. He lifted his free hand and threw his hood up over his head; hiding his face from view, but not before Naminé had managed to catch a glimpse of his eyes. Naminé's blood ran cold. Xanthos' eyes weren't the silver color she remembered him having. They were a bright, sinister yellow, the same yellow those whose hearts were twisted by Darkness were known to have. _

_Naminé watched, frozen in place by shock as Xanthos slowly stepped out of the shadows and advanced on the drunkard. As he drew nearer to the man, a woman's voice echoed mysteriously, though it seemed only Naminé could hear her. __**"That husband of mine thinks he can sleep with any bar maiden he wishes? If he's not going to be faithful to me like he promised, then he needs to be taught a lesson!"**__ Xanthos stopped behind the man and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. _

"_What do you want?" The man snapped, slurring his words at the Chaser._

_The woman's voice echoed in Naminé's head once more. __**"Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**_

_Naminé watched, horrified, as Xanthos drew back his blade, and swung it into the man's neck, severing his head from his body. Naminé cried out in shock, but no one was around to hear her. It was all just a memory. _

_For a moment, her world turned into a swirl of color, light and darkness, and the snow covered city was gone. In its place was the view from the inside of what appeared to be a temple, dedicated to some god or goddess. Naminé and Xanthos were standing on a catwalk high above the floor below next to a hanging brazier that contained a brightly glowing fire within. In the rows of seats below them, a woman knelt, her hands folded in prayer. Naminé gave a start as Xanthos summoned the Oblivion to his hand and pointed it at one of the four chains supporting the brazier in front of them and cast a continuous stream of Blizzard magic on I, freezing the chain solid. _

_A woman's voice entered Naminé's mind once more, this one different from the one she had heard in her last memory.__** "That filthy little thief thinks she can get away with stealing my precious necklace and then claiming it was hers so the guards don't believe me? Ha! Think again."**__ Naminé turned fearfully towards the Xanthos in the memory, his face was as still and emotionless as stone as he canceled his magic before striking the frozen chain with his Keyblade, shattering it.__** "Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**__ Naminé squeezed her eyes shut as the flaming contents of the brazier spilled onto the woman below. But she couldn't block out the poor girls' tortured screams as fire took her life._

"_Make it stop," Naminé pleaded. "How could he do this? How could anyone do this? No more. Please." Her pleading went unanswered as the memory shifted yet again. Now she was standing to the side of a wooden throne in a long, grand hall. A man in his early forties sat on the throne, garbed in a set of fine, silk clothes with a golden circlet adorned with sapphires around the crown of his head. Four guards armed with a variety of bladed weapons stood to both sides of the throne as servants bustled about to place food on a table before the man. A woman in a dark, purple robe entered the room and bowed to the man on the throne and began discussing something with him in a hushed tone. Naminé looked around the room, but there was no sign of Xanthos anywhere. Wasn't this his memory?_

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**__ A man's voice said. The blonde teen's eyes widened. _

_The massive, double doors that led into the grand hall were thrown open, revealing Xanthos standing outside, his Keyblade and cloak stained with the blood of two slain guards at his feet. _

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**__ The voices of two women spoke into Naminé's mind._

_The man on the throne was shouting at his four guards to attack. One with a broadsword strapped to his back reacted first and charged at Xanthos, drawing his blade as he went. Fire surrounded the edge of the Oblivion in the Chaser's hand as he countered the broadsword and melted through the steel weapon. The guard stumbled past Xanthos and was swiftly cut down._

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**__ A child's voice spoke. _

_The other three guards all roared in frustration and charged at Xanthos. The Chaser leapt to the side as the first guard reached him, smoothly avoiding the steel blade that threatened to cut into him. The Oblivion's teeth hooked the guard's weapon by the blade near the hilt, allowing Xanthos to disarm the man with minimal effort. The guard stared wide-eyed in surprise before he was knocked back into one of the other two guards by a spinning kick from Xanthos. A glowing, bright blue blade of pure energy appeared in Xanthos' hand, which he hurled like a javelin into the chest of the third and last guard to reach the fray._

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me." **__The voice of an elderly woman chanted._

_The other two guards untangled themselves from one another and launched themselves at Xanthos. The Keyblade Wielder smirked and easily parried their hasty attacks before disarming them both and blasting them away with fire magic._

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**__ A man and a woman spoke in unison. _

_The woman in the purple robes raised her hands and fired twin bolts of lightning at Xanthos. A Reflect spell appeared around her target, and deflected her attack right back at her. The woman hastily cast up a barrier between her and her re-directed attack. Her attack collided with her barrier and both magics cancelled each other out with a loud crack that left Naminé's ears ringing. The woman was knocked off her feet and thrown into a wall head first, her neck snapping and bending at an angle that a neck shouldn't bend. Her lifeless body fell to the floor, hand still twitching. _

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**__ The voices were blending together now, becoming harder for Naminé to tell one from another._

_Xanthos turned his attention on the man who was still sitting on the throne. The man shakily drew a war-axe from its place on his belt, ready to defend himself from the Chaser. Xanthos shook his head with a chuckle and raised his hand as he advanced on the throne. A whip made of the same electric-blue energy he had used to cut down one of the guards lashed out from Xanthos' hand and wrapped around the shaft of the axe, tearing it from the man's grasp. _

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**_

_The man sat back down on the throne and hung his head in defeat as Xanthos stopped in front of him and raised the Oblivion above his head, poised to strike. Naminé turned her head away, unable to watch anymore. _

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**_

"_Why?" She asked herself, as she heard the sound of a blade slicing through the air and sinking into flesh, quickly accompanied by the splatter of blood on the hardwood floors. "I thought he was a good guy. Why would he do this?"_

"_**Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me."**_

_Naminé's eyes opened against her will. The man on the throne had a large gash torn into his throat, and the floor around him was stained with blood. To her surprise, Xanthos turned to face her, his face and clothes bathed in blood. His golden-yellow eyes didn't seem to be focused on her though. In fact, he seemed to be staring off into the distance at the setting sun, which was barely visible through the doors he had thrown open. His voice, though younger sounding but unmistakably his, echoed through her mind, completing the chant. _

"_**For the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear."**_

_LD_

_Tuesday, June 29__th__ 4794 P.C._

_Onboard the Kingdom_

_Somewhere in the Sea of the Worlds_

Naminé sat bolt upright as the _Kingdom_ lurched violently to the side, throwing her off of Kairi's bed and onto the floor. With a groan of pain, the blonde pulled herself to her feet only to nearly fall down again as the ship rocked again. The door to Kairi's room opened, revealing Nanaki, dressed in some of Kairi's loaned night-clothes and with her hair tangled up something awful.

"You okay, Naminé?" The purple-haired wielder asked, clinging to the side of the door frame as a loud explosion from somewhere outside of the _Kingdom_ caused it to lurch once more.

"I'd be better if I knew what was going on," Naminé said, doing her best to put a smile on her face, even as she was thrown back onto Kairi's bed.

"Sora said we're being chased by some really big Heartless ships," Nanaki explained. "We're faster than them, but they've got some pretty big guns so he's trying to lose them in-" she was interrupted as the _Kingdom_ made a barrel roll. Fortunately for those on board, the Artificial Gravity Generator was still operational, so they're feet stayed firmly on the floor, so to speak. The AGG didn't prevent them from being thrown side to side, which was much worse for Naminé than Nanaki.

"-in an asteroid field," the purple-haired teen finished as she hurried into the room to help Naminé back to her feet.

The blonde gave Nanaki her thanks and suggested the two of them head up to the bridge where they could buckle themselves in before Sora's piloting got either of them hurt. This earned a laugh from both of them, which karma rewarded them by tossing them heavily into the half-circular room that connected all three bedrooms and on top of an unsuspecting Roxas.

"There are nicer ways to say good morning, you know," he mentioned as both girls helped him stand up.

"Sorry, Roxy," Nanaki said with a smirk. Roxas gave her a scowl. "Blame your brother's flying."

"I thought I told you not to call me Roxy yesterday," Roxas mumbled.

"Tough beans, _Roxy_," Nanaki giggled. "I'm gonna call you whatever I want." Roxas sighed. Normally, Naminé would have had to do her best to stifle her own giggles, but the memories of what she had seen in her dream were still fresh. Instead, she remained silent as she and Nanaki followed the blond out of the room and into the hall beyond as he made his way to the bridge.

They found Sora and Kairi both strapped into their chairs already, both still looking like they had literally climbed out of their beds and into the chairs. Sora was jerking the controls of the ship left and right to avoid the incoming space rocks. Kairi had her eyes glued to a targeting computer and was gunning down the squadrons of Heartless ships released by the two carriers pursuing them.

"You two look like you're having fun," Roxas noted as he sat down on the chair to Sora's left.

"A blast," Kairi said sarcastically, emphasizing her words by reducing another ship into dust.

"Nice shooting, Kairi!" Sora said. "Keep it up! We're almost out of the asteroid field." As he spoke, Sora was forced to jerk the controls to the side to avoid a collision with a large asteroid by navigating the _Kingdom_ through a narrow, winding tunnel that was cut through the rock, barely leaving enough space for the ship to make it through. To Sora's credit, they made it out the other side without so much as chipping the _Kingdom_'s paint job.

The same couldn't be said about the Heartless cruisers pursuing them. The closer of the two ships attempted to pass through the asteroid the same way Sora had, only to be crushed by the space rock. The second cruiser, which had already received an extensive amount of hull damage from being hit by larger asteroids, ran straight into the first cruiser and both exploded in a great ball of flame that lit up the bridge of the _Kingdom_, even as they broke free of the asteroid field.

"And that's how it's done!" Sora said cheerfully as he switched the _Kingdom_ back into autopilot mode. "We're coming up on a new world here in a few minutes you guys, I figured that Nanaki and I could beam ourselves down real quick and pick us up some supplies. Our kitchen's looking a little…"

"It's empty," Roxas cut him off. "Plain and simple as that. We're down to a few bottles of Coke, some fruit snacks and three boxes of Wheat Thins. There isn't anything to make a halfway decent meal with."

"Like I said," Sora continued with a shrug, "Nanaki and I will beam down real quick to pick up some supplies and we can be on our way."

"Why just you and Nanaki?" Naminé asked. "Why shouldn't the rest of us go?"

"Because they're the only ones still in mostly decent shape after what happened on Lynfael," Roxas pointed out. "I'm still recovering from fighting all those guards and Sora's Anti-Form. Kairi's got that bullet hole in her shoulder that's still healing. You look like you're about to pass out on your feet. And to top it all off, Richard 's been lying down on the couch ever since he got on board and has yet to move a single muscle. I can't tell if he's sleeping, or dead."

"Maybe he used up too much power turning that Veneschall to glass?" Kairi suggested. "It might take him some time to heal."

"Exactly," Sora said, undoing his seatbelt as he stood up. "It'll take us a couple hours at most to get the food I'm thinking, so we should be back on the road pretty quickly, so to speak. I'm gonna go change real quick before we arrive." He quickly exited the bridge, pausing to give Kairi a quick, good morning kiss on the cheek as he did so. Kairi's cheeks flushed red slightly as he took her by surprise.

Nanaki let out a low whistle. "That's the first time I've seen him willingly give you any kind of emotional contact since we left my home world," the lavender teen commented. At her words, Kairi's mind briefly flashed back to the night before, where she and Sora had ended up having a two and a half hour heart to heart about why he was doing his best to avoid her since they had put Lynfael to their rear as they headed out for Radiant Garden.

Sora had been afraid for her safety. He had lost control with his Anti-Form, shot out Recovery Seven's throat and hurled Recovery Two to what Sora assumed was her death. He was afraid of what he might do to Kairi if he lost control. Even as he had explained his reasoning to her, he looked defeated, and afraid. Two things she knew the Sora she had fallen for would never display, especially over something as silly as losing control of the powers he didn't even fully understand. So Kairi had done the only thing she could think of.

She literally slapped sense back into him.

It had taken her over an hour after that to help Sora realize that what had happened with his Anti-Form wasn't his fault, that it had been Recovery Seven's fault instead. She had promised to always stand by him, to be his guiding light and pull him back from the Darkness if he ever fell victim to it again, just like she had twice now.

That good morning kiss Sora had given her as he passed was more than enough to comfort Kairi and reassure her that everything was going to be alright. With a smile, she nodded to Nanaki. "There's a lot more where that came from, trust me," the auburn-haired teen said with a smile as she stood up from her seat to go change as well. She brushed past Nanaki and headed down the stairs to the deck below; ignoring the violet-haired Wielder's gagging motions.

In less than twenty minutes, Sora and Nanaki had both changed out of their nightclothes and compiled a shopping list with help from Roxas and Kairi (Naminé was remaining unusually silent, which had the others slightly worried). The _Kingdom_ engines were powered down and Sora had locked the Warp System coordinates on what appeared to be a relatively small town so he and Nanaki would attract less attention. Sora gave Kairi one longer-than-necessary kiss goodbye, to Nanaki's chagrin once more before the two teens vanished in a flash of light. The instant they were gone, Kairi rounded on Naminé.

"Alright, sis," she pressed her finger against the blonde's nose as she spoke, "wanna tell me what's bothering you? Don't try to say that 'it's nothing'. We still have that empathetic link going on here and I can tell it's something really bad."

"Is that true?" Roxas asked, bending at the waist a little bit so he could look Naminé in the eye.

Naminé nodded. "At least, I think it is. I had a very strange dream."

_LD_

_Café Cait Sith_

_Sangelas Town_

_Padosoan_

Dry plate. Stack. Dry plate. Stack. Dry plate. Stack.

Such was the usual morning pattern of Annette Pierce, owner of the hole in the wall sweeper café Cait Sith. Despite being in her mid forties and being a heavy smoker, Annette still looked to be in her late twenties with her natural short-cut blonde hair. The only sign of her age were the faint lines under her eyes.

Dry plate. Stack. Dry plate. Stack.

She let out a heavy sigh and grabbed hold of yet another plate. It had only been a year and a half since she had opened the Cait Sith café on the world of Padosoan. A year and a half since her homeworld of Elsida had fallen to Darkness and she, along with thousands of her fellow Elsidians, had woken up on Padosoan, where they were welcomed with open and sympathetic arms by the Padosinites. It hadn't taken long for the survivors of Elsida to adapt to the changes in scenery and life. After only a few months, they had managed to incorporate some of their old world into their new one.

Three left. Dry plate. Stack.

Back on Elsida, crime had been rampant. Criminals and gangs were a common sight and the authorities were terribly overwhelmed. So bounties were placed on criminals to be captured by bounty hunters called 'Sweepers'. Sweepers were forbidden to use lethal force unless absolutely necessary or specified as part of the bounty. Once sweepers were officially recognized by the numerous governments of Elsida, the amount of serious crime dropped severely, being reduced from murder and bank robberies to petty theft and empty threats.

Two left. Dry plate. Stack.

Annette had been a sweeper once a few years ago. She had made a decent living for herself but as she got older, she grew tired of constantly hunting down 'small game'. So, after completing one last big job where she single-handedly brought down one of the three largest drug-smuggling rings in the western regions, she retired from the sweeper life and instead took up being an informant for other sweepers. Not a day went by where she didn't regret her decision.

One left. Dry plate. Sta-

The sound of the bell above the door clanging softly broke Annette out of her morning routine of drying the dishes from the previous day's work. She shifted the cigarette to the side of her mouth in irritation and turned to face the door. "Hey! We're not open yet!" The shadows of a small group of four people fell across the entryway

"Don't be so harsh, Annette. We're starving." The tallest person in the group grumbled.

Annette let out a sigh and exhaled a puff of smoke as she gestured the arrivals in. "Oh. It's you two."

"Long time no see!" The first man to enter the room, a sweeper by the name of Train Heartnet said with a cheerful grin and wave.

He was in his early twenties and had spiky, dark brown hair that looked like he never combed it. His eyes were bright yellow and had an almost cat-like quality to them. He was dressed in a simple pair of black pants and matching sneakers, a dark blue jacket that seemed to be several sizes too small as it only covered the upper half of his torso yet still had sleeves long enough that they had to be rolled up to avoid covering his hands. A v-neck white undershirt was visible underneath the jacket that exposed a large portion of his upper chest, revealing the numeral _XIII_ tattooed over heart. A gun holster was strapped to his right thigh for easy access with the pistol inside barely exposed, save for two red, decorative tassels that dangled freely.

"Yo," Sven Vollfied, another sweeper, said gruffly as he held open the door for the two others following Train and him in.

Sven was dressed in a plain, slightly off-white suit. His shoes were shined to the point where they were almost a reflective surface. The dress shirt he wore beneath the suit jacket was dark blue and accented by a ruby-red tie. His naturally green hair was unkempt and flattened down from spending an excessive amount of time under the fedora Sven wore that matched the rest of his suit. Perhaps the most mysterious part of him was the eye patch he wore over his right eye. Annette was one of the very few people in any world that knew that Sven's eye patch was not a fashion statement or because he couldn't see. But she had promised Sven that she would keep his secret and never breathe a word of it to another.

To Annette's surprise, Sven was closely followed by a pair of teenagers. The first one was a young girl in her late teens. The majority of her body was concealed beneath a tattered tan cloak and her eyes were hidden beneath a pair of goggles with a reflective surface. Her violet hair was cropped short so that it rested above her shoulders at about chin-height. Her mouth was hanging open as if she had never been inside a small café like the Cait Sith before.

The second teen was a boy in his mid-teens with caramel colored, gravity-defying spiky hair. He was dressed in a mostly black and red outfit with several decorative belts supporting large pouches on his thighs. A silver crown necklace dangled around his neck by a chain. He wore a large amused grin on his face as he watched the young girl stare around in awe.

Annette shot Sven a curious look and tilted her head in the direction of the two teens as she set down the last plate she had to dry. "Didn't know you were the type to drag kids along with you, Sven."

"I'm not," the sweeper replied. "They helped us take down Sadon Reed this morning. This is just us paying them back." Annette's eyebrows rose.

"Sadon Reed? That dine-and-dash that hit all nearly every restaurant in over in Desburg?"

"That's the one," Sven said as he made his way to the bar Annette was standing behind.

"By accident," the violet-haired teen pointed out. "We were just stopping the Heartless from terrorizing the people of this world and he accidentally got caught in the crossfire."

"Still, he almost managed to get away from us," Train reminded the teens. "If you two hadn't been there, we wouldn't have been able to get our bounty.

Annette just shrugged it off (she had seen and heard stranger things back in her day, after all) and gestured for the four arrivals to come in. "Sit down," she said, shooting a glance towards Sven and Train. "The usual? A bottle of milk and black coffee?" Sven nodded.

"And rice balls! Rice balls with salmon!" Train said enthusiastically.

Annette sighed. "Rice balls… who else would come into my shop and order rice balls?" She turned towards the two teens as her hand grabbed hold of the freshly brewed pot of coffee just in her reach. "What about you two?"

"Orange juice for me, please," the spiky-haired teen asked.

"Do you have any keverarian brew?" The girl asked. The other four all gave her confused looks. "No? How about scalethen pulp?"

"You're not from around here, are you?" Annette noted. The girl just grinned sheepishly.

"What gave me away?" Her cheeks had developed a bright red tinge to them.

"Just get her some orange juice," the other teen said quickly. "I'm sure she'll like it." Annette just shrugged and turned to bring up their order.

"It's been a while, Sven," Annette noted as she passed two glasses of orange juice to the teens. "You've been pretty good about calling for information lately. I hadn't heard from you, so I figured you got yourselves killed."

"We're not that easy to get rid of," the Sweeper said as he sipped his coffee.

"We're not dead yet," Train added with a small grin. "Though I've lost count of the number of cases we've blown lately."

Annette shook her head. "Living off the streets as usual? I heard Chronos was looking for you. I guess I shouldn't have worried."

"Wow. You're good, Annette."

"Never underestimate a former sweeper," Annette said with a snort of indignation. "Can't say I envy you, though. All your old pals are gunning for you. But I guess you made your choice, huh?" Train nodded and opened his mouth to continue speaking, only to be interrupted as the front door was flung open and a blonde woman in a long, beige trench coat practically flew across the room to cling to Train.

"Help me!" She pleaded as she buried her face into his chest. Train's face was twisted in confusion as he looked from his companions, to the woman and back again.

"Umm… what?"

"Please! I'm being chased by big scary men!" The woman explained.

There wasn't even a moment of silence for Train to consider her offer before he responded. "No."

_That was quick._ Sora noted as he took a drink from his orange juice.

"Wh-why not?" The blonde asked, a look of hurt forming on her face.

"I just ordered rice balls," Train replied with an innocent grin. Sora and Nanaki both let out simultaneous snorts of laughter, causing them to accidentally inhale their drinks. The woman's mouth dropped open. Before she could say anything else in an attempt to change Train's mind, Sven launched himself at his spiky-haired companion and kicked him in the side of the head.

Train let out a cry of surprise and pain as he toppled to the ground where he quickly sat up and glared daggers at his partner. "Sven!"

"You can't turn down a damsel in distress and call yourself a man!" Sven snapped at him, absentmindedly straightening his tie as he stared down at Train.

"I can if I'm about to eat!" Train retorted. Sven let out a snort of frustration and turned to the woman, immediately changing his entire demeanor from hostile to comforting.

"Please, ignore that gluttonous beast," he said in a kind and caring tone, much to Train's irritation and Sora and Nanaki's amusement. "Why don't you tell me about your predicament?" Before the woman could speak, several voices began shouting from just outside of the cafés door as a group of four men ran past the window.

"Where'd she go?"

"She's in that shop!"

"Thought she could lose us, did she?"

"Who are those guys?" Nanaki asked, jabbing her thumb in the direction of the four thugs standing outside.

"I-I don't know," the woman said, a hint of fear creeping its way into her voice, causing it to shake slightly. "They just started coming after for no reason. What do I do now? I outran them once, but…"

Train let out a sigh. "Aw, man. Annette! I'm gonna go throw out the trash. Have the rice balls ready for me, will you?"

"Yeah, sure," Annette replied, not even looking up as she began to prepare the food. "But I don't want anybody dying in front of my shop, understand?"

"I'm not going to die!" The Sweeper said in protest.

"I wasn't talking about you…"

"He's a bit of an odd person, isn't he?" Sora commented as Train stepped outside to deal with the five guys that had followed the woman to the café.

"You don't even know the half of it," Sven grumbled as he turned in his seat to get a better look at the impending brawl about to take place.

"Yo!" Train called out to the four thugs as he closed the door behind him. "Look, I don't know who you guys are, but you're disrupting business."

"He's taking them all on by himself?" The woman whispered in shock. "It's four against one. They'll kill him!"

"Nah," Sven said, seemingly without a care in the world. "He's not the type to turn his back on a woman in need, no matter what he says."

"I suggest you disappear," Train called out to the thugs. "That is, unless you _want_ your faces rearranged."

"Hah, you fool," the foremost thug, assumedly the leader, said. "You think you can threaten the Iron Maiden Gang?"

"The who?" Train asked. "Never heard of 'em."

"We ain't interested in you either!" Another thug, armed with a baseball bat snapped. "Move or di-" The thug's words were cut short as Train moved with seemingly inhuman speed and delivered a kick to the guy's head. The thug fell backward with a scream of pain, dropping his weapon. One of the other men panicked and drew a pistol and fired off three panicked shots at the Sweeper. Train's upper body became a blur as he effortlessly weaved between the bullets, completely unharmed.

"Can he _see_ the bullets?" Sora exclaimed as the group in the café watched the fight outside. "That's awesome!"

"Oh, I get it. You're looking for the quickest way to the hospital, huh?" Train commented as he drew his ornate revolver, Hades, from its holster.

The Hades was an exceptionally unique weapon, both in appearance and functionality. Like a standard revolver, it had a rotating drum with six chambers for bullets that could only be loaded when the front of the gun was opened up, similar to double-barreled shotgun. The body of Hades was thicker than the average revolver, and more angular than most guns in general, designed purely for decorative purposes. The numeral _XIII_ was engraved in gold on both sides.

The thug's eyes widened in recognition, darting back and forth between the engraving on the Hades and the tattoo on Train's chest. _Not possible…_ He told himself.

"An ornate black pistol with the numeral thirteen etched into the side," Train said as he locked eyes with the gun wielding thug. "You recognize it, don't you?"

The other men all looked at their companion, who nodded stiffly. "Of course I do. I'm not a fool," he snapped. "That gun was the favorite of a legendary assassin. He assassinated countless leaders of various factions, cities and nations, embodied bad luck in the underground back on Elsida, and practically had the world in his paw. That's the gun of the Black Cat."

Train smirked cockily as shivers shot up the spines of the other thugs. "That's right!"

"Fine then," the thug with the guns spat as he pulled out a second pistol and aimed it at Train. "So, since you seem to be claiming to be the world's best gunman, do you think you can kill me?"_Ridiculous. He probably showed us that gun as a bluff. He's trying to scare us off. But I'm no fool! I happen to know for a fact that two years ago, the Black Cat betrayed Chronos and was put to death because of it. _

_But still. Even if I defeat an imposter claiming to be the Black Cat while wielding a decorated black pistol, my name will become the best known in the underground!_ With a sadistic grin, the thug took aim at Train, and pulled both triggers. "Die, Black Cat!" Twenty-one shots rang out in rapid succession as the bullets flew through the air towards Train. Train simply shook his head and raised the Hades. With speeds beyond what any normal human would've been capable of, Train swung the Hades around in front of him and deflected all twenty-one bullets away from him, harmlessly redirecting them into the pavement.

Inside the café, the blonde woman watched the fight outside with immense interest.

_He's strong. _She noted. _Those punks are no match for him. He _is_ the real thing._

"You're remarkably calm, young lady," Sven commented, while Sora and Nanaki cheered Train on next to him. The blonde woman gave a start and glanced up at Sven, who towered a good foot and a half above her. His one visible eye wasn't watching Train and the thugs anymore, but was instead focused intently on her. "Be honest now, who are you?"

The woman was taken aback. "Huh? I told you, those guys just came after me!"

Sven obviously didn't believe her. "Right. So I can't help but wonder…" His hand lashed out and grabbed the side of her coat, yanking it open to reveal a pistol strapped to the inside of the coats lining. "…why you didn't use your gun to run them off."

"You… you saw that?" The woman almost seemed to be visibly sweating now. "You're sharp."

"Not really," Sven admitted. "It's pretty easy to tell when someone's packing heat. That's a pretty big piece to be carrying just for self defense. And besides, you're obviously in disguise." His eyes flicked up to her hair for the briefest of moments. "It's a safe bet you'd be armed, too."

Back outside, the gunman felt a wave of fear wash over him as the gun smoke settled, revealing the unharmed Train. _I don't believe it. He used the body of the gun as a shield and knocked all of those bullets down?_

"This gun was specially made for me out of orichalcum," Train explained. "Ordinary bullets won't even scratch it. I guess you could say this gun is my other partner, aside from Sven." The fear the thugs were all feeling intensified as they stared into Train's eyes, watching as the pupils narrowed into cat-like slits. "My turn."

The thug with the guns panicked and raised his weapons again to empty the clips in a desperate attack, but Train was faster. Two shots rang out from the Hades, and flew into the barrels of both of the thug's guns, causing them to explode. The thug cried out in pain and dropped his ruined weapons. He looked up at Train in shock and was quickly greeted by the body of the Hades as it slammed painfully into the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. After the gunman crumpled to the ground, the Sweeper rounded on the others and quickly beat them down.

"Okay, that was pretty awesome," Sora said. "I've never seen someone with that kind of skill before."

"Train's one of a kind," Sven said. "Those punks didn't stand a chance."

"So… are we done here?" Train asked the thugs as they rolled around on the ground, moaning in pain. The four of them looked up at the sweeper, who hadn't even broken a sweat, then at each other before reaching a silent agreement. Despite their pain, they scrambled to their feet and ran with their tails between their legs, all the while complaining about the thrashing they had just taken.

"Who is that guy?"

"You gotta be kidding! This wasn't in our contract!"

"This stupid charade is over!"

"Charade, huh?" Train muttered as he headed back inside the shop. Without even acknowledging the others, he strode straight up to the blonde woman and stared her dead in the eye. "I'd like an explanation, miss."

"You really are something else. I guess my informants knew what they were talking about. I like you guys… a lot." She turned towards Sven. "You were right; I put those thugs up to it. Consider it a bit of mischief. I just needed to know if you two were the real thing. All I had to do was bat my eyelashes and they were on board, really." She reached a hand up to her hair and casually pulled the wig she was wearing off, revealing shoulder-length, amethyst colored hair. "And I always work in disguise. Don't worry about it. If my cover is blown, I'm out of a job."

"Just who are you?" Sven asked.

"Rinslet Walker," the woman replied. "I'm a thief, ever heard of me?" Sven's eye widened in surprise. "So… you two, you're sweepers, right? I have a little business proposal for you. A partnership, if you will."

"'Business proposal'?" Train asked.

"Yeah. I need you on my side," Rinslet said with a nod. "I need the man who was once feared by the most powerful leaders back on our world. I need the Black Cat." She pointed at Train, who let out a small chuckle.

"Heh. You know who I am and you still want to team up?"

"Yep!" Rinslet smiled sweetly back at him.

"She's gutsy," Train said to Sven, who nodded. "I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing."

"Who's the Black Cat?" Sora asked, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side in mild confusion. "Some kind of superhero?" There was a brief moment where all of the adults in the room stared at him. "What?"

"The Black Cat used to be the best assassin in the Chronos Numbers and was supposedly the best gunman in the world," Annette explained. "Rumor has it he was killed by Chronos over a year ago for betraying them." She tilted her head in Train's direction. "Obviously they were wrong."

"They sure tried their hardest though," Train said smugly.

Sven took hold of the conversation, steering it back towards the original topic of discussion as he addressed Rinslet. "You said you were a thief? So… you're _that_ Rinslet Walker?"

"You've heard of her?" Train asked.

Sven nodded. "She's infamous. A thief for hire. She'll steal anything, for a price."

"A thief for hire?" Nanaki repeated. Both she and Sora turned their gazes onto the woman in question, their eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"She's worked for everyone from government officials to gangsters," Sven continued. "She'll steal state secrets, controlled substances… whatever."

"Since you know me so well, let's cut to the chase, shall we?" Rinslet suggested, giving Sven a smug smile. "I'm starting on a huge job right now, one too big for me to handle by myself." Sora briefly struggled with the immature side of his mind, fighting off the urge to add in a _'That's what she said.'_ "So, I figured I needed a couple of sweepers to help me get the job done."

"Look, Walker," Train said in a surprisingly serious tone. "We're legitimate professionals. We can't get mixed up in a heist."

"I'm not asking you to. You'd just be doing your jobs as sweepers," Rinslet said as she pulled a sheet of folded up paper out from an inside pocket on her coat and handed it to Sven who glanced at it as he took a swig of coffee from his cup. "Only this man would be your next target."

"Torneo Rudman?" Sven exclaimed, spitting out his drink in his shock, much to Annette's irritation. "He's worth, what? Half a million, maybe?"

"At least that much," Train said, an eager glint of light dancing around in his eyes as he stared at the wanted poster. "I remember him from a list of high bounty fugitives in this area."

"My target is the research data he's been collecting," Rinslet continued, pretending she had never been interrupted. "I got as far as finding him, which was no easy task, mind you! But… his mansion's protected by a massive security system. And I've heard rumors that he's got these weird, black monsters all over the place as an extra bit of security. I don't even know what those things are!"

"I do," Sora said suddenly. The others all turned to look at him. "Those things are probably the Heartless."

"Heartless?" Nanaki asked. "I remember you mentioning them on our way here, but you didn't exactly explain what they were."

"They're the Darkness in everyone's heart," Sora explained. "When the Heartless take a person's heart, the Darkness in that heart forms a new Heartless. All they ever do is search for more hearts to take, but they're also after the hearts of the worlds. And they can't really be stopped, except by this." There was a flash of bright light in Sora's hand as he summoned the Oblivion to his hand. Oddly enough, Sven and Train didn't seem to find it that odd and Annette didn't seem to be paying much attention.

"What is that thing?" Sven asked. "A weapon?" Sora nodded in response.

"It's a Keyblade," Nanaki explained. "I've got one too." There was another flash of light, and the Keeper's Crest appeared in the purple-haired teen's grip.

"The Heartless are afraid of the Keyblade," Sora explained. "It's the only weapon that can really stop them. They just keep coming back and back otherwise."

"Then it looks like I might need you two as well," Rinslet said with an eager grin. "I can't breach Torneo's place alone. But that's where you come in! I'm the brains, and you four can be the muscle! Together we can make it happen!"

"Right… aren't you also a fugitive?" Sven asked. "What's to stop us from capturing you and collecting your bounty?"

"For starters, the government back home and the governments here are clients of mine. If they acknowledged _my_ crimes, they'd have to acknowledge _their_ own. They won't offer a bounty for me."

"I see corruption isn't limited to just my world, then," Nanaki said in an undertone, just loud enough for only Sora to hear her.

"I see."

"So… you have two choices," Rinslet said as she turned on her heel and began walking toward the exit, "either take a gamble and join me, or run away like cowards. If you're in, meet me in Sapidoa City tomorrow around noon, I'll be in the central plaza downtown." She paused just before heading out the door to blow a kiss in the direction of the four of them. "Ciao!"

_LD_

_Train and Sven's Hideout_

_Two Hours Later_

"Wow," Train said as he observed the cleanliness of their hideout by checking for dust with his fingertips. "It's been so long since we used this place. I thought it would be wrecked by now."

"Annette's been looking after it for us," Sven said as he crushed out his cigarette in one of the dozens of ashtrays in their hideout, only vaguely paying attention as Train walked into the adjacent kitchen.

"There's nothing to eat though!"

Sven sighed. Why was he surprised that food was once again the top priority on his partners' mental list? "Of course there's no food. It's been a month since we were here last. All of the emergency rations would've spoiled if we'd left them here."

"Why don't we just order a pizza then?" Train suggested as he came back into the living room. "It's not like we're going to be here tomorrow anyway." Sven ignored him and lost himself in thought as he recalled their earlier conversation with Rinslet Walker before they had parted ways with her and the two teenage Keyblade Wielders who went off to go shopping for food supplies before they headed back to wherever it was they were staying.

"Train," he spoke up, "are we sure we want to form an alliance with this girl? She is a criminal after all, and we're Sweepers."

"We're not getting involved in anything illegal," his partner said as he stared out the window at the forest behind the hideout. "It's like Rinslet said, we'd just be doing our jobs as Sweepers by busting a crime boss."

"Torneo Rudman…" Sven said glancing at the wanted poster resting on the coffee table in front of him. "Last I heard, he was heading up an arms smuggling outfit over on the Sonia continent. And now suddenly he's here doing scientific research? Something doesn't add up to me."

"But, if we do bust him, we'll be set for the next few months," Train reminded him as Sven lit another cigarette. "We might actually be able to make the car payment for once. And your smoking habit isn't exactly cheap either."

"That doesn't' change the fact that this is a bad idea!" Sven groaned as he threw himself onto a nearby couch "I'm all for chivalry and everything, but I don't trust this woman."

"Well, we can't just walk away," Train said, staring out of the window intently at something in the cluster trees off in the distance.

"We can't?"

"C'mon, Sven," the younger man pushed open the large windows and drew Hades from its holster and aimed at the trees. "The risk is almost as high as the reward. We have to do it! Besides, that woman thinks she can con us." The Hades let out a loud crack as Train pulled the trigger and blasted apart a fake owl in one of the trees. "If we back down, it'll ruin my rep."

With a groan of irritation, more at his partner than anything else, Sven caved. "Fine, let's do it. Reasoning with you never works anyway."

_LD_

_Rinslet Walker's Hotel Room_

_Sapidoa City_

Rinslet stared at the now static covered screen of her laptop in numb shock, the towel she had been using to dry her hair slipping out of her hands and falling to the floor with a muffled thump. "No way! He shot out the telescopic bird camera?" I set that up a hundred meters away! So… that's what the Black Cat can do, huh? This is gonna be fun!"

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_Sapidoa City_

Despite his thicker build and shorter stature, Torneo Rudman always gave the impression of a man to be feared. He rarely smiled, and when he did, he had such a sinister appearance that if was even more terrifying then his normal, irritated look. But the only thing about him that was even more frightening about him was seeing him anxious. And unfortunately for the night guard that had called him, Rudman was an anxious man that night.

"What?" Rudman growled into the mouthpiece of the phone, not even bothering with pleasantries or standard phone-answering etiquette.

"_Boss Torneo, your guest has arrived."_ The voice of the night guard on the other end of the line said, shaking slightly out of nervousness.

"Show him in. And for Christ's sake, be respectful!" Rudman barked before slamming the phone back into its place at his bedside table. Torneo ran a hand through his hair, slicking it back as he stood up and made his way to the lounge where he would meet with his very important guest. Torneo paused by one of the many mirrors that decorated his hallways to examine his appearance.

His eyes were first drawn to the large, jagged scar on the left side of his forehead that ran down to the corner of his eye. He was proud of this scar. A grenade had gone off less than four feet from him back in his younger days when he served in his homeland's army and this was the only remaining mark he had. The best part was that it always intimated those he viewed to be weaker than himself. He straightened his tie with a thick skinned hand before nodding in satisfaction to himself. Intimidating as always.

He was alone when he arrived, much to his relief. He never wanted to keep _that_ man waiting. Sure enough, he was only alone for a few minutes before his much esteemed guest arrived.

"Your security is very tight, Torneo," Creed Diskenth said as he strode into the room less than a few seconds after Rudman, a small smirk on his face.

"Heh, yes," Torneo said as he made his way to the small bar in the room to pour drinks for himself and his guest. "There have been so many spies and Sweepers after me lately."

"That is a nuisance," Creed commented as he sat down on one of the plush sofas decorating the room, propping his sheathed sword up next to him as he did so. "I quite sympathize."

"Please, I have no troubles compared you yours," Torneo said, casually waving away the sympathy. "The governments of several worlds and Chronos all after you… I cannot imagine what you must go through."

"And yet, you come to my aid," Creed said with a grin. "You are a man of dangerous whims."

Torneo let out a gruff chuckle and handed the glass of amber liquid to his guest. "No, no. This is no whim. I believe you can take my million dollar 'God's Breath' research project and bring it to fruition to destroy all the dull old worlds and bring about universal change!"

_LD_

_Sora blinked several times, completely convinced that he was seeing things. He couldn't figure out how he had somehow managed to make it all the way from Padosoan to the Keyblade Graveyard in less than one night. But, sure enough, there he was. Same cloud covered sky. Same dry earth. Same fields of ancient, rust covered Keyblades embedded in the ground. _

_Standing in the middle of the field of Keyblades, where four makeshift roads between the fallen weapons converged was a much older man. The man was bald except for thin eyebrows and a curled, silver goatee. His ears were pointed and his eyes were a disturbingly familiar color of yellow, not unlike that of a Heartless. He had broad, hunched shoulders and a crooked back. The man's clothing vaguely reminded Sora of the outfit worn by Xehanort's Heartless. It was composed of a white and black coat with a red inner lining, over a white shirt with two thin black belts, as well as white gloves and calf-high black boots. _

_The man turned towards Sora and gestured out at the field of Keyblades with a wide, sweeping motion of his arm. "Behold," he spoke in a deep, raspy voice, "__Behold. These lifeless Keys used to be full of power. United with the hearts of their Masters. On this barren soil, Keyblades of Light and Darkness were locked in combat as a great Keyblade War raged. Countless Keyblade Wielders gave up their lives all in search of one ultimate Key. And it will soon belong to me." The man seemed to turn to dust, fading away in a light breeze that rolled across the Keyblade Graveyard. _

_Sora's brow knitted in confusion. But before he had time to even think about what he had just seen, the Keyblade Graveyard was swallowed by Darkness, leaving Sora floating in an endless abyss without the tiniest fragment of light to give him his bearings. There was a flash of light somewhere to his left, drawing his attention. Sora turned and found himself face to face with Xehanort's Heartless, the great Door to Darkness looming ominously behind him._

"_All worlds begin in Darkness and all so end," Ansem, Seeker of Darkness said, his deep voice echoing somehow in the endless abyss surrounding the two of them. "The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, it grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came! You see, darkness is the hearts true essence."_

_Sora stood his ground against the Heartless, prepared to say the same things to him he had said back when they first fought over a year ago. But even as he opened his mouth to speak, the great marble doors opened and a beam of Light pierced the Heartless' chest. Xehanort's Heartless smirked down at Sora as his entire body was rapidly consumed by the Light, leaving nothing behind. Sora stared blankly at the space where the Heartless had been standing a few moments before. _

_The Darkness gave way to the Altar of Naught on the Castle That Never Was. Sure enough, Xemnas himself stood not too far from Sora, staring emotionlessly down at him. "__The time has arrived. Look to the skies!" Xemnas proclaimed, gesturing beyond the tower's edge where the heart shaped moon of Kingdom Hearts could be seen lighting up the darkened skies of the World That Never Was. "There hangs the heart of all hearts, Kingdom Hears, shining down on us at last. See the countless hearts that have gathered? Hearts full of rage... hate... sadness... and bliss. There, in the sky, hangs the promise of a new world. My friends! Remember why we have organized; all the things we hope to achieve. The strength of the human heart is vast. Soon, though, we will have gained power over it! Never again will it... have power over us."_

_Two Keyblades appeared to Xemnas' left and right, the Kingdom Key and the Way to the Dawn, respectively. Both Keyblades became surrounded in a bright, golden aura that rapidly intensified until Sora could hardly stand to stare at them any longer. The auras became streaks of Light that reduced Xemnas to dust when they made contact with him. As he vanished, Xemnas looked down at Sora, his emotionless expression replaced with one of victorious satisfaction. _

_The World That Never Was shattered like glass around Sora and the spiky-haired teen felt himself falling once more into the void. He landed on his feet in a small, metallic room. Wooden furniture lay in pieces while dozens of books on a bookshelf slowly burned, casting an eerie light across the room. A man in a black cloak was huddled in a corner of the room, as far away from the fire as he could make himself, clutching a bottle of alcohol to his chest. _

"_It's all my fault," the man whispered. "When I lost her in the War, I almost gave into the Darkness once again. But he offered me the power to right the wrongs. I should've known better. He was using me to make sure he would return. But I was so blinded by revenge, I couldn't see what he was planning until there was nothing I could do to stop him." The man in the cloak looked up at Sora. "It's up to you, child. You have to stop him."_

_Sora waited expecting the man to speak again, or for the scene to shift, but nothing happened. The man stared at Sora from beneath the shadows cast by his hood. "Why me?" Sora asked. "What makes me so special?"_

"_You are the one chosen by the Keyblade," the man explained. "You weren't chosen by a Keyblade Master, but by the Keyblade itself. You are the Chosen Wielder, the one who can fully unlock the Keyblade's full potential without any prior knowledge. And you are the only one, who can defeat NoX Thera, bringer of the Everlasting Night."_

"_I don't understand," Sora said, shaking his head in confusion. "Who's NoX Thera? What's the Everlasting Night? What do you me-" Sora's words were cut off as once more the world around him vanished, this time in a hazy, jet-black mist. The mist quickly cleared, and Sora once again found himself in the World That Never Was, standing near the base of Memory's Skyscraper. _

_A young man dressed in a black cloak stood between Sora and Memory's Skyscraper. He appeared to be in his early twenties, or at least his late teens. He had silver hair that was spiked up and out of his face except for his bangs, golden-yellow eyes that seemed to glow in the dim lighting of the city, and lightly tanned skin. As Sora and the other locked eyes, the man in the cloak raised his hand towards Sora, offering it to him palm up. Sora's eyes widened in recognition. _

_Back on the Destiny Islands, to offer a stranger your hand like that was a sign of friendship and camaraderie. As the Sora stared at the man's hand in shock, a ghostly image of Riku when he was younger superimposed itself over the man, smiling warmly back at Sora before fading away. Grinning, the spiky haired stepped forward and gripped the man's hand tightly in a shake. The man smirked and tightened his grip, practically crushing the bones in Sora's hand. Sora let out a cry of pain as the man squeezed his hand tighter and tighter. _

_Eleven Dark portals opened up in a semi-circle behind the man and eleven figures dressed in black cloaks stepped out. The silver-haired man smirked down at Sora and summoned the No Name Keyblade to his hand. "Open your heart," he said, his voice was like honey laced with poison. "Become the thirteenth." The Keyblade descended on Sora's chest._

_LD_

_Onboard the Kingdom_

_In Orbit over Padosoan_

Sora awoke with a start as his leg jerked violently beneath him, almost causing him to fall out of the chair he had fallen asleep in. When he realized that he had just been dreaming, he let out a groan of irritation and did his best to make himself comfortable in his chair on the bridge. It had been a few hours since he and Nanaki had returned to the Kingdom with their two dozen or so bags of food after parting ways with Train, Sven and Annette earlier in the day. They had both agreed that sleeping on the ship was a better option than trying to find and pay for a hotel room.

Since he had given up his room to Roxas, and the other two bedrooms on the ship were otherwise now taken, he had been forced to find a new place to sleep. His first choice had been the couch in the rec room, but it was still occupied by Richard. Whether the warlock was alive or dead, Sora couldn't tell (not that he actually cared one way or the other), but all of his efforts to get the pathological, bloodthirsty, homicidal maniac to move (magical or otherwise) were in vain. The warlock simply remained on the couch, forcing Sora to find somewhere else to sleep.

Thankfully enough, the chairs on the bridge were quite comfortable and capable of reclining. So, he settled for what he could, resigning himself to the knowledge that he would probably wake up with a stiff neck and back, regardless of how comfortable the chairs were.

"We need a bigger ship," Sora grumbled. He closed his eyes and attempted to rejoin the dream world, but sleep refused to come to him as easily as it had before. That dream he had just had kept replaying through his mind. And he couldn't help but feel as though some higher power was trying to tell him something and one phrase kept repeating itself in his mind, _"Open your heart. Become the thirteenth."_

_LD_

_Wednesday, June 30__th__ 4794 P.C._

_Sapidoa City_

_Central Plaza_

_Padosoan_

Anyone who said the trip from Sangelas Town to Sapidoa City was a comfortable trip would have been deemed insane and shipped off to the nearest mental-health facility. Sora, Nanaki, Sven and Train all piled into Sven's old car, which was barely large enough to hold all four of them. Not only that, it didn't have the best gas mileage available, the air conditioning didn't work, and the seats were stiff and not very comfortable. All of this combined led to a very terrible six hour drive through the scorching heat of barren plains to Sapidoa City.

Much to the relief of everyone in the car though, Sapidoa was a seaside city and a wonderfully cool breeze reached them when they were still several miles away, bringing them some relief as they made their way to a local hotel to secure a place to stay before they went to meet up with Rinslet.

"Yoo hoo!" Rinslet called out to their group of misfits as she caught sight of them from across the crowded square. She had ditched her overcoat and revealing outfit for something a little more suited for the warmer climate. She was wearing a bright yellow, tropical short-sleeved shirt and a pair of designer sunglasses. She had apparently decided against wearing her wig again, making her easy to spot due to the purple color of her hair. She ran up to them with a larger than necessary smug smile on her face. "Go figure, I didn't think you'd actually show up."

"Liar," Sven called her out. "You knew we'd come. That's why you're here."

"Quit trying to be cute," Sora said, trying his best to imitate the cool, collected appearance that Sven seemed to always have, only to fail and earn a bout of giggles from Nanaki, who was taking pictures with the camera she had purchased the day before. Sora shot her an un-amused stare, which earned him even more giggles as the purple-haired Keyblade Wielder snapped more photos of him.

"Don't be mean!" Rinslet said in a mock-offended tone, slapping Sora gently on his shoulder. "Anyway, I haven't eaten yet. Hungry?" That grabbed the attention of most of the group.

"Always!" Sora, Nanaki and Train said in perfect unison. Sven just sighed and allowed Rinslet to lead them to the nearest open-air café for a spot of lunch.

_LD_

_Alliance HQ_

_The Frozen Fields_

Xanthos turned away from the window that he had been staring out of for the better part of the day. Truthfully, he hated being back here on the Frozen Fields, though he would never admit it out loud. It brought back too many bad memories of the Keyblade War. He let out a sigh. But he didn't really have a choice.

To his knowledge, he was the only surviving Chaser in existence, which meant he was the only one capable of passing on the knowledge of Keyblade Chasing to the future generations of Chasers. Admittedly, the next generation of Chasers was only Olette, but Xanthos had a feeling that more new Chasers would start popping up within a few years. He couldn't explain why he felt like that, he simply did. And there was simply no better place to train them than here, in the great Forge of the Chasers, on what was once the Fields of Paradisium.

The Fields of Paradisium. It had been almost five thousand years since this world was named that. Xanthos almost found it hard to believe. He could still remember the endless fields of wild grass, colored the most vivid green possible. It had once been the closest thing to Heaven anyone could ever find in their life. But that was all gone now. Lost during the Keyblade War when some fool had gotten his hands on a weapon from the Armageddon Codex, the forbidden collection of weapons designed to bring about the end of all things.

Xanthos' fists clenched in anger as he recalled the shouting, the sight of people frozen solid as Winter's Sorrow was broken open, unleashing the Fimbulwinter, an endless season of cold and ice across the world, from then until the end of time. Thus, the Fields of Paradisium perished in the cold and became the Frozen Fields, a dead world devoid of any life.

With a deep calming breath, Xanthos opened his eyes. He didn't need to dwell on the past anymore. Otherwise, he might give in to the Darkness that still lingered in his heart. He had a duty to Olette, to ensure that she became the best Chaser she possibly could under his guidance, as well as preparing her for the upcoming battles against the forces of Darkness that loomed over the heads of everyone in the universe.

"Speak of the Devil…" Xanthos said quietly as he realized his Apprentice was staring back at him from the doorway. He hadn't even heard her come in.

He was pleased to see that Olette had finally taken to wearing the black cloak he had given her, though he imagined it would be slightly difficult for her to adjust to fighting in slightly heeled boots. He would've preferred to have given her a set of Keyblade Armor for herself, but the only functioning set he had available he intended to give to Riku for field testing.

When he had returned to the Forge of the Chasers, now renamed into the Alliance of the Worlds Headquarters, he had discovered several sets of Keyblade Armor in still somewhat decent condition. After refurbishing the sets of armor during his spare time over the past few weeks, he had had what he believed to be a brilliant idea. Admittedly, he wasn't sure if the idea was his own or one he had from overconsumption of alcohol on that particular night. He decided to upgrade the armor with a few more modern features and until they were field tested in a wide variety of natural environments instead of the computer-generated ones produced by a training simulator, he refused to give Olette a set.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I, Master?" Olette asked, her eyes glancing at the nearly empty bottle in Xanthos' left hand. "I can come back later."

"Nonsense!" Xanthos said perhaps a little too eagerly as he gestured for her to come in rather than stand in the doorway. "Come in." Olette did as he asked and stepped further into the room as Xanthos downed the last of his bottle. "What can I do for you?"

"I was hoping you would let me try that training exercise I failed on Sunday," Olette replied. Xanthos raised his eyebrow at her and tossed the now empty bottle into a wire bin near his feet. His silver eyes slowly traveled back towards the window as he considered her request. Olette stood patiently, doing her best to ignore the pounding of her heart against her ribcage. She didn't know why, but the mere thought of asking her Master for a favor like this filled her with an odd feeling of dread.

"Are you certain you are prepared?" Xanthos asked, not even turning his head to look at her. "It's hardly been half of a week since you failed."

"I understand, Master," Olette said her voice remaining strong and even. Xanthos fought the urge to smirk, just like every other time he listened to Olette take on a strong tone of voice. She was such a sweet girl who rarely spoke to anyone like she was now, that Xanthos found it hard to fight back the laughs. He knew she was being dead serious, but that only made it funnier to him. "But with all due respect, I feel like I was distracted when I tried it the first time. I'm sure I can do better this time."

"And what distracted you? Hmm?" Xanthos asked, looking at his Apprentice out of the corner of his eyes. Olette's cheeks flushed red after a moment and she averted her gaze from him. That was all the confirmation Xanthos needed.

"It's nothing of importance, Master," Olette said. A blatant lie if Xanthos had ever heard one, but he wasn't about to call her on it. She knew what her distraction had been and wouldn't be coming to him, requesting permission to try again if she didn't have a way to avoid being distracted once more.

"Alright then," Xanthos said as he gestured for her to leave him. "Go find Pence and tell him to prepare Simulation Program Thirty Four 'H' for this evening. Afterwards, I want you to reflect on your previous attempt to prepare yourself. Do you understand?" Olette bowed to him, placing her right hand over her heart and closing her eyes as she did so.

"Thank you, Master. I'll go find Pence right away," she said before straightening up and quickly exiting the room. Xanthos sighed and turned back towards the window casting one last glance at the frozen wasteland beyond before he rose to his feet. If Olette was determined to try again, then he needed to change it up just a tiny bit, which meant he needed to find the one person in the complex capable of helping him with that task.

_LD_

_Sapidoa Central Plaza_

_Sapidoa City_

_Padosoan _

"Hey! Where're your friends?" Rinslet asked Sven as she returned from her quick trip to the restroom, only to find the table she had shared with her 'business partners' to be empty except for the well dressed Sweeper.

"Train, you mean? He went out," Sven said, uninterestedly. "If you're asking about the others, they went to go do some shopping. I told them to just meet us back at the hotel later."

"He went out?" Rinslet repeated, clearly only interested in Train at the moment. "Out where? I wanted to go over the job with you guys."

"You already did that," Sven reminded her.

"The only thing I told you was Torneo's address!" Rinslet snapped back. _Men…_

"That's all we needed to know," the Sweeper said as he lit up his seventh cigarette of the day. "We have our own way of doing things."

"You what? Wait a minute! You can't just do it your way! You're missing the whole point of an alliance!"

"Quiet down, okay? Everything's fine," Sven said in a reassuring tone. "Just follow our lead. We prefer to set our own pace."

"You '_prefer_' it?" Rinslet growled back. The implications of Sven's words ran through her head at that moment and she was immediately rewarded with a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Wait… He didn't… Did he?"

_LD_

_Torneo's Mansion_

Train let out a low whistle as he stared up at the high walls that surrounded the entirety of Torneo's mansion.

"Man this place is huge," the sweeper noted. "I wonder why rich people feel the need to show off their money like this. I've checked around and this is the only spot not under camera surveillance. Six… maybe seven meters up? No sweat!" He took a few, larger than normal steps backwards before running straight at the wall. A split second before he would've collided with the stone barrier, Train's legs bent into a crouch before he used them to leap high into the air, landing on top of the wall in a very cat-like manner.

"Like I said, no sweat!"

_LD_

_Sapidoa Central Plaza_

"He went to recon the mansion?" Rinslet shouted, slamming the palms of her hands against the table. To his credit, Sven didn't even flinch. "What are you thinking? What if he blows it and they know we're coming?"

"Look. You came to us knowing that he's the legendary 'Black Cat', right? Then you should know you have nothing to worry about."

"I'm just saying, don't underestimate Torneo. He's not just any arms dealer! He has an underground lab and he's conducting horrifying research…" Rinslet's hands flew to her mouth as she realized she had just revealed more than she intended. Sven's eye narrowed in suspicion. _I thought so. This is more than just a simple heist._

"You said you're after this guy's research data," the Sweeper said as he crushed out his cigarette.

"Y-yes…" Rinslet slowly lowered herself into a chair, knowing full well her loose tongue had brought the impending Q and A on her.

"Since we're allies and all, maybe you ought to tell us the whole story. This research of his, what's it about?"

"Okay, fine. I'll tell you," Rinslet said with a sigh. "Torneo is experimenting with bio-weapons in the form of 'Super-humans'."

Sven cocked an eyebrow at her. This was starting to sound like a bad sci-fi plot to him, and he had read more than his fare share of those in his time. "'Super-humans'?"

"Yes. He's developing living weapons."

_LD_

_Torneo's Mansion_

Train scratched his head, feeling more than a little confused as he stared around the perimeter of Torneo's mansion. "Weird. No guards." He had been at the mansion for the better part of a half hour and had to see a single person. Even the pool near the bush he was hiding in was devoid of life around it. Considering it was a rather hot day, this seemed more than a little strange to the Sweeper. "Is it siesta time or something? This is going to be too easy." A loud scream of pain echoed across the grounds, interrupting Train's thoughts. A second cry followed shortly after that, followed by a loud thud that sounded eerily like someone collapsing to the ground.

Train's nostrils twitched on instinct and his eyes narrowed as he caught a whiff of a scent that was more than familiar to him. "I smell blood. What's going on?" He quickly scanned his surroundings once again, and, positive no guards were around, sprang from his hiding place and took off in the direction where he had heard the screams come from. It didn't take him long to reach the source of the smell of blood and the screams, despite the size of the mansion's grounds. Train managed to stay out of sight and hid just around the corner to an open-air dining area Torneo had set up. The crime boss himself was sitting dead center in front of a long table with a decent sized meal set up in front of him. His guards, all dressed in stereotypical, black and white suits, ties, sunglasses and transparent earpieces were gathered behind him. The only exceptions were the bodies of two guards, both covered in their own blood and with massive gashes covering their bodies, the kind inflicted by a large, bladed weapon, and a third guard, who was doing his best to crawl away from a person who stood in the shadows, hidden from view.

Torneo let out a muffled chuckle as he chewed on the bite of steak in his mouth. "What's wrong? You're not going to run?" The guard on the ground rapidly shook his head back and forth, his mouth moving as though he were trying to find the words to plead for his life, his eyes constantly darting in the direction of the shadowy figure. "If you don't run, she can't chase you, can she? Eve wants to play a game of tag, you idiot! Don't you, Eve?" Torneo turned his eyes on the figure in the shadows as she stepped forth. His pride and joy. His ultimate weapon.

Eve was a simple looking girl, most likely no older than twelve or thirteen, dressed in plain, black dress that reached down to her knees. She had long, honey-yellow hair that fell down to the back of her knees with short bangs in the front. Her eyes were a bright magenta in color, but they seemed dull, as if there were no light in them. Her face was emotionless, she simply stared, and when she spoke, she spoke in a slow, monotone voice. "Play… tag. I'm _it_. I'm the Demon."

"Yes! You're the Demon. And the Demon hunts the prey," Torneo encouraged the girl as he took another bite of his meal. "Understand, Eve?"

"Sir! Please! S-spare me!" The guard pleaded finally finding the words to speak. "It'll never happen again! I swear!"

"Too late. Right, Eve?" Torneo chuckled sinisterly. Eve nodded and held out her right hand. A faint, pale blue light began to glow from inside her skin, intensifying until her entire hand was hidden within the light. Then the light began to expand until it was around three feet long and as thick as the thickest part of Eve's arm. The light faded, revealing that her hand had transformed into the blade of a broadsword.

Train stared on in shock as the girl raised her arm while Torneo cheered her on. "Do it! Kill him!" The girl showed no emotion as she swung her blade-arm down towards her victim, who cried out in terror as he saw his imminent demise. Train had seen more than enough. Eve's arm stopped just short of cutting open the man as the sound of a gun being fired nearby took her attention.

"Good to see a youngster who appreciates the importance of being _well armed_. But, that's not how we play tag where I come from." Train called out as he stepped into view from around the corner, the barrel of Hades still smoking from the shot he had fired. _Whoops. I hadn't planned on doing anything more than reconnaissance. Sven's not going to be happy about this one._

"Who are you?" One of Torneo's guards demanded as he whipped a pistol out from the inside of his jacket.

"A Sweeper," Train replied nonchalantly.

Torneo smirked and let out a small laugh. "I see. A hyena after the price on my head, hmm? I'm impressed you made it this far."

"Shall I take care of him, Boss Torneo?" One of the guards asked in a hushed tone as he went to draw out his weapon.

"No, hold on," Torneo said, a sinister grin spreading across his face. "Eve… Why don't you play tag with that man, too? Show him how unwise it would be for a sweeper to come after me."

"Hold on! Your game of tag is lethal. No thanks!" Train quickly exclaimed as he leapt high into the air with all of the strength his legs could muster, successfully landing on the roof of Torneo's mansion in a single bound. "Torneo! Nothing I'd like better than to nab you right here, right now... but if we scuffle and one of these bystanders dies then my bounty gets cut in half. Stupid rule if you ask me. But I'm a sweeper and I don't make the rules."

"You're no ordinary hyena, I see," the gangster commented, undoubtedly impressed by Train's display of physical skill. "But if you think I'll let you walk away from this, you're sorely mistaken." He snapped his fingers. "Kill him."

"Yes, sir!" The reply came from several of his guards as they drew their weapons and took aim at the sweeper.

"Not a chance!" Train flicked his wrist, and tossed a small hand grenade with the image of a laughing cat on it in the direction of the guards. Long before

"What'd he do?" One of the guards shouted.

"I think he threw a grenade!" Another replied.

"Ciao for now, Torneo! I'll be back," Train's voice called out through the smoke.

"Where'd he go?"

"He got away! He's outside the grounds by now!"

"That foolish hyena…" Torneo grumbled to himself. _Was that a tattoo of the number thirteen on his chest?_ "Find him! Eve, come with me." There was no response. Even though the girl had been trained and raised to have no emotion, she knew better than to remain silent when spoken to. "Eve?" Torneo looked around, but there was no sign of his pet project anywhere. "Eve!"

_LD_

On the other side of Torneo's mansion, Eve had easily leapt over the wall and landed on the sidewalk on the other side. She glanced left and right down the street before deciding to head right and into the city.

The Sweeper had joined her game, and the Demon now hunted her new prey.

_LD_

_Sapidoa Central Plaza_

"I'm headed back to the hotel," Sven announced to Rinslet as he stood up from the table. "Train and those kids should be back by now."

"Fine," Rinslet sighed. "I'll get in touch with you later. Tell your partner not to act on his own anymore, will you?"

"I'll tell him," Sven promised. "But it won't do any good." The statement didn't exactly instill a sense of confidence in Rinslet.

"Hey. You don't think he… I mean, he wouldn't have started anything, right?" Rinslet asked as Sven turned to leave. A very small part of her brain was wondering if she had made the right decision.

"I doubt it. Then again, he does love trouble."

_I told her I doubted it, but... I wouldn't put it past Train to start something. I better find hi-_ Sven nearly leapt out of his skin as his phone suddenly started beeping inside his pocket.

"_Sven, buddy! How's it going?"_ Train's voice crackled over the line as Sven pulled out his phone and hit the 'Answer' button.

"Train? I was getting worried! Where are you?"

"_Torneo's place."_

For a moment, Sven couldn't find any words. It took him a full five seconds to speak up again. "What on earth are you still doing there?"

"_Er… I said hello, but then I had to run. Or _pretend_ to run. Heh. I'm still inside the mansion." _Sven's eye twitched in irritation. _"It's just not my style to only scout out the place, you know?"_

"That's not the problem!" Sven snapped. "We never agreed to anything more than that! And why'd you have to 'say hello'? I was a fool to trust you."

"_Aw, c'mon. Don't be mad."_

"Listen, Train, come back right now! Rinslet filled me in. That place is more dangerous than we thought!"

"_Nah. I'm gonna hang out here until I can get to Torneo-"_

"Listen to me! That 'research' she's after; it's nanotechnology for military purposes."

"_Nano… who?"_

"Nanotechnology. Micro-robots engineered to be smaller than one billionth of a meter. Used correctly, these nanomachines can manipulate DNA structure to cure serious illnesses. Molecules can be rearranged to create new matter. The possibilities are endless. Torneo invested enormous capital in the creation of nanomachine soldiers, human clones with nanotechnology built into their bodies back on our world and it looks like he's keeping up with that plan here. He has developed a living military weapon with the ability to transform at will."

"That explains it. She's cute, for a weapon," Train said absent-mindedly as he closed the barrel of his Hades shut, having just reloaded it. _That's gruesome, grooming a killer like it's a natural thing to do. Too bad, Torneo. Now you've crossed paths with the Black Cat. And you know what that means; bad luck._

"Come on back, Train, before this gets any worse."

"Er… Too late?" Train said into his end of the line as the knocking on the door to the restroom he was hiding in resumed. "Sven, I gotta go. I'm in a bit of a jam. Call you later."

"What? Hey-!" Sven tried to keep him talking, but the definitive 'click' from Train hanging up his end cut him off. "That idiot! Fine! Who cares?"

"Hey, kid! Watch where yer goin'!" A deep voice shouted. Sven's ears perked up and he turned his head around to find the source. The voice was coming from a rather large, body-builder type of man. He was staring down at a young girl with long, golden hair, probably not much older than eleven or twelve, who was dressed in a plain black dress. The girl didn't seem fazed by the man's shouting, in fact, her face was completely expressionless. She made to move out of the man's way and continue on her path down the sidewalk, but the man held out a large hand, stopping her. "Not so fast! Say yer sorry!"

"Do you want to play tag with me?" Eve asked the man in her monotone voice.

"Tag?" The man scoffed. "What? You stupid or somethin'? I should call yer folks and make 'em pay me-" Sven had seen enough. No man who treated a kid like that deserved to be called a man. And this punk needed to be taught a lesson or two in chivalry, the hard way.

"Compensation?" The Sweeper said as he stepped up behind the man and placed his gun to his head. Feeling the cold steel of the weapon pressed against his head, the man froze in place, a look of terror forming on his face. "Good idea. I only have this bullet with me. But you're welcome to have it as _compensation_. Do you want it or not?"

"Er… N-no thank you," the man replied, losing his tough demeanor in a split second before running away screaming like a stereotypical little girl.

"Sheesh. Who treats a kid like that?" Sven grumbled before turning back towards the blonde girl. "You okay, kid?"

"I'm the demon," Eve said quietly.

"Huh?" Sven stuck a finger in his ear and twisted it to make sure he had heard her right. _Did she just call herself a demon? Nah. I've gotta be hearing things._ "I thought you were playing tag?"

"Yes," Eve answered. "But I lost him."

"That's a problem," Sven sighed and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. He couldn't in good conscience leave the kid by herself. That would go against his code of chivalry. "You lost your friend?"

"No," Eve replied. "I don't know him."

Sven raised an eyebrow at that. Whatever he had been expecting, that certainly wasn't it. "How's that? Where do you live?"

Eve looked back and forth along the street for a moment with a slightly dazed expression on her face. "I don't know. Where am I?"

"You're not… lost, are you?"

_LD_

_City Park_

_Twenty Minutes Later  
_

"Here," Eve looked away from the group of teenagers she had been watching playing some sort of card game around the fountain in the heart of the city park. Sven stood over her, offering a double-scooped, strawberry ice cream cone. Eve took the cone in her hands and stared blankly at it as the Sweeper sat down next to her. "We'll eat these and then figure out what to do next." Sven let out a sigh and took a bite from his own cone. _Great… A dangerous man like myself, reduced to sharing ice cream with a little girl. But what am I supposed to do? I can't just leave her here._

"You can eat this stuff?" Eve asked. Sven raised his eyebrow at her.

"What? You've never had ice cream before?" Sven asked incredulously, giving his own cone a lick. "You're a weird kid." Eve watched him for a moment, observing how he ate his own cone before hesitantly giving her own a taste.

She gave a small gasp of surprise as her tongue touched the ice cream. "It's cold."

"Yeah. That's ice cream for you," Sven said with a grin as Eve eagerly began devouring the treat.

"But it's good."

Sven smirked and looked over at the group of teens by the fountain. "So… what were you looking at over there?" He asked.

"People," Eve replied. "I've never seen so many people before. I mostly stay inside my house. I never knew there were so many people."

"This?" Sven gestured at the small area of the park with a chuckle. "This is nothing. Most towns have even more."

Eve's eyes, if possible, seemed to open even wider as the possibility of there being more people than what she was seeing in the park dawned on her. "Really?"

"Yep. Go to a big city sometime."

"How many are there?"

"People? Well, let's see… In a big city, a plaza like this one would be totally packed."

"Really?"

"Yep!" Sven said with a laugh. "The Potato Tossing Festival in Vista City? There are so many people there you can't move." Eve turned her attention back on her ice cream as she tried to imagine that many people. The idea scared her a little bit. "You should go sometime. Just watch out for flying spuds."

_LD_

"I'm picking up the signal from Eve's bracelet!" Torneo's driver announced as he swerved around a corner at speeds that were well above the legal limit. "We're getting close, Boss Torneo."

"She's a long way from home," Torneo growled. "Stop the car and find her!"

"Yes, sir!"

_LD_

"Okay now, we've finished our ice cream so let's get started," Sven announced as he led Eve out of the park and towards the nearby shopping district.

"What are we going to do?" Eve asked, curiosity slipping into her tone, proving even more to Sven that the kid was capable of showing some emotion. Even if it was just a hint.

Sven scratched his chin as he quickly decided what he hoped would be the best course of action, given the situation. "How about if we walk around for a little while, and if you don't recognize anything, then we'll go to the police," he suggested. "We can't wander all day."

"Police?" Eve repeated, once again in her neutral tone.

"Yeah, not my favorite idea either," the Sweeper admitted. The police forces of Padosoan were among the less welcoming groups to the Elsidians, even less to Sweepers. When the Elsidians arrived on Padosoan, they brought a lot of their crime with them. As if that wasn't bad enough, the various police forces weren't thrilled by the ideas of Sweepers, mostly because it meant asking for help and as a whole, the police forces were all very proud of hardly ever needing help to get the job done.

"My uncle said the police are our enemies," Eve said, catching Sven completely off guard.

_What kind of uncle tells his niece the police are basically bad people? Maybe I should make sure she's going back to a safe environment. I'd feel bad if I let her go back to someplace that's only going to ruin her future._

"We're very close, boss!" One of Torneo's guards announced as he opened the door to the car for the crime boss. Sven looked around at the raised voice and nearly froze in place as he saw the thick build of Torneo stepping out of the car and looking around for something.

_Torneo? What's he doing here? What happened to Train?_ Dozens of questions quickly danced through Sven's mind as he stared at his bounty. _ He's wide open! This is it! _Sven snapped into action, plunging his hand into his jacket he grabbed hold of his hidden pistol and whipped it out, aiming it at Torneo as he shouted at him._"_Hold it, Torneo!" Rudman turned his attention on Sven, his eyes flicking to stare at Eve for a moment before smirking cruelly back at Sven.

"And you are?" He asked.

"A Sweeper. And I'm taking you in," Sven said with a victorious grin.

_LD_

_Torneo's Mansion_

"Got him! The intruder was in the west wing!" One of Torneo's mansion guards said as he tossed an unconscious Train onto the floor of the security room.

"Lucky break! That guy's quiet as a cat! Where was he?" Another asked.

"He's something else alright. He was inside a vase."

"What?" Mr. Flit, Torneo's right hand man exclaimed. Mr. Flit was a rather thin man, dressed in a dull, off-white suit with a navy-blue collared shirt and white tie visible beneath his perfectly aligned jacket. He had a rather thin, rat-like face with a long nose and small eyes. His navy-blue dyed hair was cut in a perfectly symmetrical bowl cut. Despite his slightly ridiculous appearance, only an idiot would laugh at him, because here in Torneo's mansion, he held almost as much power as the boss himself. "Good work!" Inwardly he let out a sigh of relief. _Now I can face the boss._ "Did you drug him?"

"No… I think he just fell asleep…" One of the guards said.

"Who found him?"

"I did, Mr. Flit!" One of the guards, a man slightly shorter than the others said, raising his hand. "Where is Boss Torneo now? I'd like to report to him personally."

"He's not here," Mr. Flit said as he poked Train's sleeping form sharply, barely even bothering to look up at the man who had spoken up. "Security cameras picked Eve up leaving the grounds. He took a crew with him and went to find her." He straightened up and dusted himself off. "I'll file a report with Boss Torneo later. He'll be pleased, I'm sure. Back to your stations."

"Yes, sir!" The guards all saluted Mr. Flit and quickly exited the security room except for the two who were normally stationed in there.

"So, Mr. Flit. What'll we do with this guy?" One of the remaining guards asked, poking Train's cheek.

"Lock him up until the boss returns," Mr. Flit said with a sigh. "This cat has been more trouble than he was worth."

Train's eyes slowly opened and stared dully at the guard in front of him. "Hey, he's awake," the guard in question announced. Train blinked once and his head fell backwards on his shoulders as he let out a loud snore, which only seemed to irritate the guard that had been poking him. "You… snap out of it!" The guard grabbed him by his hair and yanked his head forward, also ripping off his hair and the skin around the entirety of his head.

"The hell?" The guard stared at the very realistic mask-and-wig combination he now held in his clutches. Looking back, he saw the same face of the man who had caught the intruder, only this one was unconscious and had the words _'Try Again!' _written on his forehead.

"A disguise?" Mr. Flit exclaimed angrily. "Then… that man just now…! Damn it!"

_LD_

"That guy was _out cold_," Train chuckled to himself as he darted out of one of the mansion's unguarded side doors and bolted for the wall surrounding it. "That knock out gas of Sven's really works. If Torneo's not here, there's no point in hanging around anymore." _Besides, at times like these, it's wise to make a quick escape unless you really want to irritate Sven._

_LD_

_Shopping District Alleyways_

Blood fell with a steady drip to the dirty pavement below as Sven forced himself to take another step in the direction of the hospital, Eve's voice echoing though his mind as he did so.

"_I'm the demon."_

Sven groaned as he limped down one of the city's many back alleyways, away from the prying eyes of the public. One arm was pressed tightly against his chest where Eve had run him through with her arm-blade. _Stupid. That was stupid of me. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. _

The image of Eve's flesh glowing bright blue as the Nanomachines inside her activated, briefly altering the physical makeup of her arm, turning it to steel and shaping it into a long, slender blade flashed through Sven's mind. _I never messed up this bad. Not even back in my detective days with the IBI. _

Another image, the dull pain caused by the shock as Eve lunged forward and stabbed Sven before he could even register what had happened. The tears in her eyes as she looked sadly up at him… _That kid… She put a hole right through me. I'm gonna give her… a piece… of… my…_

Sven's thoughts escaped him as he fell face-first onto the stone pavement; his blood slowly began to pool around him.

_LD_

_Sapidoa City Oceanic Front Hotel_

_Several Hours Later_

"What? No! That's a terrible idea!" Rinslet shouted at Train as they walked briskly through the halls of the hotel they were all staying at, Sora and Nanaki trailing only slightly behind them. After meeting up with the thief and the Keyblade Wielders in the hotel's lobby, Train had proceeded to make a beeline straight for the hotel room he and Sven were sharing with the teens while he explained his plan to take down Torneo to Rinslet. A plan that wasn't exactly greeted with open arms. "We're not going back to Torneo's tonight! You seriously can't think-"

"Yes, I can," Train said as they stepped out of the elevator onto the thirteenth floor. "We don't need a fancy plan. I'll just shoot my way in and grab the guy! Well, before I grab him, I might punch him. In the face. Really, _really_ hard."

"Listen to me! I know you're upset about your partner, but come on! He's not dead. We have time to think this through-" Her words were cut off as Train spun suddenly, and pinned her against the wall with one hand. The look on his face was enough to send a shiver of fear up Rinslet's spine.

"My partner is bleeding," the Sweeper reminded her. "Do you really think I can stand here and discuss this rationally? Well, I can't!"

"Torneo's weapon got to Sven. You get that, right?" Rinslet demanded as she painfully jabbed a finger into Train's chest, causing the man to wince slightly. "Nanomachine particles were found at the base of the wound. If we burst in without a plan, we'll end up like Sven."

"Eve won't pose a threat if we grab Torneo first," Train countered as he released Rinslet. "Without him, she's not dangerous."

"How do you know that?" Sora asked, his eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"Instinct."

"Instinct?"

"Sven was caught off-guard because she's a kid," Train explained as he walked to the door to the room he and Sven were sharing and dug around in his pocket for the key to the door. "If he'd known what she was, like we do, he'd still be standing. Sven! You're awake!"

"Yeah," Sven said, not even bothering to look up from where he was lying on his bed as the small group of four entered. "I'm a little woozy from blood loss. But I guess I'm alive."

_No way! Conscious in less than twelve hours?_ Rinslet couldn't believe her eyes._ Sure, she missed the vital organs, but that wound almost killed him anyway. These guys aren't human._

"You'd better thank Rinslet," Nanaki chimed in. "If she hadn't found you, you'd be in heaven or hell by now."

"And me, for using some healing spells on you," Sora added.

"Oh? Great," Sven grunted. "So I owe you two? Well, thanks."

"Yeah, well, I just happened to be walking by, that's all," Rinslet said in an attempt to make it seem like less of a big deal and that she hadn't done it out of the kindness in her heart. "What was I supposed to do? Leave my ally to bleed to death?"

"Anyway…" Train began, striding over to the table provided in the room and dropping a paper bag onto it that let out several loud clinks as whatever was inside bumped against each other.

"What's that?" Sven asked, tilting his head at the bag.

"I bought some ammo," Train said simply. "I want to hit his place tonight. You stay here and rest. I can handle that fat guy alone."

"I'm going with you!" Sven said sharply, wincing as he sat himself up and placed his feet on the floor.

"You're what?" Sora asked incredulously. "But you're seriously injured! Even with the Curaga spells I cast on you, a wound like that will take some time to heal."

"I have to… There's something I need to tell her…"

"Are you nuts? You're still bleedi-" Nanaki began.

"Eve, you mean?" Train said, cutting the teen off. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

Sven flinched as the memory of Eve transforming her arm and stabbing him flashed through his mind once again. "I don't feel like talking right now. Sorry."

"Okay, but I don't feel like taking you with me either," Train countered in a tone that displayed his seriousness without coming across as stern. "I'm not going to let you risk your life twice in one day. "

"Train… I… I have to go with you," Sven insisted.

"Why? Because you're too stubborn to stay home and heal?" Train asked. The two partners stared intently at each other for several long moments, both waiting for the other's resolve to crack. Train gave in first after he realized that Sven wouldn't cave. "Fine. We'll let _this_ decide." He pulled out his pistol and spun it around on one finger before opening it up and taking out five bullets.

_His gun? _Sora asked himself. _What? Is he going to have some sort of Western show down with Sven?_

With a flick of his wrist, Train spun the chamber of the gun around quickly before snapping it closed and tossing it to Sven, who easily caught it in one hand. "I took out all but one bullet," Train explained as he walked over to Sven's bedside table and placed his hand on it. "Six chambers. One bullet. Now, use it to shoot my hand."

"What?" The other four in the room all cried out in disbelief.

"I want to see how committed you are," Train explained. "If my luck is bad, I'll lose my hand. But if you don't have the resolve to do it, then I can't take you with me. A wounded man with a weak resolve won't survive a battle."

"True enough," Sven agreed. He had seen enough men and women die in the line of duty back when he was a detective with the International Bureau of Investigation to attest to that fact.

_Has he lost his mind? _Sora asked as he watched the two Sweepers intently._ What's the point of this?_

"Are you sure about this?" Sven asked as he tightened his hold of the _Hades_. Train nodded. _Knowing him, it's probably not loaded at all._ "You ready?" Train grinned. Sven placed the barrel of the gun against the top of Train's hand and pulled the trigger. To everyone's horror, the gun went off with a bang. But it wasn't accompanied by a cry of pain from Train. Instead, the man was laughing.

"No hesitation at all. That's what I call a partner!" Train praised Sven. "But man, the odds were six to one. Some luck you've got!" He smiled at the four confused and angry faces staring back at him. "Surprised? Like I'd put my hand in _real_ danger. I messed with the bullet beforehand. That was all noise and sparkle. If you'd fired a real bullet, I wouldn't be laughing."

"You son of a-"

"You jerk!" Nanaki growled, slapping Train on the back of his head.

"C'mon. Don't be mad!"

"So, what's next then?" Sora asked as Sven grabbed his hat and placed it over his head. The Sweeper turned back toward the door and gave the teen a confident smirk.

"We're going to Torneo's place."

_LD_

* * *

_Before you ask if this is a filler chapter, the answer is sorta-kinda. It doesn't really focus on our main characters, but it introduces three of the most important characters to the Chronos/Apostles of the Star aspect of Looming Darkness: Train Heartnet (The Black Cat), Sven Vollfied, and Eve, the child bio-weapon. They alone are important enough to warrant a lot of focus during this chapter.  
_

_I also tried my hand at a slightly different style of writing in terms of scene length. I don't think I'll be doing it again. All it did was cause me irritation during the process.  
_

_Yes, Xanthos served in the Dark Brotherhood of Tamriel (if you don't know who they are, go look up the Elder Scrolls video game series) back in his youth.  
_

_This'll be the last time it takes me more than a month to get a new chapter out. I've resolved all personal issues in my life and my work schedule is finally back to normal, so I have no excuses anymore. You guys are all fantastic and I feel as if I've let you down by taking so long.  
_

_On that note, chapter 31: The Cat Bares its Fangs should be up in a week or two . Which also reminds me, I've started up a Twitter account to keep anyone who's interested in the progress I'm making. I'll be updating on a consistent basis, so all of you can keep track of my progress. If you tweet me a question, I may just reveal somehting about the future of Looming Darkness! Twitter: ShadowHorizons  
_

_Before I go, I want to remind anyone who hasn't voted in the poll yet to please do so. Seriously, I know more than five of you are reading this thing.  
_

_As always, reviews are appreciated. I love hearing opinions from you guys, like I said before, you guys rock and give me the motivation to keep going._

_It's great to be back!  
_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis.  
_

_Shadow Horizons  
_


	31. I Want Freedom

_Well, I'm back. Again. At least it wasn't three months this time. Only two. _

_What can I say, real life got in my way and severely impacted my writing time. That, and I went through about four or five versions of this chapter before I was satisfied with it. _

_Seriously. The most versions of any chapter I ever had was of Chapter One, and even then I only had two versions. _

_Anyway, hope you all enjoy! _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, all of the side games wouldn't be on handheld consoles. And one of them would have been for the Xbox 360 (you heard me)._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter Thirty One: I Want Freedom

_Tuesday, June 29__th__ 4794 P.C._

_Alliance HQ_

_Training Simulator_

_The Frozen Fields_

Olette stood as still as she could in the center of the training simulator, doing her best to find something relatively interesting in the dull, gray squares that had yet to create an environment for her training. A very small part of her mind continued to revert back to the habit it had developed of causing her worry due to the simulator having some occasional malfunctions. The first time she had set foot in the simulator, she was nearly overrun by Shadow Heartless because the systems in charge of deciding the number of enemies in the simulator at one time had glitched.

Over two thousand Shadows had spawned and attacked her. The environment settings of the simulation had even confined her to a padded holding cell in a mental institution, preventing her escape while the Heartless kept coming and coming until she was overwhelmed and defeated. It wasn't without its benefits though; she had managed to impress her Master by single-handedly fending off almost five hundred of the Heartless with almost no experience with combat of any kind.

The brunette tapped her foot impatiently. She had been standing there for well over twenty minutes, waiting for Xanthos to enter the concealed control booth where he would observer her session and give instructions to Pence (who knew the workings of the training simulator better than anyone else) on certain adjustments to the simulation, based on how well Olette did. Xanthos wouldn't want it to be too difficult for her, after all.

Olette felt her ears twitch slightly as someone who walked with heavier footsteps entered the concealed control booth. A small grin spread across her face. The heightening of some senses were (according to her Master) one of the best side-effects of experiencing Destati. Just as Xanthos explained, Olette had first discovered her improved hearing and sense of smell within two weeks after they had first arrived on the Frozen Fields and they had been rapidly improving ever since.

There was a faint crackle of static as the simulation chamber's audio systems were activated. "Are you ready?" Xanthos' voice crackled. Olette nodded in response and cracked her knuckles anxiously. "Alright then. Just like last time, Pence will be in control of the simulation under my guidance. If he tells you to do something, do it. Understood?"

"Yes, Master," Olette replied, nodding her head towards the control booth. She heard Xanthos mutter something in a hushed tone to someone else in the booth. A brief moment later, a holographic countdown timer appeared directly in front of her, counting backwards from thirty.

"When the clock reaches zero, the simulation will begin," Pence explained. "I'm activating the environment simulation now." All around Olette, the simple, gray colored panels lining the interior of the simulation chamber began to glow with a faint blue light as the environment projectors came to life. A virtual world rapidly constructed itself around her, leaving Olette with the impression that she was standing in a large warehouse storage room.

The walls and floor were constructed from a dull steel paneling. Crates and boxes of various sizes lined the walls and filled much of the empty space in the room. Several workers, dressed in simple gray uniforms with yellow and black diagonal stripes on their sleeves and helmets with visors that hid their faces walked up and down the aisles formed by the crates, performing their duties. Occasionally, one of them would wave to Olette, oblivious to the orange countdown timer in front of her that was in its last few seconds of life.

"Ten seconds until start," Pence's voice announced. "Enemy simulations are online. User lives are online. You've only got three this time, Olette, so be very careful."

"I will," Olette said as she summoned the No Name Keyblade to her hands. Less than a week before, on the first day Xanthos had been teaching her how to Chase a Keyblade, Olette had succeeded on her first try, and created her own No Name. Unlike the pale blue coloring on her Master's version of the No Name, Olette's had a vibrant yellow glow. Olette glanced up from her weapon and stared at the countdown timer in from of her.

_Three._

A chill ran up Olette's spine, the same chill she had felt the first time she had encountered the Heartless back on Twilight Town.

_Two._

A swarm of Shadows rose out of the ground and pounced on the workers in the warehouse. Men and women ran screaming as the denizens of Darkness gave chase, determined to claim their hearts for their own.

_One._

Olette's grip tightened around the grip of her Keyblade as she shifted herself into a fighting stance, holding the weapon tightly in both hands as the Heartless closest to her became aware of her presence and began to advance on her.

_Zero._

Olette bent her knees slightly and used them to rocket herself at the nearest Shadow, the Heartless turned toward her, sensing the presence of the Keyblade and was swiftly reduced to a small cloud of black mist. She spun around, and intercepted an attack from behind, slicing the offending Heartless through its chest. Sparks danced along the edge of the No Name as Olette called forth her reserves of magical energy.

"Thunder!" Several bolts of lightning flew from the No Name's tip and blasted through a small group of Shadows, leaving only black mist in its wake. Olette followed up her magical attack with a flurry of swift blows as she tore through the Heartless around her. The claws of a Shadow nearly managed to graze her leg, but she managed to spot the attack and countered it by kicking the Shadow as hard as she could into its fellows before blasting them all into oblivion with a Fire spell.

She couldn't help but let out an exhilarated laugh as she moved from enemy to enemy. She was determined to prove to her Master that she could handle this test, and every Heartless that fell to her Keyblade only served to strengthen her resolve.

_Just you watch, Master Xanthos. Just you watch._

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_Sapidoa City_

_Padosoan_

"We're screwed," Rinslet groaned as she walked up to the others who were waiting just outside of the main gate to Torneo's mansion. "They've bumped up security since Train busted in there earlier. There are at least twenty guards spread out around the grounds, and dozens of those Heartless things everywhere, not to mention a grid work of lasers mounted on top of the walls." She glared at Train. "You just had to let them know we were in town, didn't you?" Train simply shrugged in response.

"So, Svenny-baby… Once we're in are you going to take off your eye patch?" Train asked, glancing over at his partner.

"I won't use my right eye. This'll be plenty," Sven held up his gun for emphasis and waved it around.

"Good enough for me!" Train said with a laugh.

"You know, I really don't see how we're going to get into this place unnoticed," Nanaki pointed out. "If they have all of that security, I just don't see a way in."

"No sweat," Sven said confidently as he lit another cigarette and gently clapped the teen on her shoulder, "we're just gonna walk right in through the front gate."

"I've done some crazy stuff before, but how are we gonna do that?" Sora asked. With a flash of light, he summoned his Kingdom Key to his side, catching Nanaki's attention. "I could always try to unlock it with this."

"That wouldn't do us any good," Train said. Those gated can't be pulled open, the guards inside have to push them open. I got a good look when I was there earlier."

"Great," Sora groaned.

"Why did you stop using your Oblivion Keychain?" Nanaki asked Sora. "It made your Keyblade look badass."

Sora glanced down at the Kingdom Key in his hand. "It just doesn't suit me, you know?" He said with a grin. "Gothic really isn't my style. I like some of the more simple things, and what could be simpler than this?" He brought the Kingdom Key up to rest on his shoulder.

"I'll give you that," Nanaki said as she summoned the Keeper's Crest to her hand. "So, are we gonna do this or what?"

"We have to get in first," Train reminded her. "We have to get past the gate?"

"And how are we doing that?" Rinslet asked.

"Watch and learn," Sven said, removing a small red orb decorated with a drawing of a smiling cat face from his pocket.

"What's that little thing gonna do?" Train asked. Usually, Sven showed off his inventions to his partner, but the former Eraser had never seen this thing before. Ignoring Rinslet and igniting his lighter, Sven lit the small wick on the orb and tossed it gently to land in front of the gate. The orb rolled to a stop and released a puff of purple smoke into the air.

"So, is it going to explode or what?" Sora asked, having thought the orb was a bomb.

"I think blowing up a wall might get us noticed," Sven deadpanned in reply.

"Then what does it do?" Rinslet asked. In response, three cats appeared from the nearby trees that lined the perimeter of Torneo's mansion and began pawing at the orb.

"That's it?" Nanaki said. "That's lame." Sven's eye twitched in irritation and reached back into his pocket, producing a handful of the red orbs and lighting them all. In almost no time, the five of them found themselves standing in what seemed to be a sea of cats.

"What did you just throw out there?" Nanaki asked as she tried to avoid stepping on any of the newly arrived cats.

"My cat-luring grenades," Sven explained, having to raise his tone slightly to be heard over the constant meowing the cats were making, "and they worked like a charm!"

"What's all that noise outside the gate?" One of the guards on the other side of the gate called out.

"Here we go," Sora said, readying his Keyblade as the gates to the mansion began to open.

"What the heck? What's with all these cats?"

"Who cares? Just get them out of here!"

Two guards stepped out from behind the gates and began trying to shoo the cats away, but the sea of felines didn't seem to care.

"Let's make this quick!" Sven shouted, catching the guards' attention. Before either man could cry out, the Sweeper had already ran up to one of them and punched him as hard as he possibly could in the stomach, bringing the man to his knees.

"Thanks for opening the gates!" Sora said with a laugh, knocking the other guard unconscious with a swift blow from his Keyblade as he ran through the gates, quickly followed by the other three. Train, the fastest in their group, easily shot past Sora and Sven, taking point and running straight towards four guards standing outside the entrance to the main mansion who were drawing their weapons.

"It's that guy from before!" One of them shouted as he began firing his weapon at the group. "Tell the boss we have intruders!" Train easily dodged most of the bullets and deflected the rest with the side of his _Hades_. Swinging his pistol like a club, Train disposed of the four guards before anyone could bat an eye.

"This is insane!" Rinslet said, covering her head as she ran toward the mansion. Several Shadows and Neoshadows rose from pools of Darkness on the ground as she passed. Portals of Darkness opened and several Soldiers and Lance Soldiers appeared.

"Leave the Heartless to me!" Sora said, sliding to a halt in front of the entrance to the mansion and turning to face the denizens of Darkness. "You guys go on ahead!"

Train looked over his shoulder as he knocked the remaining guard unconscious. "Good luck!" Sora flashed him his trademark grin and swung his Kingdom Key in a wide arc over his head before falling into a fighting stance as the Heartless charged at him.

Sven shouldered his way through the door and immediately took a right down a hall leading further towards the heart of the mansion, closely followed by the rest of their ragtag group minus Sora. Train kept pace with Sven, not wanting his partner to overexert himself because of the hole in his gut. Rinslet and Nanaki however, split away from the two of them.

"You guys rescue Eve!" Rinslet called after them. "I'm going to go find where they've hidden the Nano-tech data!"

"I'll go with Rinslet," Nanaki shouted. "She shouldn't go alone if there are Heartless down there."

"You got it!" Train shouted, waving them away as he and Sven sprinted away.

"Be careful!" Sven cautioned.

"I'm always careful!" Rinslet shouted back as she and Nanaki slipped down a side passage that led to a descending flight of stairs. "The lab will most likely be underground. While security has their eyes on the boys, we'll go steal that data!"

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_Eve's Room_

Eve stared at the moonlight floor in front of her without the slightest hint of emotion on her face. Torneo stood over her, puffing on a thick cigar and staring down at his creation. She had been behaving strangely ever since he had ordered her to stab man in the hat earlier that day. _Could that be the reason she seems… sad?_ Torneo asked himself as he shook the ash from his cigar onto the floor.

"What's going on, Eve? Are you upset about that fellow with the hat?" He asked, in as kind of a voice as he could manage through his gruffness. "That's not like you. That man was a Sweeper. He tried to capture me. He's our enemy." The large man took another heavy drag on his cigar. "You obeyed my orders and stopped the enemy. That's all. I don't know what went on between you before that, but you ought to forget it. It's of no consequence." He watched Eve, searching for a reaction. But all he saw was a single tear forming in the corner of her eye.

Rage filled Torneo, and in one swift motion, he drew his hand back, and slapped Eve as hard as he possibly could. Eve let out a small cry of pain, but left her head facing away from Torneo without a word.

"There's no need for tears!" He snapped at her, spittle flying from his mouth in his anger. "All you need to do is heed my orders and kill our enemies! Do you understand?" Eve nodded slowly.

_Eve… she's meant only to be a killing machine. Is she finding a will of her own?_ Torneo let out a growl and looked up at the large window that overlooked the central courtyard of his mansion._ I don't know what kind of shock she received on the outside, but her effectiveness as a weapon may have been compromised._

The door to Eve's room flew open and Flitt ran in, panting and looking ragged. "Boss Torneo!" He cried out. "Sweepers! Sweepers stormed their way through the front gate! They're on the grounds!"

Torneo's head whipped around. "What?" He roared. His hand grabbed Eve by her arm and dragged her out of her chair as he followed Flitt out of her room. The three of them quickly moved down the hall to the security office where an entire wall was dedicated to surveillance camera feeds.

Several screens displayed Sora making easy work of the Heartless. Shadows and Neoshadows exploded into black mist as the Keyblade tore through them. Soldiers and Lance Soldiers were swiftly destroyed, replaced by crystalline pink hearts that floated a few feet into the sky before vanishing. Nanaki and Rinslet could be seen sneaking around a long metallic passage, searching for the hidden laboratory. Sven, despite his injuries was making decent progress as he searched the mansion for Eve and Torneo, pausing only when he and Train ran into groups of guards. Train was a blur on most screens, his inhuman speed and accuracy turning him into a whirlwind of heavy blows and bullets that crippled guards without killing them.

Torneo didn't seem to be the least bit interested in Sora, Nanaki or Rinslet. His attention was focused on the man who should be dead and the Sweeper who broke into his grounds earlier that same day. "The guy with the hat is still alive? And the Sweeper! They're working together? I should have known," Torneo slammed his fists against one of the three desks in the room. "How dare they come back here? Damn them!"

Behind Torneo, forgotten briefly by him and the security personnel in the room, Eve watched the video feeds, the faintest glimmer of hope shining in her eyes.

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_Underground Facility_

"It's so quiet down here," Nanaki muttered as she and Rinslet crept along the underground passage to Torneo's research laboratory. It didn't help that the only sounds they could hear were the clacking of their shoes on the steel floor and the occasional electrical discharge from one of the many broken surveillance cameras. "I'm kinda creeped out."

You and me both, sister," Rinslet muttered as she peered down a dimly lit side passage. "There are way too many places for an ambush to be set up." She shivered. "But, on the bright side, that is just the kind of suspicious door we've been looking for," Rinslet commented as she and Nanaki approached a large, steel plated door at the end of the passage.

Rinslet reached into the top of her shirt and produced a plastic card from her cleavage. "This card key cost me a fortune, it'd better work." She pressed the card to her lips. "Open sesame!" Rinslet slid the card through the electronic set into the door frame.

For a few seconds, the lights around the reader flashed red before turning green. "Bingo! We're in!" The door slid open automatically, revealing a dimly lit room beyond.

With a grin of satisfaction, Rinslet led the way into the research laboratory. But her triumphant expression fell before she could even take three steps beyond the threshold. Immediately beyond the door were two rows of computers sitting at workstations. Every computer had been smashed and their monitors had gaping bullet holes in them.

"This place has been destroyed," Nanaki noted. "Someone definitely beat us to the punch."

"But who?" Rinslet muttered as she picked up a slightly charred floppy disk from one of the workstations and examined it. "'Tips on How to Make Rolled Omelets without Turning Them into Toxic Waste'," she read aloud. "What the heck does that mean?" She was about to toss the disk aside when she caught sight of the name written under the title. "'Tearju Lunatique'. The Nano-technology scientist?"

"Over here!" Nanaki called out from the dark space beyond the workstations. Rinslet looked up from the disk and noticed that there were dozens of large containment tubes filled with a sickly green liquid, each big enough to hold three fully grown adults in them.

"What are these?" The purple-haired Keyblade Wielder asked as she strode amongst the tubes. Floating inside of them seemed to be a random mishmash of horrifying creatures that would haunt the nightmares of children and adults alike. "It's like a monster museum. Were they all part of the Nano-machines project to create living weapons?"

"'Nano-technology Composition through the Ingestion of G-cells'," Rinslet recited off of the orange plaque placed at the base of one of the tubes containing a humanoid-alligator creature.

"This one is 'OD Weaponry Assimilated into Skeletal Genes with Reconstituted Bone Structure'," Nanaki added examining another.

"It's like there's no logic to their experiments," Rinslet muttered, deep in thought. "They just grabbed whatever they could find and changed it."

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_Main Entrance_

Sora panted heavily, clutching the Kingdom Key in front of him as he warily eyed the Heartless surrounding him. Without warning, they had suddenly stopped attacking him and instead formed a large ring around him. His head flicked back and forth as he spun around expecting them to attack as a group. But instead, the Heartless simply fidgeted in place.

_Okay, now I'm getting worried._ Sora swallowed hard. No sooner had those words formed in his mind than the ground began to shake beneath him. Tendrils of purple-edged Darkness rose from the ground, twisting and weaving themselves into muscular-humanoid shape. Sora dug his heels into the ground and prepared himself. If the other Heartless were standing by, than whatever was taking form was nothing to sneeze at.

The Heartless that now stood before Sora stood at about seven feet tall. Its skin was a dark, purplish-bruise color. Instead of a head, a black mist hung around in its place with two pairs of glowing yellow eyes that always seemed to be focused on Sora. On each hand it had seven long black claws in place of fingers. Emblazoned on the Heartless' chest, just below where its mist-like head was situated, was the Heartless emblem.

Sora's eyes widened slightly in recognition. This Heartless was extremely similar to the one he, Kairi and Naminé had fought back in the arena in El Dorado. However, the one he was currently staring at was significantly shorter, and its left warm didn't appear to have an appearance of boiling slime.

"So, are you supposed to be the weaker one or what?" Sora asked the Heartless, even though he knew it couldn't respond. Still, it felt good for him to try taunting his opponent. Though he wasn't willing to admit it, even to himself, he had been feeling a steady build up of anger over the past few days, ever since he had briefly been controlled by his Anti-Form, and taunting the Heartless seemed like a harmless way to do just that.

The Heartless raised its left arm, which began to glow with a pale, purple light as it changed shape, just as Sora expected it to. The hand transformed into a stereotypical cross-shaped guard of a sword, with at least a half a foot of a double edged blade extending from the guard. However, the blade suddenly ended, as though it had been sliced off, leaving only the stump of a weapon in its place.

Sora let out a laugh at how ridiculous it looked. "I guess that answers my question," he snickered. "Looks like that other one I fought was better than you, and even though I needed Kairi's help to bring it down, if you can't transform your arm, what good are you?"

The Heartless responded to Sora's taunts by swinging its sword arm down in a wide arc. As the partial blade lined up with the ground, a deep gouge began to form in the dirt, almost as if a real blade was there. The Heartless swung its invisible blade back around and crossed it over its chest. Sora stared, dumbfounded at the mark on the ground.

"Okay, I take back what I said," he chuckled nervously. "The other one wasn't nearly as scary as you are."

The Heartless, not surprisingly, said nothing, and instead chose to bull-rush Sora. The spiky-haired teen's nervous grin slipped off his face, replaced by a more serious grimace. He leveled his Kingdom Key with the charging Heartless and summoned forth magical energy to fire off a string of fire balls at the beast. Three streaks of orange, yellow and red raced toward the Heartless as Sora let loose a wild battle cry. The Heartless didn't even pause as its invisible blade deflected the fireballs, redirecting them harmlessly into the ground beside it.

"Well that was effective," Sora mumbled sarcastically as the Heartless swung at him. The teen leapt backward as hard as he could to avoid the invisible blade, as he had no idea how long it could be. Fortunately, the tip only grazed him across his torso, drawing a decent amount of blood, but nothing life threatening.

"Hey! I liked that shirt!" Sora snapped at the Heartless, rolling to the side to avoid a vertical slash from it. "I mean, sure, it was my only shirt so it had to happen sooner or later, but come on!"

The Heartless was surprisingly more nimble than its counterpart Sora had fought before. It swiftly dealt two quick slashes at Sora's head, slicing open one of his cheeks and leaving a gash across his forehead, causing blood to trickle down into his right eye, partially blinding him. Sora didn't even have time to try to fight back before another slash split open his left shoulder.

"Again with the shirt!" Sora growled. "This is really starting to get old, you headless jerk." He rolled backwards, narrowly avoiding another slash from the invisible blade. "You Heartless just don't know how to play fair, do you?"

The Heartless leapt up into the air, angling its sword arm down in what Sora assumed to be a stabbing stance. The teen leapt out of the way as the beast slammed heavily into the ground, driving its blade into the earth and leaving a shallow crater.

"But so can I!" The Kingdom Key pressed point blank against the Heartless' back. "Firagun!" The resulting spell created a large explosion that blasted the Heartless toward the wall surrounding the mansion, while Sora was thrown backwards into one of the decorative pillars lining the outside of the main building.

Sora groaned in pain as he forced himself back to his feet. The circle of Heartless had broken, forming instead a straight line facing the Wielder. In the center of the line stood, seemingly unharmed, the large, mist-headed heartless.

"You have got to be kidding me," Sora sighed. _What now? If I attack with magic it'll just deflect it, but if I move in, it has the advantage._

As though it were reading his thoughts, the Heartless swung its blade arm twice in Sora's direction. The teen raised his eyebrows at this. He knew the blade wouldn't reach him. _There has to be at least twenty feet between-_ Sora's thoughts were interrupted as a section of the pillar above him was sliced off and fell to the ground next to him with a loud thud.

"The length of the blade changes at will," Sora realized. His Keyblade shook slightly in his hands. He was starting to worry more than usual now_. Great, that means I have no place to hide, this thing can get me wherever I am. Come on, Sora. Think, think, think._ The Heartless charged at Sora again, drawing its blade back once more, preparing to move in for the kill. An idea hit Sora as the Heartless rapidly closed the gap between the two of them, but he wasn't exactly keen on what the outcome might be.

_I don't know if this will work. But I'm out of options, so there's no reason not to try!_ He told himself. He shifted his grip on the Kingdom Key, holding it solely in his right hand, preparing to counterattack. Once the Heartless was less than five feet away, swinging its blade at Sora once more, the teen brought up his left arm and placed it in direct path of the blade. _Even though I can't see the blade, I'll know where it is the instant it attacks._

The invisible blade dug into Sora's left arm, slicing through it like a hot knife through butter. Sora howled in pain, but kept his eyes focused on the bloody line severing his arm. Just before the invisible blade finished cutting his arm off, Sora intercepted it with the tip of his Keyblade.

"Now!" He roared. A single Firaga spell shot from Sora's Keyblade, knocking back the Heartless' invisible one and leaving Sora with an opening. As Sora's severed arm flopped onto the ground below, the teen stabbed the Heartless responsible through its emblem.

"Let's finish this with a bang," Sora growled at the Heartless. "Thunder!" A thick bolt of lightning burst from the cloudless sky and struck the Heartless. Sora kept the electric attack going until he felt himself about to pass out from the exertion it was putting on him, as well as the pain he was feeling from his stump of an arm. The Heartless remained still for a brief moment, and then faded away into nothing, leaving only a lone, crystalline heart floating up to the night sky above.

Sora collapsed to his knees, using the Kingdom Key to support himself. "That's what you get," he panted. A violently painful twinge lanced through Sora's body with each heartbeat as his blood flowed freely to the ground.

"Kairi's gonna kill me." He tried to laugh, but discovered it hurt too much. He looked up at where the Heartless had been moments before, only to see the other, weaker Heartless charging him en masse.

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_West Wing, First Floor_

"One after another," Train grumbled as he reloaded the chambers of his _Hades_. "It just doesn't stop."

"Hey, Train," Sven called out to his partner from behind the cover of a thick support pillar, "you're not aiming to kill them, are you?"

"Of course not," Train snorted in response as he snapped his gun shut. He ducked out of cover long enough to fire three shots, each one bringing down a different guard. "I haven't killed any yet, have I? They'd cut our fee if I did."

"Here they are!"

"Sven! I can handle these guys on my own!" Train poked his head out from cover once more and shot down the closest two guards. He glanced back at his partner, who seemed to be hesitating. "Go on! Didn't you need to tell that kid something?" Sven nodded, sending his partner unspoken thanks and took off sprinting as best he could down a side passage while clutching his wound.

"You owe me ten bottles of milk!" Train called after him.

"No way!" Sven shouted over his shoulder. "Three max!" Sven rounded a corner and his partner's fight vanished from sight. The wounded Sweeper let out a grunt of pain and allowed himself a brief moment to relax as he replayed the events from the day in his head, from meeting Eve, right up until he passed out from the stab wound she had given him.

_Eve… I'm sure of what I saw. She attacked me because Torneo ordered her to. But I definitely saw tears in her eyes. She may be a living weapon, but she doesn't kill because she wants to. She made sure to avoid my vital organs. That's the only reason I didn't die! If someone just gave her a chance, that girl could be human again. It's too late for Train or me, but she still has a shot!_

Sven forced himself away from the wall and took off at a brisk pace determined to find Torneo and set Eve free.

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_Main Entrance_

Sora spun on his heel and plunged the 'teeth' of the Kingdom Key into the chest of another Soldier, reducing it to a fine black mist with a crystalline pink heart at its core. Without pausing, Sora rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a Neoshadow as it burst out of the ground. He aimed his weapon so the tip was level with the Heartless and called forth a large fireball that quickly disposed of it.

The only remaining Lance Soldier attempted to run Sora through with its weapon, but the Keyblade Master was faster. Sora spun the Keyblade around in his grip, deflecting the lance and driving it point-first into the ground. The Lance Soldier stumbled forward, unprepared for the sudden stop in its attack, and left itself wide open to a Blizzaga spell fired from Sora's Keyblade.

Sora smashed the frozen Heartless with a quick strike and turned to face the remaining Shadows, only to find that they had already disappeared. Sora breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed to his knees with a gasp of pain as the stump on his left arm sent another wave of pain through Sora's body.

_This is bad…_ Sora groaned as he watched his wound stain the ground below him with his blood. _It won't stop bleeding… And I don't have the energy to try to heal this._

The sound of approaching footsteps caught Sora's attention. He whipped his head around and raised his Keyblade in the best defensive stance he could muster. The footsteps were caused by a man dressed in a white lab coat that was headed toward Sora with a bloody lump hidden by a stained cloth tucked under his arm. His hair was a light brown in color and his eyes were hidden by the reflection of light cast off by his glasses.

"Master Sora, I presume?" The man inquired, glancing around at the rubble from the ruined gate that littered the courtyard. Sora's eyes narrowed and his grip tightened around the handle of his Keyblade.

"That's right," the teen replied. "Who are you?"

"Lower your weapon, please. You don't perceive me as a threat, do you? My name is Kazuo Kanzaki," the man replied. "But you can call me 'Doctor'. That's what the others call me in any case." Doctor smirked at Sora, sending a chill up the Wielder's spine, but whether or not it was derived from blood loss or from the smirk, Sora couldn't tell.

"How do you know my name?" Sora asked.

"Let's worry about that later," Doctor Kanzaki said. He raised his arm revealing that the misshapen object he was holding was Sora's severed hand. Sora's pupils shrank at the sight of his arm and he had to force himself to not vomit all over himself. "Normally, I wouldn't do this, seeing as we're enemies, but Creed feels it would be… inconvenient, if you were to lose half of your power."

At the mention of the name 'Creed' Sora' briefly flashed back to earlier that month, when he had first heard that name. _"Allow me to introduce myself. It comes as a great pleasure to meet you, Master Sora, Princess Kairi. I am a member of the Apostles of the Star. My name is Charden."_

_"The Apostles of the Star?"_

_"Yes. We are revolutionaries led by the great Creed Diskenth, and as such we are now allied with the Queen of Darkness, Maleficent."_

"So, you work for Maleficent?" Sora quickly forced himself to his feet, ignoring the throbbing of his stumped arm and raised his Keyblade in front of him. "And now you're suddenly offering to help me? I don't buy it."

"Come now, Master Sora, you're in no condition to fight anymore," Doctor Kanzaki said with a sigh. "You've lost too much blood. If you keep at that for much longer, you'll pass out and die." Sora glanced down at his wound, the flow of blood had slowed considerably since his hand was severed, but he was already having trouble standing. In fact, it took all of his conscious effort just to keep his legs from giving out beneath him.

"That doesn't explain why this Creed guy wants me to keep both my arms," Sora managed to grunt through the waves of pain shooting up his arm. "Wouldn't be easier for Maleficent if I was weaker?"

"Without a doubt," Doctor Kanzaki replied, pushing his glasses further up along the bridge of his nose. "However, the Apostles of the Star are only _allied_ with Maleficent until she is no longer necessary to us." He pointed at Sora's Oblivion with his free hand and grinned. "Creed has an eye for murderous intent, and the Keyblade certainly has such a bloody history behind it. As such, he wants you to be at full strength should you ever decide to join us. So, here I am. I can use the power of Tao to treat you."

"Tao?" Sora repeated. Doctor Kanzaki ignored him and held out his free hand toward the fallen Wielder.

"Let me see your wound," he instructed quietly. "You don't want to bleed to death, do you?" Begrudgingly, Sora held out his injured arm toward the man, who gently took it in his grasp as he examined it. The two of them were silent for several long seconds as Doctor Kanzaki turned the arm around in his grasp, carefully examining the wound. Finally, a grin of satisfaction formed across his face.

"Ah, yes. The Seraph's blade is magnificent, wouldn't you agree?" He said, still staring at the wound.

"Seraph?" Sora repeated.

"A unique breed of Heartless," Doctor Kanzaki explained. "Born like most Emblem Heartless, only the Seraph isn't limited to a single form. This is due in part to the mixture of both Tao and Darkness. Two powerful forces fusing together to create a lethal, yet, beautiful tool of destruction." He traced the outer edge of Sora's wound, ignoring the blood and causing the teen to wince in pain.

"See here?" He continued. "Everything surrounding the wound is still intact. It's as though the cells were simply pulled apart. Therefore, soft Chi Kung treatment should be sufficient." He shifted his grip on Sora's arm so that he was holding it in one hand, while the other grabbed hold of the severed hand, guiding it back into place. A faint, pale blue light surrounded the wound and Sora nearly cried out as excruciating pain flooded his mind. It was even worse than when his hand had actually been cut off. He could feel his skin reconnecting, the muscle and tissue underneath knitting themselves back together, the bone fusing itself back into place, and it hurt like nothing he had ever experienced before.

"Don't worry," Doctor Kanzaki continued. "I'm reviving the cells with my Chi. This should only take a few more seconds. It's a good thing I perfected my work on the Seraph's offensive capabilities, otherwise, your cells would be too damaged for this to even work." Sora winced as pins and needles shot up his arm from the wound. The whole process took less than two minutes and when Doctor Kanzaki pulled his hands away, there wasn't a single mark on Sora's flesh to show that he had ever lost the arm other than the drying blood he had lost.

"I'll be off then," Doctor Kanzaki announced as he wiped his hands off on the cloth he had used to wrap Sora's formerly severed arm in. "My comrades are waiting for me to report in. Shall I pass your thanks along to Creed? If he hadn't made the request, I'd be handing you a rather large bill right now."

Sora glared up at the man. He could practically smell the Darkness on him. "Tell him, that one day, he's going to regret this."

Doctor Kanzaki chuckled and turned his back on Sora as he strode back toward the ruined gates of Torneo's mansion. "If you insist."

"What a weird guy," Sora muttered as he went back to ensuring that his formerly severed limb would still function.

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_West Wing, Second Floor_

_There sure are a lot of them._ Train said to himself as he loaded his _Hades_ for what felt like the hundredth time that night. A bullet impacted against the pillar he was hiding behind, blasting off a small chunk of cement._ All this gunfire and smoke reminds me of the old days._ _Just like… one of those days. _A single heartbeat seemed to slow down time around him. The feeling of the kill, the cold emotionless state of an Eraser, filled Train's veins.

"Hey, where'd he go?" One of the guards that had been shooting at the former Eraser shouted over the gunfire of his companions as he realized Train was no longer shooting back. Slowly, the others stopped firing their weapons and looked around for signs of Train.

"Did he escape?" Another asked.

"Hold on," the first guard said, holding up his hand to keep his companions at bay. "He may still be waiting to make his move." As if on cue, Train stepped out from behind cover and locked gazes with the guards. The five men opposing him all froze in place as fear overtook them. Train's pupils had changed into cat-like slits, and he seemed to be emitting an aura of murderous intent.

_What's happening? I c-can't move!_ One of the guards tried to scream, but no sound came out.

"I have business with Torneo," Train said as he walked toward the guards. "You will let me pass." One of the guards nodded shakily, terrified that even a small action like that could possibly get them killed.

_H-he's a monster!_ The guard said to himself as Train walked right past them and disappeared around a corner._ Even if there were a hundred of us… we still wouldn't stand a chance against a man like that!_

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_Security Office_

"Neutralized?" Torneo roared at Flitt, who had just lost radio contact with another squad of guards. "All of them? There were thirty men on that detail!" In his anger, Torneo slammed his fist into the closest wall, leaving a decent sized hole in it as a result.

"Yes, Sir…" Flitt said nervously, flinching at the sight of his employer's anger. "The others are starting to desert as well." He glanced over at the wall of security cameras, only a third of which seemed to still be working. Sven could easily be seen sneaking around the west wing of the mansion where no more guards were left. Train appeared only as a blur in several cameras before a flash of light lit up the screen and static replaced the image. Clearly he was shooting out every camera he came across. "It's only a matter of time before the intruders make their way here. What do you want to do?"

Torneo was staring up at the displays as well, but his gaze was distant and Flitt wasn't sure the older man was even paying attention at all. He seemed to be having an internal debate with himself over the best course of action. With a grim expression, Torneo slowly turned toward his right hand man. "Flitt, prepare the N-S drug."

"What?" Flitt's mouth dropped open in disbelief. The N-S drug hadn't even passed proper testing yet. Things couldn't possibly be that desperate. "You're not going to give it to Eve, are you? Her body can't-"

"I know," Torneo cut his rambling off before he could get underway, "but this is an excellent opportunity to test her powers in real combat." He turned toward Eve, who had her eyes fixed on the screens displaying the Sweeper with the eye patch. "We'll unleash Eve's potential. And she will tear our enemies to shreds!"

_LD _

_Alliance HQ_

_Training Simulator_

_The Frozen Fields_

Olette drew in a deep breath to steady her nerves as she stared out of the exit to the simulated warehouse and across the landing pad that waited beyond at the newest challenge the simulator had thrown her way. A Dark Keyblade Wielder, dressed in the same armor most Dark Wielders had worn during the Keyblade War (according to the images Xanthos had given her).

The armor consisted of a form-fitting suit that appeared at first glance to be made of black muscle tissue. The black faded to red around the wrists. Crimson gloves covered his hands. The suit had a blood red muscle pattern on the chest. It had a dark red belt and matching, frayed cloth around his waist, opening in the front. The front of the cloth was held together by a pair of crimson straps that crossed in an 'x' shape over the Wielder's waist. The Wielder's face was concealed behind a featureless black mask that covered all of his head.

The Wielder clutched an abnormally long Keyblade in his hand. The weapon appeared chipped and asymmetrical in its design. The handle was smooth and red-orange and was surrounded by a roughly rectangular guard. The guard was predominantly black, though it faded into dark red toward the base of the blade, and had uneven, chipped spikes on each of its corners. The shaft of the blade was black with a faded bronze border along its edges, which are lined with prominent chips and a rust colored chain design running along its heart. The head of the blade was decorated by several chipped and oddly-shaped red-orange spikes with black tips, which also formed the teeth. A sinister blue eye was set into the head of the blade and seemed to be looking at Olette. The Chaos Ripper. A weapon forged by Chasers who had given themselves over to Darkness.

"Your new objective is to defeat your opponent and escape in the remaining shuttle before the facility collapses in on itself," Pence's disembodied voice explained. Olette nodded and tightened her grip on her Keyblade, ignoring the rain pelting against her face and in her eyes. "You've only got four and a half minutes to escape. Give him hell, Olette!"

As the glowing orange countdown timer appeared high above the landing pad, easily visible despite the vision-impairing rain, the Dark Wielder drew back his Keyblade and charged at Olette with a vicious cry. The brunette braced herself as her opponent bore down on her, carefully measuring his heavy footsteps and how close he was to her.

Olette drew back her free hand, now surrounded with a swirling, bluish-white energy. "Blizzara!" The energy around her hand redirected itself to her palm, twisting into an orb shape before following bursting forth and impacting against the wet ground in front of the Dark Wielder. The wet ground instantly froze over, leaving a long, smooth patch of ice in the Wielder's immediate path and allowing him no time to attempt to avoid Olette's trap.

He slipped and fell face first onto the strip of ice, still speeding towards Olette as he attempted to right himself. A smug smirk formed on Olette's face as she drew back her Keyblade, ready to end this brief battle with one blow. However, the Dark Wielder managed to get himself into a position that allowed him to plunge his Keyblade through the ice and into the ground below when he was just outside of Olette's range of attack. The Chaos Ripper acted as an anchor for the Wielder, who quickly turned his momentum into a weapon and spun around in a wide circle before kicking Olette in her stomach with both feet, winding her as she was sent flying back toward the entrance to the research facility.

The brunette gasped for breath as she scrambled back to her feet, briefly using her No Name for support. The Dark Wielder was closing in on her once more, not giving her time to properly recover. Olette barely managed to duck under the Wielder's slash. She attempted to counter with a blow to his ribs, but the man proved to be far more skilled with a bulky weapon than she had expected. He managed to twist his Keyblade around in his grip and brought his arm closer to himself just in time to deflect the No Name's teeth.

Olette kicked against the head of the Chaos Ripper, causing the Wielder to lose his balance as it slid between his legs. The brunette leapt away from him, putting as much distance between the two of them as she could as she tried to escape to the shuttle. Her emerald eyes flicked up to the glowing countdown timer overhead. She had already lost a full minute fighting this guy. She was running out of time and he didn't seem like the type to easily give up.

Three orbs of fire, each with a core as black as night, formed around the tip of the Chaos Ripper. The Wielder swung the blade above his head in a wide arc before bringing it down to point at Olette. The balls of flame raced toward her, leaving long trails of red and yellow in their wake. Olette raised her own Keyblade and concentrated on building up enough energy for a magical counter.

"Aquara!" Olette shouted. The rain shifted direction mid-fall, redirecting toward the brunette while the puddles on the ground rose up, joining together to form a dome of water several inches thick around her. The fireballs were reduced to clouds of steam as they impacted against the water shield and Olette could have sworn she heard the Wielder let out a growl of frustration.

Furrowing her brow in concentration, Olette continued to provide the magical energy she needed into her Aqua spell, changing the shape from a dome shield into a large, jagged spike which she froze solid with a quick Blizzara spell. "So long!" She shouted, striking the larger end of the ice spike with the flat of her Keyblade and sending it hurtling toward the Dark Wielder. Olette dropped to one knee and aimed her weapon at the Wielder as the spike flew at him.

"Thunder!" She called out to the heavens. The bolts of magical electricity struck the Dark Wielder before he could react, stunning him and leaving him open. The ice spike slammed into his chest and nailed him to the ground under its weight. Grinning triumphantly, Olette glanced up at the orange numbers overhead. She still had more than two minutes left.

The Dark Keyblade Wielder groaned in pain under the weight of the ice that was crushing him. He struggled to push the ice off of him, but quickly gave in and stopped struggling as blood pooled around him. Curiosity gripped Olette, and before she knew it, she found herself striding over to her fallen opponent and reaching down for his mask.

Olette's eyes went wide with shock as she finally saw the Wielder's face. His mask clattered to the ground and shattered, forgotten by the brunette. Olette took one step back from the dying body of the Wielder. His eyes may have been golden yellow, and his face may have been scarred, but she would recognize him anywhere.

Staring back at Olette as he slowly passed away, his golden yellow eyes glaring ice-cold daggers at her, was Hayner.

_LD_

_Torneo Rudman's Mansion_

_Sapidoa City_

_Courtyard_

_Padosoan_

Sven spat his mostly burnt out cigarette as he stepped out of the mansion and into the lavish courtyard at its heart. Torneo stood with Eve by his side in front of an ornate fountain, featuring a pair of winged-horses in flight. Mister Flitt stood on the other side of Eve, pistol raised and aimed at Sven.

"There you are," the injured Sweeper said with a grin. "I've been looking for you, Torneo."

The crime boss let out a boisterous laugh at the sight of Sven. "Ha! You brazen fool. Sneaking back here the very same day Eve sliced through you… you're a monster." His grin became more pronounced in the light of the moon as he examined Sven carefully. "But you are not immortal. I can tell from your face. It's so drawn and pale. You're certainly determined though. What's driving you?"

"I saw the kid cry," Sven responded without a second's hesitation, ignoring the pain his wound was causing him. "I can't just turn my back. That wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me, would it?" Sven raised his pistol and took aim at Torneo. "I'm taking you down! And setting Eve free! That's what's driving me!" Eve's eyes widened in surprise at Sven's declaration while Torneo only laughed

"Heh. Do you hear what you're saying? Eve is the product of my research," he said proudly as he placed a thick and on her shoulder and gripped tightly. "She belongs to me. You can't liberate property."

"Shut up!"

Everyone's eyes turned toward the entrance behind Sven, where Sora could be seen walking out into the courtyard, Kingdom Key drawn and pointed threateningly at Torneo. The teen strode up to stand alongside Sven, nodding to the Sweeper as he approached. "We each decide how to live our lives. Scum like you have no right to own anyone!"

"Eve! Don't listen to them!" Torneo growled into the blonde girl's ear. "These men are going to die! Right now!"

"I don't understand this word… 'Freedom'," Eve said softly, taking Torneo and the others by surprise. Her violet eyes locked with Sven's visible eye. "Does it mean I do what I want?"

"You bet," Sora said with a grin, giving the kid a thumbs up.

"Then I… I wouldn't have to kill anymore?"

"No more killing," Sven reassured her.

"Then… I want freedom," Eve declared. Sven smiled proudly at her. Torneo, on the other hand, looked downright furious.

"You must be kidding. A puppet who'd defy its master?" He shouted as he grabbed Eve by her caller and pulled her in front of him. "As if I'd let you go! I've invested billions in your creation!" Sora and Sven both moved to rush at Torneo only to stop as the crime boss produced a syringe filled with a sapphire blue liquid. "Don't come any closer! You can watch from there, Sweeper. With this N-S drug, Eve will prove her worth as a weapon!"

"N-S drug?" Sora asked. "What good will that do?"

"The drug will trigger the Nano-machines in her system to run rampant and maximize her transformative powers," Flitt explained, carefully aiming his weapon back and forth between Sven and Sora. "At a cost, of course. Eve's brain activity will slow substantially."

"In other words, we'll induce a trance, during which she'll faithfully obey my commands," Torneo said triumphantly. "Her body will transform into that of an ideal fighting beast. It should be quite a show, though there will be little chance of her transforming back, though." He pressed the needle against Eve's neck, not yet breaking the skin, as she struggled to escape him. "Now then, Eve, show me your true power!"

"NO!" Sven cried out as Torneo moved to drive the needle home. Eve let out a single, pained scream of terror.

A single gunshot rang out across the courtyard, and the syringe in Torneo's hand was blasted apart. Torneo stared in shock at his empty hand for a moment before whipping his head around to look for the culprit.

"Too bad, Torneo!" Train called from the roof of the mansion, grinning victoriously down at him.

Torneo gnashed his teeth together and snarled at Train "Why you-!" His words were cut off as Sven quickly closed the distance between the two of them and sank his fist into Torneo's face as hard as he could. Despite his size and weight, Torneo was sent crashing to the ground several feet away.

"Boss!" Flitt cried out in shock. He turned his weapon on the injured Sweeper. "You'll pay for that!"

"Sven!" Train cried out. He aimed his pistol at Flitt and pulled the trigger only to realize he was out of bullets. "Shit!"

"DIE!" Flitt roared as he fired his weapon.

_Eve? _Sven's eyes went wide with shock. In the instant before Flitt fired his weapon, Eve had rushed to stand in front of him, arms spread wide to protect him and screaming her defiance at Flitt. Time seemed to slow down as the bullet flew from Flitt's gun and struck Eve in her stomach. The force of the bullet knocked the girl off of her feet and threw her into Sven, who caught her before falling back on to the pavement.

Flitt stared blankly at Eve and Sven as the two collapsed to the ground. Sora appeared next to Flit in the blink of an eye and before the man could defend himself, swung his Keyblade into the man's face like a baseball bat. Flitt flew backwards, his nose broken and several teeth knocked loose from the impact. "You jerk!"

"Eve! Eve, hang on!" Sven cried out desperately as he carefully pulled Eve off of himself and laid her down on the pavement. Eve grinned back up at him, which left everyone present feeling confused. "Are you okay?"

"Before the bullet hit, I turned by belly to steel," Eve explained, lifting her shirt high enough to show the patch of steel on her body and the dent made by the bullet as it transformed back into unharmed skin.

_She rearranged her atomic configuration, turning the skin to steel._ Sven realized in amazement._ That's the power of the Nano-machines_

"Do you think, for the first time, my powers did good?" Eve asked with a smile.

"Yeah," Sven said, giving her a grateful hug. "You're something else, kid." Train watched the pair with a small smile before the sound of Torneo struggling to get back up reached his ears.

"You-!" Torneo began, reaching for Flitt's dropped weapon only to be stopped by Train placing the barrel of _Hades_ against the man's head.

"Stay!" The Sweeper said, chuckling at Torneo's scowl. "Don't be such a poor sport. You lost, Torneo. Checkmate."

Torneo glared at Train for a moment before glancing at the _Hades_. A look of recognition swept over him and he began to shake slightly in fear. "That pistol! I see. The Black Cat lives!" He exclaimed nervously. "I had heard a rumor that you'd left Chronos to become a Sweeper. Small wonder you overcame my security detail. Lay a hand on me, and a certain person will not stand idly by."

Train's brow furrowed in confusion. "Who?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten your old friend, Creed Diskenth?" Torneo said with a laugh.

"Creed?" Train repeated slowly. Torneo flinched. Train's pupils were rapidly becoming cat-like slits and it was rather unnerving to watch. "You know him?" Torneo watched Train nervously as he lowered his pistol and stared back down at him.

Then, without warning, Train reached down and grabbed Torneo tightly by the throat. Torneo gasped for air and flailed in Train's grasp. Effortlessly, the Sweeper lifted Torneo high off of the ground so that his feet were dangling in the air. Train held him there for a moment, watching the crime boss flail like a fish out of water, before slamming him into a nearby wall with enough force to crack it.

"Speak up!" Train shouted at him. The anger and murderous intent in his voice sending chills down Sora's spine. "Where is he?"

"Hey! What are you doing?" Sora shouted, rushing over toward Train. "He's choking!" Train ignored him and tightened his grip on Torneo's throat.

"If you don't tell me, I will erase you!" He growled, aiming his pistol at his captive.

"Wait! I-I don't know!" Torneo choked out. _What's with this guy?_ Train fired his gun five times and Torneo let out a feeble scream. Five bullet holes now decorated the wall around Torneo's head, leaving one bullet still in the chamber of _Hades._

"I said 'tell me'!" Train snapped. "Where is Creed-?" Sora's fist made contact with the side of Train's face, forcing him to drop Torneo as he was knocked back.

"Sora!"

"Back off, Train!" Sora shouted. "You're losing it! Killing Torneo does nobody any good!"

"I know…" Train panted, wiping a trickle of blood off of his now cut lip as he stared up at the teen. His eyes slowly shifted back to normal. "I know!"

"I-I don't know where he is," the fallen crime boss said in a pleading tone. "Once Creed slinks off, there's no way to contact him."

"What's your connection to him?" Train demanded as Sora helped him back to his feet.

"I share our research data with him," Torneo explained, watching Train carefully with a look of fear on his face. "That's all! I swear! He never told me what he intended to do with it."

_It figures._ Train grunted as he stood up, wincing as the sting from Sora's punch shot through him._ Man that kid's got one hell of a punch. But, if Creed's connected to Torneo, then he's bound to catch wind if I do something dramatic and he'll make his move. This is my chance!_

Train turned away from Torneo to face Sven and Eve, who was clutching onto the back of the older man's shirt. "This Creed, is he the guy who…" Sven began. Train's only response was a nod.

"So, what do we do with this guy?" Sora asked, gesturing with his thumb at Torneo, who was still watching Train with a slightly terrified expression. Sven opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted as a deafening explosion went off somewhere close by.

"That's where the lab is!" Torneo exclaimed in shock. "It can't be…"

"Oh, but it is Mister Torneo," Rinslet said as she and Nanaki strode into the courtyard, both covered in black dust from the fire. "Your data just went up in flames, along with the rest of the lab."

"What did you do?" Torneo roared. He winced as another explosion went off. "All of it? It's all gone?" Rinslet shot a grin at the fallen crime boss, who looked flat out horrified, even more so than when Train had been choking him.

"Nice job on the explosions," Sora said with a grin as the two females walked over them. "But I thought you were supposed to steal his data, not destroy it."

"We didn't do that, Nanaki explained. "The place was trashed before we got down there. You should've seen it.

"Besides, I had a bad feeling about that stuff. It wasn't worth it," Rinslet muttered as she glanced back at the thick column of smoke rising into the skies above.

"But this is what you wanted all along, right?" Sven commented. Rinslet turned to look at him in surprise. "I had a feeling that this was never about money for you."

Rinslet grimaced and turned her gaze away. "Sorry," she mumbled, "I never intended to hide that fact from you. You heard the story about the military facility Torneo destroyed?" Sven and Train both nodded, while Sora and Nanaki exchanged awkward glances. "That facility was in the town where I grew up. Ever since I was a little girl, I had enjoyed the simple life; the beautiful flowers and the peaceful nature of it all. He took that away from everyone that didn't die that day he bombed the facility to get at the preliminary Nano-tech data."

"That's horrible!" Sora exclaimed. He shot a glare in Torneo's direction. "I knew he was bad, but what kind of monster does that?"

"The monster in an expensive suit that only cares about himself," Rinslet replied, a hint of sadness in her tone. She turned back toward the others and glanced at Eve. "What about you guys? You all done? Ready to turn Torneo over to the cops?"

"Well, that was the plan," Sven said as he lit a cigarette. He glanced down at Eve, who was staring blankly at Torneo. "But if we turn in Torneo, Eve will become a ward of the state. And she'll likely be subjected to the government's military research." Sven let out a sigh and took in a heavy drag on his cigarette. "What's the point in moving her from one lab to another? I think I'm just going to take her with me."

"And leave Torneo here?" Sora asked.

"In his condition?" Everyone glanced over at the crime boss, who was kneeling on the ground as he watched the column of smoke and flame rise into the night sky and muttering to himself.

"Everything I've worked for," he chuckled manically, "my heart and soul. All of it. Go boom! Heh heh ha."

"He's no threat to us," Train shrugged. "Or anyone for that matter."

"The police are probably on their way. I say we leave the rest to them," Sven said. He turned toward Train and raised an eyebrow at him. "Is that cool with you? Half a million down the drain?"

"Sure. Fine by me," Train replied nonchalantly. "I'm used to having all my efforts come to naught."

"Yeah," Sven chuckled as their ragtag group turned toward nearest exit they could find. "Just like usual." They had almost made it inside the mansion, when Rinslet and Train both realized that Sora and Nanaki were still standing in the middle of the courtyard.

"Aren't you two coming?" Rinslet asked, gesturing at the door. Sora shook his head.

"Nah, we gotta get going," he said.

"You know how it is," Nanaki said with a grin, "things to see. People to do." The others all stopped and gave the teen confused looks. Nanaki simply crossed her arms. "What? I stand by what I said."

Eve broke away from Sven and walked over to each of the Wielders, giving them a brief, slightly awkward hug. "Thank you both," she said quietly. "You helped me get 'freedom'."

"No problem," Sora said with a grin. "It's what we do best."

"Where will you go now?" Sven asked. "You don't have a car." He glanced over at Nanaki. "You didn't even know what a car was."

"We'll go where the stars take us," Sora said with a grin. "Besides, I've got people to help. They're counting on me."

"Then why are you still standing around?" Train asked. "If they need your help, then get going, you can always come back, right?"

"Of course," Sora confirmed. "We'll come back." He glanced over at the smoke from the lab explosion rising into the night sky. "Well not here, exactly, but we'll find you guys when we do."

"And that's all that matters," Sven said, clapping the two teens on their shoulders. "Take care you two."

"Will do," Nanaki said, producing the remote that would activate the _Kingdom_'s warp system. "See you guys around!" She pressed her thumb on the remote's lone button, and the two Wielders were quickly enveloped in a pale blue light before the warp systems kicked in and brought them back to their ship.

_LD_

_Radiant Garden_

_Governmental Offices_

_Office of the Chronos Numbers_

Sephiria Arks and Belze Rochefort watched the large monitor they had installed in the conference room of their small office. On the screen was an image provided to them by their agents on the world of Padosoan: the image of Torneo Rudman's mansion burning to the ground while a news reporter's voice explained the image to viewers.

"_On to our next story: After the explosion of his mansion home last night, crime boss Torneo Rudman has been taken into custody. He's being charged with the smuggling and manufacturing of illegal weapons. His trial and sentencing will be overseen and decided by an Elsidian judiciary council."_

"In regards to Train Heartnet, it was a fairly showy execution," Sephiria noted. "It is a bit out of character. It seems strange that he would complete his last assignment as a Number two years after he left us."

"Perhaps," Belze said, his eyes never leaving the flames on the screen. "But all Chronos missions must be carried quickly and efficiently. Taking one's time is not an option."

"Do not forget, Belze, that number _XIII _abandoned us before he could carry out the mission against Torneo, and then our world was taken by the Darkness," Mason Ordrosso, Number _XII_, and the oldest living member of the Chronos Numbers reminded them as he strode into the room. Mason had long, gray hair that was spiked on the end. His moustache was as long as his hair and fell down to a point just below his neckline. He was dressed in traditional, Chronos overcoat over a gray suit. He carried a cane with an orichalcum sphere set into the top, his weapon, _Virtue_."But what does it matter? It's done! Mission complete! And we all sleep well tonight!"

"In any case, we know where Heartnet is now," Sephiria turned away from the screen and faced Belze. "Contact Jenos Hazard. Inform him that his assignment with the Chaser is done. He is to report to the world Padosoan and attempt to convince Number _XIII_ to return to us."

_LD_

_Sapidoa City Police Station_

_Sapidoa City_

_Padosoan_

"All right, step out nice and easy."

Four police officers stood on either side of the prisoner transport van, guarding Torneo Rudman as he shuffled out. His hands and feet bound by cuffs. His eyes were still wide and he appeared to still be in shock from the after effects of watching his laboratory and subsequently his mansion go up in flames. A large ice pack had been taped to the side of his face where Sven had decked him.

Torneo flinched as one of the officers nudged him to hurry him along. "No sudden movements, understand?" Torneo slowly nodded his head and allowed himself to be led toward the station like an obedient dog.

The policemen had barely taken a few steps before all of them froze in place, their arms and legs snapping together suddenly.

"What the hell?"

"What's going on?"

One by one, the officers turned, shakily toward Torneo and drew their sidearms, aiming at various points on Torneo's body.

"My body's moving on its own! I can't control it!"

Torneo's eyes went wide with fear. The officers had similar looks of horror on their faces as they took aim. "What- what is this?" Torneo demanded. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" His eyes flicked back and forth, desperately searching for an escape. They settled on a pair of men watching what was happening.

One man was dressed in the garb of the Taoist homeland: a set of purple-blue robes, decorated with a large yin/yang symbol on a loin cloth that served for decorative purposes on the front. The man wore a purple wrapping over his head, concealing everything but tufts of long, white hair rising from the back of his head and his right eye, which appeared to be white.

The man next to the one in Taoist clothing was (to Torneo's horror) none other than Creed Diskenth, smiling his sinister smile as the guards fought against whatever it was that was controlling them. In that brief moment of seeing Creed's smile, Torneo knew what would happen to him one way or another.

"You've played your part well, Torneo," Creed said as four gunshots filled the air and Torneo's body collapsed to the ground. The guards turned their weapons on one another immediately after Torneo's body fell and four more shots rang out. "May you rest eternally in peace."

_LD_

_Alliance Fallback HQ_

_Olette's Room_

_The Frozen Fields_

Olette stared blankly across her room. She sat on her bed, knees drawn up to her chin, no longer dressed in her black cloak, but instead she wore her usual attire of Capri pants and an orange tank top. Her eyes focused on a framed photo of Hayner, Pence and herself on the first day they had arrived at the Frozen Fields. All three of them had wide grins on their faces, ready to face a brand new adventure together. Olette let out a sigh and buried her face in her knees.

The images of her battle against the simulated Hayner flashed through her mind and she squeezed her legs tighter. After she had successfully passed the simulation, she ran out of the simulator and rushed back to her room, where she did her best to calm herself down, but for the most part, it wasn't working.

She wasn't sure how long she had been in her room, but it had to have been at least a couple of hours judging on how stiff her muscles were getting. Pence and Nikki had both tried to stop by and talk to her shortly after she had ran from the simulator, but she had turned them away, saying she wanted to be left alone. Axel, surprisingly enough, came by a short while later and tried to convince her that he understood what it was like to see a friend become possessed by darkness. He had told her about someone named Isa, who he used to be friends with, before both of them lost their hearts to Darkness and became Nobodies.

Olette had told him, coldly, that it wasn't the same, because the Hayner that was corrupted by Darkness was a simulation, not the real one. Axel had left without a word after that, leaving her feeling guilty on top of everything else she had been feeling.

A small part of her wondered why Hayner hadn't stopped by to try and comfort her, even though she wasn't sure whether she would actually let him in or not. _Maybe he doesn't even know…_ She told herself. She didn't remember seeing him when she tore through the control booth on her way back to her room. She silently prayed to whatever god or goddess that would listen to her for Hayner to not know what happened.

A light rapping of knuckles on her door startled Olette. It had been at least an hour since Axel had left and she hadn't heard from anyone since. The knuckles rapped again, more urgently this time.

"Olette, open this door please."

Olette blood ran cold at the sound of her Master's voice. It was obvious by his tone that it wasn't exactly a request. It was more along the lines of _'You can open this door of your own free will and let me in, or I can exert my authority as your Master to come in anyway.'_

Knowing it would be better if she let him in, Olette slowly climbed off of her mattress and strode over to the door, unlocking it and sliding it open. Xanthos stared back at her from the other side of the frame, his expression completely neutral as she bowed to him out of respect.

"Please, come in," Olette said, standing to the side of the doorframe to allow him to pass. Xanthos stepped into her room without a word and waited for her to close the door behind them. As soon as the door clicked shut, Xanthos pointed at Olette's bed.

"Sit," he said. Even though it was a command, his tone remained neutral. Olette obeyed without a second's hesitation. She had managed to catch a whiff of the faint trace of alcohol on Xanthos' breath. She sat down on the edge of her bed and placed her hands on her knees. This was unusual behavior for her Master. He never came to call on her in her room. More often than not, he would send Pence or Axel to fetch her for him.

Xanthos strode across her room, his silver eyes carefully taking in every detail. "Back before the Keyblade War, this room would be reserved for Apprentice Chasers who had achieved the rank of Adept," he said. "The Adept Chasers were those who were frequently sent on missions for their Masters, rather than remaining under constant surveillance and tutelage. As such, these rooms were typically left to gather dust until such time that the Adepts returned to use them before setting out again." He stopped at the foot of her bed and turned to face her.

"I'm not going to apologize for what happened in the simulation," he said flatly, taking Olette by surprise. "What you encountered there was no different than what my sister and I endured during the War. I've killed my fair share of those I once called friend."

He sat down on the edge of her bed and faced away from her. "When Darkness corrupts ones heart deeply enough, it becomes difficult to bring them back to the Light. What's worse, those corrupted by the Darkness often seek to slaughter those of us who live in the Light, and every fight with them becomes a fight to the death. While many would argue that incapacitating the corrupt would provide a simple solution, it's different to put it into practice.

"Dark Keyblade Wielders are notorious for refusing to give in until they've been killed or simply don't have the energy to fight on. Far too many Wielders have lost their lives to their former friends because they became convinced they could help them." Xanthos rose to his feet and resumed pacing back and forth across her room.

"No offense, Master, but that doesn't exactly help me," Olette mumbled.

"It wasn't meant to," Xanthos replied. "And if it had, I would have been very surprised. You clearly have feelings for this Hayner boy." Olette began to protest but a glance from her Master bid her to keep her tongue. "Even though you'd adamantly deny it." He gave her a half-hearted smile. "I understand what you're feeling right now, Olette."

"Why Hayner?" She asked softly, almost inaudibly. "Why did you make the Wielder Hayner?"

"I didn't," her Master answered. "The simulation is designed to randomly generate a face for the people it creates in case their masks are removed. There was the possibility you could have been fighting Pence, or Axel, maybe even me. Hayner just happened to be chosen."

"Forgive me if I'm being rude, Master, but is there a reason why you came to see me?" Olette asked as kindly as she could, already craving a few more hours of solitude that her Master was depriving her of.

"Straight to the point then." Xanthos reached inside his coat and produced a manila envelope, which he dropped on Olette's bed. "For starters, you passed the training exercise with flying colors, and without using up all of your lives like Axel and Jenos both did. As such, I'm officially declaring you a Keyblade Adept, which means you can now go on missions I assign you without my supervision." Xanthos snapped his fingers and in a flash of silver light, Olette's earrings, the mark of the Chasers, changed from gold and silver to bronze in recognition of her new status.

"In a few hours, the first few ships of the Alliance fleet will be arriving in orbit, bringing troops and supplies to this complex to get it in working order to serve as a proper headquarters over the next few weeks," Xanthos continued on. "Due to my knowledge of this complex; I'll be forced to help supervise everything taking place." Olette stifled a giggle as the grimace her Master gave at the thought became pronounced. "This means, I will be unable to supervise your training, which leads me to your first assignment."

Xanthos folded his arms behind his back and faced Olette once more as she stood up to receive her orders. "Riku has offered to transport you back to Radiant Garden, since it's on his way back home. Once you are there, head to the Gummi Station in Mount Kathleines and report to Commander Halvorson in Hangar Thirteen. Understand?"

"Yes, Master," she said with a nod.

"Good," Xanthos turned to leave. "The rest of the information about your assignment can be found in the envelope. Be ready to leave in five hours and make sure Hayner and Pence are as well. I don't need them underfoot while the headquarters is being established."

"Of course," Olette replied. She waited until Xanthos had stepped out of the room before turning back to her bed and examining the envelope he had left her. Written in bold, black lettering were the words _'Top Secret. Project: Hope'_.

_LD_

* * *

_So, good news time without any bad news: I'm already halfway done with Chapter Thirty Two. I managed that this weekend while I was waiting on my beta to find the time to edit this chapter. And it's turning out quite well, I think._

_Special thanks to my brother, who kindly created a logo for me to use as coverart now that this site supports images (about time). Now if only they'll start supporting external links so we can all have kick-ass music during our stories. One can hope, right?_

_There is a new poll up on my profile page. Just a little something I threw together for laughs. Basically, what I want to know is which characters in that list do you want to see appear in Looming Darkness at some point or another? All the characters listed were chosen from a random lottery. I'm not promising any of them will appear, but you never know. I already know how I'd manage to work in most of them just in case. _

_Want to keep up to date with the progress I'm making on the next chapter? Follow me on Twitter. ShadowHorizons._

_As always, reviews and criticisms are welcome and greatly appreciated. Until next time!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons_


	32. A Parting of Ways and a Reunion

_"I have long dreamt of this day, Reclaimer."_

_How long has it been now? Four months? Damn. Guess that's what happens when real life decides to bring the Hammer of Reality down on your head, huh?_

_Well, I won't keep you. Anything I have to say can wait until the end of the chapter. Take your time. I might go pour myself a cup of hot cocoa while I wait._

_Disclaimer: [Insert generic and possibly comedic statement about not owning the Kingodm Hearts Franchise, while still owning all original characters here]_

* * *

Chapter Thirty Two: A Parting of Ways and a Reunion

_-LD-_

_Wednesday, June 30__th__ 4794 P.C._

_Alliance HQ_

_The Frozen Fields_

Riku stared blankly at the metal door in front of him, silently wondering what Xanthos could possibly want to see him for, especially considering the fact that he was about to leave for Radiant Garden to drop off Hayner, Pence and Olette.

"Well, are you gonna knock, or what?" Dawn's voice asked from the black box clipped to Riku's belt. "We're on a bit of a time-crunch, you know. Or do you want to miss Kairi's birthday?" Riku grimaced at the thought and raised his hand to knock on the door.

Only for it to slide open, revealing Xanthos' form in the doorway. "Are you going to stand out here all day or what?" The Chaser asked, beckoning for Riku to enter.

The room in question was one of the largest Riku had seen so far in the new Alliance Headquarters. Several suits of segmented pieces of armor, all an identical shade of bluish-gray and shining in the light despite their age lined three of the four walls. The fourth wall however, was lined with no fewer than seven iron furnaces, with large silver colored fires burning within. Workbenches filled most of the floor in the room, covered with various materials ranging from broken pieces of armor to a large cobra snoozing on a pile of broken hammers.

"What's with the snake?" Riku asked, pointing at the sleeping serpent.

Xanthos turned his head to see where Riku was pointing. "Oh, that's Doc. My sister's pet," he said, striding toward one of the work benches. Doc slowly opened one eye and blinked twice while staring at Riku before yawning and going back to sleep. "Don't mind him. He's a lazy creature, just like all the other Cure Cobras."

"'Cure Cobras'?" Riku repeated as he followed Xanthos.

"Their venom heals," the Chaser explained. "And they grow to be pretty damn big. I've been using Doc for a few experiments since Jenna arrived with him. He's actually the reason you recovered so quickly."

"He is?" Riku turned to look at the cobra, which seemed to be wearing a smug smile on its face.

"You know it," Xanthos said, shoving a pile of scrolls and assorted metal pieces off of a nearby workbench, causing Riku to wince from the sudden cacophony of sound. "But he's not why I called you in here. This is." Riku glanced down at the workbench, where a single, silver bracelet decorated with faintly glowing blue lines running across it could be seen.

"You brought me here to give me jewelry?" Riku asked, staring at the bracelet. Xanthos smacked him on the back of the head.

"It's not jewelry, you brat," he said. "It's armor. Put it on."

Riku continued to stare at the bracelet for a moment before looking back at Xanthos and saying "I know you're old, but I think even you should know that a bracelet doesn't exactly count as armor." This, of course, earned him another slap on the back of the head.

"Just shut up and put it on," the Chaser growled.

The silver-haired teen complied with a chuckle and slipped the bracelet onto his right wrist. Much to his surprise, the bracelet shrank in size once it was in place until it fit snugly against his skin. The blue lights briefly became brighter before returning to their normal intensity.

"Is it supposed to shrink like that?"

"Yes," Xanthos said, lifting up Riku's arm to examine the bracelet. "It's synching up with your mental wavelengths, so hold still."

"And why is it synching up to my brain?" Riku asked, doing as Xanthos said and remaining as still as possible while the lights on the bracelet grew brighter once again.

"Because it needs to synch up with the person wearing it," the Chaser explained. "Keyblade Armor is finicky. Each individual set of Keyblade Armor is unique, specifically designed for the wearer. Several sets may end up being nearly identical, but there is always something different. Whether that difference lies in color, general appearance, or even how it was made, the fact still stands."

Xanthos grabbed hold of Riku's wrist and hoisted it up to eye level. "When it began the synching process, it automatically began customizing itself," he continued. "Not only that, but you'll be able to activate your armor with a thought, as well as modify its appearance as you wish."

Letting go of the teen's wrist, Xanthos strode away toward a large sheet of paper nailed into the wall that was covered with a wide variety of diagrams, equations, sketches of the human brain, and a particularly well drawn image of Xanthos kicking Axel with a humorously large boot.

"And of course, I've gone above and beyond the necessary requirements for crafting your armor," the Chaser said proudly. "For starters, I improved on the old mind-synch formula and implementation techniques. Unlike the old design, which required one to wear one or both pauldrons on their person at all times so they could easily hit it to activate the armor, I've made it so the mind-synch is constantly active, allowing you to activate your armor with a single thought. That and it allowed me to reduce the size of the visible armor pieces, so your enemies won't suspect a thing."

Riku barely had time to process what Xanthos had said before he found himself pulled forcibly half way across the room to a space void of papers, tools, material and tables. "Now, your armor is truly unique, even by Keyblade Armor standards," Xanthos rambled on. "Previous suits of Keyblade Armor were nothing more than a glorified shield with one purpose: to defend the wearer against the forces of Darkness and provide them with a somewhat-stable environment in the Lanes Between. Yours however is designed for so much more. As such, I've decided to call it the Advanced Keyblade Armor Mark I."

Riku fixed him with a deadpan stare. "The 'Advanced Keyblade Armor Mark I'?" He repeated.

"My design, my name. I'm certainly not going to call it something like AKA. That's just ridiculous." Xanthos defended. "Just activate your armor and I'll explain most of what it can do. But I'll need you to hand over that device on your belt storing your AI."

Instinctively, Riku took a step away from the Chaser. "And why would I do that?" He demanded.

"Because it will save us time and trouble," Xanthos said. "I've already gone over all of this with your AI while you were recovering from your injuries. Isn't that right, Dawn?"

"It's alright, Riku," Dawn's voice spoke from Riku's side. "We can trust him."

The silver haired teen glanced down at his side where Dawn's storage unit was clipped to his belt.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Just do what the man says so we can get off this snowball," Dawn quipped.

Riku sighed in defeat and handed the unit over to Xanthos. "So, how do I activate my armor?"

"Simple. Just will it to activate," Xanthos said.

Still unsure about the whole situation, Riku glanced down at the bracelet. In his mind's eye, he imagined a suit of knights' armor appearing over his body. Immediately, he felt a cold, tingling sensation around his wrist where the bracelet was. The blue lights on the bracelet began to shine brighter and brighter until they completely washed out the room around Riku. For a few seconds, he couldn't see anything but the light.

When it finally faded, however, he found himself staring though what appeared to be a slightly tinted piece of glass. Xanthos had somehow produced a full-sized mirror, allowing Riku to take in the appearance of his armor.

The armor was segmented, covering the more vital parts of his body, while allowing for maximum flexibility and movement. It was mostly the shoulders, chest and back, forearms, knees, lower legs, hands, wrists and feet that had actual armor pieces on them. The sections of armor were colored silver, with a faint bluish hue to it that caught the light at just the right angle to shine brightly. On the side of his gauntlets and on the back of his ankles, Riku noticed sharp hooks that curved along the edge of his armor. The hooks, oddly enough, shared a similar design to the blade of his Way to the Dawn.

Underneath the armor segments was a full-body, black flex suit made out of some organically-designed material that Riku couldn't help but feel as though it had been made to look like muscle. His face was hidden by an angular silver helmet with a visor-tinted the color of a golden dawn that was set in place over his eyes. A pair of prongs lined with golden patterning jutted from either side of the helmet and were angled back from the head and at a slightly upwards angle. A black cape was fixed to his shoulders, fluttering softly in a non-existent breeze.

Dawn let out a low whistle. "Not bad. Lookin' good there Mister Badass."

"Thanks," Riku said as he turned to face Xanthos. "So, why exactly did I have to give you Dawn just to put on my armor?"

"Because now I'm going to transfer Dawn into your armor," Xanthos said as he turned Riku around and began doing something to the armor on the back of his neck.

"You're going to what?" Riku asked, as he felt something jab him sharply through the armor.

"I'm transferring your AI into your armor," Xanthos repeated. "Without an AI to monitor the systems, this version of the Keyblade Armor is no different than the original designs that have been used for thousands of years. And where's the fun in that? Things get boring if they stay the same forever and ever. Change is important. After all, what else makes us truly human, but change?"

Riku winced as whatever Xanthos was doing caused a minor electrical shock. Before he could gripe about it, the visor in front of him lit up with several holographic projections.

"There we go!" Xanthos said cheerily. "Now that Dawn's been connected to your armor's systems, you should see a HUD appear. Do you see it?"

"What's a HUD?" Riku asked, watching dozens of blue numbers fill his vision.

"Heads up Display," the Chaser simplified. "It should appear as a holographic display inside your visor. Do you see it?"

"All I see are a bunch of numbers," Riku grumbled. Suddenly the numbers vanished. In the upper corner of the visor, a small box appeared with Dawn's face in it. "There we go, I can see it now."

"Good, let's get started then," Xanthos turned his back on Riku and went to pick something up off of the table behind him.

"Sorry, that was my fault," Dawn admitted sheepishly. "I was running a diagnostic to make sure none of my systems were damaged during the transfer. Did you know your architecture is very similar to the _Dawn's First Light_?"

"Don't get any funny ideas," Riku warned her.

_-LD-_

_Cynthia's Manor_

_Unidentified World_

Cynthia rose from her seat at the grand dining table. The majority of her 'children' were present, with only those currently off world having been excused from the weekly supper. The idle chatter had ceased, leaving the hall as silent as a tomb. All eyes were on the twins, Kiram and Etos, having returned from their mission to reclaim the Compass after nearly a month.

Proudly, Kiram raised the Compass; a black-orb decorated in the long-unused language of the Chasers, and offered it to Cynthia. A grin spread rapidly across her face as she all but sprinted to her sons' side. She took the Compass in her hands and turned back toward the rest of the room.

"This, my children, is the Compass," she said. "After the Keyblade War, the surviving Chasers scattered themselves across the stars and placed themselves inside a series of Cryptum, which would place them into a preserved sleep, keeping them alive until they were one day awakened to pass their knowledge on to newer generations." She turned and strode around the table, heading back toward her seat.

"The Compass contains the location of all thirteen Cryptum, written in the language of the Chasers. A language that no one today knows, aside from me." Cynthia raised the Compass to eye-level and began to trace a series of lines across it. Each line began to glow a faint crimson. The Compass floated away from Cynthia as the light intensified. Then faded away.

Everyone in the room looked on with confused expressions. Then the light's flared up again. This time, a holographic figure began to take form around the Compass. It looked like a man with shoulder length hair, staring blankly at his semi-transparent feet. Then the figure looked up, and Cynthia let out a cry of shock.

"Hello, Cynthia," the image of Xanthos said, glaring at her with eyes glowing silver.

"Xanthos," Cynthia barely managed to whisper. "But, how?"

"I don't even need to see you to know you're the one who was after the Compass," the image of Xanthos continued, ignoring Cynthia in the process. "Who else would know about the Compass after all this time? More so, who else would send a pair of incompetent _children_ to retrieve it but you?" Kiram and Etos both winced.

"They think they were so clever, sneaking into my current home and stealing the Compass, which was ever so conveniently placed out in the open with no security measures in place to guard it," the image said. "I imagine they were oh so proud of themselves for completing your task."

'Told you it was too easy," Etos whispered to Kiram.

"Shut it," Kiram whispered back through his forced smile.

"Needless to say, this isn't the real Compass," the Xanthos image continued. "And this isn't even the real me. This is a recording that can only be activated by you, Cynthia, because only you would be so rash as to attempt to activate the Compass without verifying the authenticity of the device." Cynthia flushed red at the image's words. "I've destroyed the real Compass, Cynthia."

"You what?!" Cynthia roared.

"That's right. I destroyed it," the image continued smugly. "It's a shame I can't see your face. But I digress, and the recording time is almost up. So I'll get to my point. I haven't forgiven you for what you did during the War. So, I'm going to make good on my promise, and I'm going to kill you. By activating this, you've sent me your location. And I'm coming for you."

The image flickered and vanished as the fake Compass fell to the floor. The entire room looked up at Cynthia with mildly terrified expressions. Cynthia gazed blankly at the fake Compass for a few moments.

"I vote that we try to slip out of here before someone notices us," Etos suggested to his twin, whispering through the nervous grin plastered on his face.

"I'm all for that," Kiram muttered. "On the count of three?"

"One."

"Two."

The Compass lit up again and a female voice filled the room before the twins could reach 'three'.

"Thank you for utilizing the Xanthos message delivery system," it said. "This device will now self-destruct. Enjoy your trip to Hell."

The reaction in the room was instantaneous. Several of her children began casting shielding spells, while Cynthia's hands flew out in front of her, driven by instinct. A shield of sapphire over a foot thick appeared from thin air an instant before the Compass exploded with a tremendous _thu'um_. The shield held against the explosion, but was knocked backwards, leaving her with a massive lump on the side of her head.

It took her a couple of minutes for the room to stop spinning around her and for the ringing in her ears to fade away. Her once illustrious dining table, a work of art in and of itself, was covered in scorch marks and deep scratches where shrapnel had torn through it. The end section of the table had been completely obliterated.

Several of her children closest to the focus of the blast had managed to cast protective spells in time, or had been shielded by others. However, more than fifteen were wounded, or had bits of the table jutting out of their bodies in various places. Their moans of pain filled the hall like a grim choir.

Twelve of her children, however, hadn't been as fortunate as the rest. Their bodies were shredded, blackened and burned to a point beyond recognition. She wouldn't know who had been killed until she did a full headcount of all the children currently in her home.

"And here you thought you were safe."

Cynthia's blood ran cold as a deep, gravelly voice filled the hall. The kind of voice that radiated power, demanded respect, and commanded reverence. The hall fell silent, save for the muffled groans of pain from the injured. Standing in the entryway to the dining hall was a dark figure, his appearance partially hidden by the light behind him.

"Did you not claim that on this world, the 'ghosts' of your past could not find you?" The man said as he strode into the light. "Perhaps you should have heeded my warnings, Cynthia."

With each stride, the man's features became steadily clearer, as though he were emerging from a thick fog. His clothing composed of a white and black coat with a red inner lining, which was worn over a white shirt with two thin black belts, as well as white gloves and calf-high black boots. He was bald except for thin eyebrows and a curled, silver goatee. His ears were pointed and his eyes glittered like topaz. He had broad, hunched shoulders and a crooked back, appearing overall as a somewhat feeble old man. But Cynthia knew better. His posture was certainly deceiving given what he was capable of.

"Are you sure you're well enough to be moving around?" Cynthia asked, moving forward to help guide the man to a nearby seat. "You're still recovering from regaining yourself as a whole."

"I've fought my share of battles in worse shape than I am now," the man said, fixing her with a bemused look. "You should be worried about yourself. Your fellow Chaser now knows for certain that you are alive. And I imagine he will find a way to be here in less than a day."

"By which time I will be long gone," Cynthia growled. "I can't allow him to stop me. Not when we're so close-"

"'We'?" The man repeated. "'We' are not ready. 'We' are nowhere near ready."

"But I thought that once you were recovered-"

"Patience, girl. Something you should have learned by now," the man interrupted. "Maleficent is moving forward with her plans to procure the Cornerstone. We shall let her. She doesn't know what sort of powers she is attempting to harness. She has no appreciation for true Darkness, only those fangled shadows she believes to be powerful. She will only destroy herself. And so, we wait. We watch. We bide our time until Maleficent lays the groundwork for our plans. Then we shall act. Do I make myself clear?"

"Clear as crystal," Cynthia said, bowing her head toward the man. "Master Xehanort."

_-LD-_

_Alliance HQ_

_Hangar_

_The Frozen Fields_

Hayner tapped his foot impatiently as he kept his eyes trained on the entryway to the half-frozen over hangar.

"Would you stop that?" Axel grumbled from his perch on a stack of crates. "They'll get here when they gets here."

"They're late!" Hayner retorted. "And it's freezing out here. Seriously, would it have killed you guys to put some heating out here?"

"Hey, would you want to crawl around the heating ducts with an ice pick, clearing out ice chunks that go on for yards and yards?" The red-haired pyro retorted.

Hayner seemed to consider it for a few moments, before shaking his head. "Point taken."

"Exactly," Axel said, laying his head back down on his makeshift pillow.

"We're all cold," Pence added, shivering in spite of his thick coat. "You don't hear us complaining."

"You're cold? Try growing up on a tropical island where it doesn't snow," Riku said as he and Xanthos walked into the hangar. "Then you can complain about being cold."

"'Bout time you showed," Hayner said, suddenly cheerful. "I'm sick of all of this cold. Can we go now?"

"Sure," Riku said, leading the way toward where the _Dawn's First Light Mk. II_ was docked. "I've gotta get you guys dropped off in Radiant Garden before I head home, and if we don't hurry, I'm going to be late."

"Says the guy who took his sweet time getting here," Hayner muttered to Pence.

"Do you have a wedding to go to or something?" Axel asked, leaping down from the crates to walk alongside the silver-haired Wielder. "Secret rendezvous with your lover?"

"No," Riku fixed Axel with a deadpan stare. "If we don't hurry, I might miss Kairi's birthday."

"Wait a second. You're going to ditch us to go see Kairi on her birthday?" Olette said, grabbing Riku by his arm and spinning him around to face her. "You're not even going to offer to take us along, even though you know we're her friends too?"

"I… uh… I mean," Riku stammered, taken slightly aback by the glare the brunette had fixed him with.

"We're coming with you," Pence said, clapping Riku on the shoulder as he walked past. "You might as well make your peace with that."

"You guys do realize that I don't have enough food to keep you guys fed for a long time, right?" Riku said as Hayner and Pence passed him.

"We stocked you with dehydrated military rations," Xanthos said. "You've got enough food to feed all of you for at least a month."

"Thanks," Riku grumbled.

"Don't sound so down," the Chaser said with a laugh. "You think you'd enjoy the company."

Riku spared a quick glance at the trio from Twilight Town as they made their way onto the _Dawn_. "I guess you're right," he admitted. "It might be nice to actually travel with a group for a change."

"Glad you see it that way," Nikki said, surprising Riku as she draped her arm around his shoulders. "I'm coming with you as well."

"You are?" Riku asked. Nikki nodded.

"Duh. I've spent the last seven years of my life following my Master around," she explained. "Do you really think that I'm going to pass up an opportunity to go somewhere without her supervision for a change?" Riku was about to respond, but she cut him off. "Hell no! So you're stuck with me, whether you like it or not, until I get to Radiant Garden and secure a ship of my own."

"Fantastic," Riku muttered as the sapphire-eyed brunette, happily let go of him to grab hold of her bag.

"Sounds like you're in for one hell of a time," Xanthos said, offering his hand to Riku. "It's been a pleasure, Riku."

"Same to you, Xanthos," Riku said, accepting his hand. He paused as they shook. Xanthos' movement's seemed a bit stiff and he wore an almost unnoticeable expression of anxiety. "Is something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh. It's nothing," the Chaser said, nonchalantly waving the question off. "I've just… got an old score to settle." Riku's eyes narrowed as a flicker of gold passed through the silver in Xanthos' eyes.

"If you say so," the silver-haired teen said. "I won't press you for details, but if you're out for revenge, it usually doesn't end well. I should know."

"Thanks for the advice, kid," Xanthos said with a chuckle. "But it isn't anything like that. I just have a promise to keep that's almost five-thousand years overdue."

"Good luck with that, then," Riku said, turning away from the Chaser.

"Oh, and Riku," Xanthos added as the teen walked away, "be sure to let me know how that armor works out for you. I'm looking forward to hearing about it." Riku gave him a thumb up to show that he had heard him, as he headed begrudgingly toward his now slightly crowded ship.

"You guys all ready to go?" He grumbled as he reached the group waiting for him to open his ship up to them. They all responded with what was more or less a general 'yes', except for Olette, who had been pulled away briefly by Xanthos.

"Is there something wrong?" She asked as he pulled her just out of earshot of the others.

"Nothing," Xanthos gave her a reassuring smile. "I just wanted to remind you that I expect weekly reports on your progress. And to keep practicing your Forging whenever you have the chance."

"Of course, Master," Olette said with a smile. Her expression, however, quickly slipped. "Are you sure I'm ready to go out to other worlds? I mean, I only got the Keyblade less than a month ago. How can you be sure that I'm ready?"

"Because I'm the one that trained you," Xanthos said, grasping the teen's shoulder reassuringly. "If I didn't think you were ready to go out on your own for a while, then I wouldn't be letting you. You can stay here and run simulations all you like, but in the end, experience in the field is better than the experience you can get from a safe simulation." He released her and gestured for her to head back to the _Dawn_. "Besides, I have an errand I need to run off-world and I don't know how long I'm going to be away. It could be a matter of days, a couple of weeks, hell, I might even be gone for the next year or two."

"A year?" Olette repeated. "Why so long?"

Xanthos' smile quickly turned into a mild grimace. "It's… extremely personal. Something that I need to take care of on my own. And quickly."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Olette asked. Xanthos shook his head.

"Not this time, kiddo. Not this time," he answered. "Now get going. Your adventure awaits!" He pushed her toward the ship.

"Alright everyone, let's go," Riku called out. "I'm running behind as it is."

"If you hadn't taken your sweet time getting here, you wouldn't be," Hayner pointed out as he boarded the ship.

"Oh, shut up," Riku grumbled, closing the hatch behind him as the last of his new passengers passed him.

Xanthos waited until the Dawn had rocketed off into the sky and he was left alone in the hangar. The smile he had been wearing vanished instantly, replaced with a venomous scowl. A dark portal opened up next to him. Without hesitation, he turned on his heel and stepped through.

_-LD-_

_Thursday, July 1__st__ 4794 P.C._

_Destiny Islands_

Kim Jensen idly watched the gentle lapping of the ocean against the beach of the small, island off of the coast of Exin. It had been a miserable two months on this backwater world. Not only did she have to play along with the charade of being friends with the local Keyblade Wielders that Naleten had crafted, she was stuck waiting for them to return so the plan could be carried out.

As it was, when the familiar sounds of a dark portal opening reached her ears, she couldn't help but grin. Finally, the time had come to put her mother's plan into action. Finally she could drop this damned charade. She turned to welcome her company, only to have her smile and eagerness vanish as her caramel-color-haired sister stepped out with some young man in tow.

"Keila," Kim spat her sister's name like poison.

"Kimberly," Keila's voice was filled with equal loathing.

Kim ignored her and glanced at the young man standing disinterestedly in the background. "Devin."

The young man nodded stiffly at her. "Kim."

"You're the contact?" Keila asked, without even so much as a 'How do you do?'

"For Mother, at least," Kim replied. "She wants you to follow along with Maleficent's plans for the time being. Her lackeys are gathering on an island fourteen kilometers north of here. I suggest you get going."

"I guess I should say thank you," Keila muttered as Kim brushed past.

"I guess you should get going," Kim retorted. "The sooner you get this done, the sooner I can go home." And with that the blonde, shoved her way past the two and vanished into the night.

"Well, she's always a thrill to be around," Devin commented with a hint of sarcasm. "Her acting personality is better than her usual bitchy self."

"That's Kim for you," Keila noted as she began to walk north. "You've met her before?"

"Once or twice," Devin said as he fell into step beside her. "I got contracted to acquire the same artifact as her a few months back. Naturally, I beat her to it. So I lauded it over her for a good two weeks before ditching her. From what I've heard, your 'mother' wasn't too happy about that."

"So basically, you're the real reason Kim got stuck here," Keila simplified. "Not bad."

"Hey, it's not like I intended to do that," Devin said defensively. "Boy, you should have seen her try and seduce me to get the artifact. It was said in a laugh-out-loud kind of way."

"You must have an iron will to be able to resist Kim's womanly charms," Keila said dryly. "Her looks alone make her practically every guy's type."

"Well, she's not mine," Devin said with a shrug.

"I highly doubt that," Keila scoffed.

"Is she a female?"

"Duh."

"Then she's not my type."

That got Keila to stop in her tracks, while Devin continued to walk on, seemingly without a care in the world.

"Hold on a sec. You're telling me that you're…"

"Eeyup," Devin replied with a small grin. "I just don't flaunt it in everyone's face." The grin on his face slipped and fell as a small _beep-beep-beep _began to play from the inside of his pocket. "Excuse me for a moment."

He produced a small object that looked like it had been made from molten silver, somehow confined to an egg-like shape. The silver began to glow with a faint red light as it shifted and displayed a series of numbers and letters, all of which vanished quickly before Keila could get a decent look at them.

Devin, however, seemed to understand whatever it was. With a mildly irritated grunt, he tucked the silver egg away inside its pouch on his belt and turned to face the caramel-haired Keyblade Wielder.

"That's my cue," he sighed. "Duty calls."

"Wait, you're leaving?" Keila asked, feeling slightly confused and left in the dark. "I thought you were supposed to stick with me until I finished the job."

"No, I was only paid up until you retrieved Oathbreaker," he pointed at the staff of ironwood currently strapped to the Wielder's back. "I've only tagged along this far because I wanted to see Oathbreaker in action. But alas, Fate has other plans for me, it would seem." He pretended to faint dramatically.

"Okay, _now_ I see it," Keila said with a smirk at her companion's antics.

"I take offense to that," the mage said as he dusted himself off. He fixed Keila with a serious expression for a moment, as though he were about to tell her that her goldfish had died.

"What?" The Wielder asked.

"In the temple, when Caritas spoke to you, she mentioned something about being bound to two Darknesses, remember?" He asked.

Keila winced. Of course she remembered. Caritas' parting words had plagued her mind, while she was awake and asleep for the past five days she had spent traveling with Devin. As they walked through the portals of Darkness, she had done nothing but replay the spirit's words over and over again. _"Your fate is bound to two beings of Darkness and unless you free yourself from them, you will NEVER become a Keyblade Master."_

As if that weren't enough, her dreams were wrought with visions of her abandoning Maleficent, therefore defying her mother's orders. And when her mother came to punish her, Keila would find the Wielder that looks just like her, the Keyblade's Chosen One, standing by her side. He would summon his Keyblade and protect Keila from Cynthia, warning her that Keila was free from her now and forever. And all these dreams had served was to add to the teen's confusion.

"I remember," Keila replied after a moment, keeping a perfectly blank expression on her face. "Why?"

"Because I can tell you've been thinking a lot about it over the past few days," the mage answered. "I may not be the best conversationalist, or the best at reading people, for that matter, especially after knowing them for less than a week. But you're wearing your emotions on your sleeve. And they're decorated with lots of bright neon signs and advertising cheap booze and expensive hook-"

"Get to the point, Devin."

"Right. Sorry," he grinned sheepishly. "As I was saying, you've obviously got a lot going on in your mind. I'm not going to pry or anything, but if you feel the need to talk to someone you can trust, then I want you to give me a buzz."

"And how do I know I can trust you?" The Wielder asked, doing her best to give him a suspicious stare.

"Because I could have killed you at any time during this little soiree of ours and taken Oathbreaker from your corpse," he said flatly. "Look, I only work for myself. Sure, I'll do a job here and there for the highest bidder, but in the end, I don't sell information. You could tell me about a plot to assassinate a VIP and I'll zip my lip and be on my merry way, regardless of how much someone might offer me for the information.

"But this also brings me to my next point, and this is more of a personal request than anything else," he continued, once again adopting a serious demeanor. "After you use Oathbreaker to complete your mission here, I want you to give it to me."

"Wait, what?" Keila stammered. "Why do you want Oathbreaker?"

"Why else?" Devin asked. "Oathbreaker is one of, if not _the_ most powerful weapon in existence. I don't want _anyone_ that doesn't need it to have it. Maleficent has her Heartless and an unknown quantity of Nobodies on her side. Your mother has over two-hundred loyal Keyblade Wielders to do her work, and the Keyblade is nothing to sneeze at." He stepped in close to Keila so they were less than a foot apart. "Do you really think either of them will need such a powerful weapon?"

"Umm… No?"

"Exactly. So I want you to take this," Devin grabbed Keila's hand and placed a silver egg-thing into it, identical to the one he had produced earlier. Keila let out a gasp. The egg was cold as ice, but Devin's hands were surprisingly colder. "When you're done using Oathbreaker, I want you to whisper these words into the egg, 'After the game, the King and the Pawn go into the same box.' That'll open up a portal directly to where I am. Then you'll toss me Oathbreaker, and I seal it away somewhere where Maleficent and your mother can never find it."

"Okay, I got it," Keila said, tucking the egg away safely. "Where are you going?"

"To the great beyond," Devin said dramatically. "It's a big universe with an infinite number of worlds to explore. Who knows where my next job or whim might take me?" He spun around in a circle, arms outstretched to the heavens. "But, if you're worried that you'll never see me again, then all you have to do is say my name into the egg, and we'll be able to communicate." He held out his hand to the Wielder. "It's been fun, Keila. Friends?"

Keila stared at his hand for a moment, before a smile crept onto her face. She gripped Devin's hand tightly.

"Friends."

_-LD-_

_Naminé slowly opened her eyes, once again finding herself standing on the stained-glass pathway lined with countless doors. The man in the black cloak, the fragment of Xanthos' heart, was waiting for her patiently by one of the doors._

"_So, I can't even go to sleep without coming here?" The blonde grumbled as she approached the fragment. She had been hoping to catch just a quick nap before the _Kingdom_ arrived at the Destiny Islands. A quick _dreamless_ nap, especially since she and Kairi had spent most of the trip to the Destiny Islands getting to know Nanaki a bit better. And the trip wasn't that long from Padosoan._

"_I told you, I needed your help," the fragment replied, without the slightest hint of emotion in his voice. "So you don't really have a choice."_

"_Everyone has a choice," Naminé pointed out. "It's what makes us human."_

"_Well, you don't get a choice in this matter," the fragment said._

"_I could just wake up," the blonde retorted. "Then I won't have to worry about it."_

"_You'd have to sleep sooner or later," the fragment said. "And the longer you go without sleep the deeper you'll fall into it when you finally cave. So, you'll just have to make your peace with it."_

_Grumbling, Naminé followed the fragment as he opened a door and stepped inside. Naminé glanced briefly at the obsidian plaque, decorated with the image of a broken spear and a shattered shield._

_Through the door was the wall of light that Naminé had been expecting. She stepped through it, just like she had the first time she had followed the fragment through Xanthos' memories. The light quickly faded, revealing what had once clearly been a thriving city, only now it lay in ruins._

_Homes were consumed by flames that roared as they consumed everything in their destructive paths. Weakened structures collapsed under their own weight and left debris scattered on the streets below. _

_And yet, despite the destruction and chaos reigning around them, numerous Keyblade Wielders threw everything they had at one another. Naminé watched, horrified, as a woman in a black cloak thrust her Keyblade through the chest of a man clad in an organic-appearing body suit. She had barely pulled her blade out of the man's body before the building she was closest to collapsed on her and buried her alive, brought down by some unknown caster's Gravity spell._

_Naminé let out a small shriek of surprise as the wall closest to her exploded outward, scattering chunks of stone and dust onto the street as a man in a black cloak was thrown heavily across her field of vision. The man struck the ground once before flipping himself back onto his feet and sliding back a couple of yards._

_His hood flew off, exposing his short-cut bronze hair, and striking silver eyes. Though his face lacked several of the x-shaped scars Naminé was familiar with, the Xanthos that had flown out of the building couldn't have been more than two or three years younger in appearance than when she had first met him_

_Xanthos' breathing came heavily and ragged as he stared through the hole his body had made in the wall. Sweat dripped heavily off of his brow, forcing him to dry it off with the back of his gloved hand. _

_A mountain of a man stepped out of the hole after Xanthos. Like many of the other Wielders, he was clad in a crimson, organic-looking body suit and had his face hidden behind a solid black helmet. The Keyblade he clutched in his hands was longer than what seemed reasonably useful, and was thicker than the man's entire upper body. Yet, he swung it around with as much effort as a child would swing a twig._

_The man swung his Keyblade down in a wide arc, but both his size and the size of his weapon cost him the speed advantage that Xanthos had with his slimmer build. The Chaser vanished in a blur as the Keyblade hit the ground like the hammer of the gods, shattering the pavement and leaving a small crater behind. A blink of the eye later and he was behind the larger man, bringing his No Name down on his head. _

_If the attack did any damage, the larger man showed no signs of it. Without missing a beat, he spun around and drove his massive fist into Xanthos' chest, sending the Chaser hurtling into a light post, which bent and snapped under the sudden impact._

_The big man let out a deep, rumbling chuckle and advanced on the crumpled heap that was Xanthos. _

"_Over here, muscles!"_

_Both the brute and Naminé turned as the sound of a voice distinctly female reached their ears. The brute however, had no time to react before a silver blur slammed into his face, knocking him flat on his rear. The blur landed on the ground next to Xanthos, revealing that it was actually a woman dressed in a silver-cloak, rather than a black one, decorated with ruby-red crosses around the edge of the sleeves. Naminé gave a small gasp as she caught sight of the woman's bronze hair and silver eyes, and even the shape of her face, all similar to those of the fallen Chaser. _

"_You moron. I told you to be careful," she said, her hands glowing with green light as she cast a healing spell on Xanthos. "You could've gotten yourself killed."_

"_I'm still here, aren't I?" Xanthos coughed as the woman helped him to his feet. "Thanks, sis."_

"_No problem, big brother," the woman said, summoning a green floral patterned Keyblade to her hand as she and Xanthos turned to face the giant of a man. "What do you say we take care of this guy so we can get to the portal in time?"_

"_Ladies first," Xanthos said, gesturing for her to proceed with the first attack._

_The woman rolled her eyes at him, but still charged the brute, who had reclaimed his massive Keyblade and was already preparing to attack the twins. Before he could so much as swing his blade around, Xanthos appeared behind him. The Chaser's Keyblade flashed to life and was quickly pressed against the larger man's throat, cutting off air flow. _

"_Now, Jenna!" Xanthos shouted. The silver-cloaked Wielder let out a triumphant howl as she leapt into the air. Light surrounded her Keyblade, taking the shape of several sharp, curved spikes. And she drove the blade home into the center of the man's chest. _

_-LD-_

_Friday, July 2__nd__ 4794 P.C._

_Destiny Islands_

Sora drew in a deep breath as he stepped onto the shores of Exin. It certainly felt good to be home, even though he knew they wouldn't be staying for very long.

Granted, the only reason they were even back was to celebrate Kairi's birthday with a proper celebration for the first time since the islands were swallowed by Darkness.

The teen glanced behind him as he led their ragtag group toward the heart of the island. Roxas and Naminé were walking arm in arm, enjoying their first real experience of the atmosphere on the Islands. Kairi was walking alongside Nanaki, and pointing out several points of interest, insisting that she would have to take her to several different ice cream parlors, as the off-worlder had apparently never heard of ice cream before.

Richard, having finally woken up from his coma (which he insisted on simply calling a nap), had acquired a small rabbit, which he wore on top of his head by tying it down with a rope.

"Well, well, look who's finally back."

Sora turned at the sound of the familiar voice, and immediately spotted the grinning faces of Tidus and Selphie as they briskly walked over to their group. Tidus was giving Nanaki and Richard both odd looks. They did stick out like a sore thumb, after all.

"Been making some new friends?" He asked, clapping Sora on the shoulder.

"You could say that," Sora said with a grin.

"Got any new stories to tell us?" Selphie asked as she gave Kairi a bone-crushing hug, something that should be impossible for someone with such a small figure.

"I stowed away on a pirate ship," Naminé said with a grin.

"We found a city of gold," Roxas added.

"I finally escaped my homeworld to see the stars," Nanaki said dreamily.

"I had my arm cut off," Sora said with a laugh, earning him a smack from Kairi.

"I got kidnapped, again. And shot," Kairi grumbled.

"I burned an entire island where the only inhabitants were a group of abandoned children that had formed their own government and were insistent that I bow before their leader," Richard chimed it. Silence briefly ensued as the group took a step away from the homicidal warlock.

"Okay then…" Selphie leaned awkwardly away from Richard and whispered into Kairi's ear. "Who is this guy?"

"**I am Richard!"** The warlock began. **"Chief Warlock of the Brothers of-"**

"Save it," Roxas said, smacking the warlock on the back of the head before he could get into his list of titles.

"Fine. Be that way," Richard huffed.

"So why are you guys back so soon?" Tidus asked. Selphie smacked him on the arm.

"Don't be rude, Tidus. You know Kairi's birthday is tomorrow," the brunette chided.

"Your birthday's tomorrow and you didn't tell me?" Naminé immediately rounded on Kairi, wearing a look of a hurt and indignation.

"You're all but my twin and you didn't know my birthday was tomorrow?" Kairi asked, fixing the blonde with a deadpan stare. "You're not a very good liar, Naminé. Nice try though."

"Does that mean Naminé's birthday is tomorrow as well?" Sora asked, scratching at his temple in confusion. "Since she's your twin and all."

"Well, because I was never actually born, I can't really have a birthday," Naminé explained with a half-hearted smile.

"Well, that's pretty lame," Selphie said. "Everyone should have a birthday. It's not so much about celebrating the day you were born; it's more like celebrating being alive."

"I guess I really can't make an argument against it, now can I?" Naminé said with a smile. "Especially since you put it like that."

"That still doesn't answer my question," Sora pointed out. "Are you going to celebrate your 'birthday' with Kairi tomorrow?"

"No, I don't think I will," Naminé said after considering it. "I didn't come into existence on the same day she did. So it would make sense for me to have a separate birthday, right?"

"Floats my boat," Roxas said, taking Naminé by the hand and squeezing it gently.

"So, you guys came back for Kairi's birthday and not just the festival?" Selphie asked, tilting her head to the side out of curiosity.

"Festival?" The group of Wielders repeated in stereo.

"You know, the Sun's Shadow Festival?" Selphie said. "Happens only once every sixty years? Once in a lifetime opportunity? It's kind of a big deal, you know."

"The Sun's Shadow Festival is tomorrow?" Sora asked, a grin larger than what should have been physically possible stretched across his face. "As in 'tomorrow' tomorrow?"

"What other tomorrows do you know of?" Tidus muttered. "Of course it's 'tomorrow' tomorrow."

"Would someone please explain what a festival is?" Nanaki muttered, as the group began walking in the direction of town.

_-LD-_

Unbeknownst to the group of teens and the warlock slowly making their way into town, a man dressed in a silver cloak was keeping a close eye on them from his perch atop a nearby home. His golden eyes glinted faintly in the mid-morning sun, giving his angular face a slightly sinister look to it. Jevenan, the Nobody in charge of Nobodies under Maleficent's command, grinned as he watched the group slowly walk away.

"The Sun's Shadow Festival," he muttered softly. "A festival to celebrate a day of night, to celebrate the Sunrise Eclipse. And what a wonderful festival it shall be." He cackled quietly to himself as a dark portal formed around him to take him to his comrades. "A day of night that shall forever go down in history, as the day the darkness looming just out of sight unleashed its unholy fury upon the world, drowning it in everlasting Darkness!"

_-LD-_

* * *

_Yes, this chapter is what many would consider a "filler" chapter. However, to me, it's not "filler". It's an intermission, because this chapter marks the turning point in Looming Darkness where the action just won't stop right up until the conclusion of Part I. _

_So, just a few quick notes about this chapter. _

_I've slightly modified the general layout. Nothing too major, mind you. Just a few aesthetic changes that I like a bit better. **[EDIT: Apparently Fanfiction doesn't like my changes and put everything back to the usual format. How irritating.]**_

_This chapter was ready just over a month ago, but as I said, real life came down around me. My beta/bestfriend of sixteen years finally moved out of the country to be with her husband. I don't even know when the next time I'll see her in person is. And I've spent the past couple of months coming to grips with that. Still not quite there, but at least my creativity is in full-on power mode. _

_Which brings me to a bit of fantastic news. This chapter is the first of three (that's right, THREE) that I'm releasing this week. I would've had them out sooner, but between letting my beta get settled overseas, as well as coordinating times when we can edit together halfway across the world when we both have to work fulltime is a pain in the ass. But, we managed to find time to get this one ready, and tonight (and probably every night the rest of this week) we will be editing the other two. And, even though these three chapters are a little shorter than average, I'm certain they'll more than make up for it in content._

_You know, it's times like this that I wish Fanfiction had a blog option. Maybe I should just make a seperate blog..._

_Anyway, I'm rambling so I'll get to my next couple of points, starting with some of the things I've "missed" during the four months of silence._

_1. Dream Drop Distance was released (Review pending for next chapter)_

_2. The 2012 Presidential Elections (If I saw one more political ad, heads were gonna roll)_

_3. A trip to New York with my family (I actually missed that one in real life. I couldn't get the time off from work)_

_4. Assassin's Creed III was released (Review pending in future chapter)_

_5. Halo 4 was released (Review pending in future chapter but HOLY CRAP THOSE GRAPHICS ARE BEAUTIFUL)_

_6. The two-year anniversary of the release date for Looming Darkness (broke my heart when I realized I didn't have a chapter ready back then)_

_So I've missed a lot. But, you know what? I've missed all of you the most. It's great to be back and in the zone better than ever before._

_Shameless Advertisement: Want to keep up to date with the news on the latest chapter or other random things that I've got floating around in my head? Dying to know when the next chapter is set to be released? Don't hesitate to follow me on Twitter! **ShadowHorizons**._

_See y'all real soon!_

_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._

_Shadow Horizons_


	33. Catching Up

_Today's chapter brought to you by dragons. Dragons, every situation can be made better or worse with a dragon tossed in. Also brought to you in part by __**Shire Folk**__, for without his help I have no idea when I would have finished this chapter. Thanks a million __**Shire**__!_

_Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own anything that isn't original. Nice try though._

_Here's a fun game if you're interested: Try and figure out which parts were written by me, and which parts are Shire's writing. Best of luck!_

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Three: Catching Up**

_Friday, July 2__nd__ 4794 P.C._

_Cynthia's Manor_

The hand-carved mahogany doors that served as the entryway to Cynthia's manor were blasted into countless pieces of useless wood as a ball of fire exploded against it. Seconds later, Xanthos strode purposefully through the smoldering remains, the No Name clutched tightly in his right hand, his left holding a ball of dark energy. His silver and gold-veined eyes quickly scanned the entrance hall, and found it deserted. He let out a small huff of irritation.

"Cynthia!" He called out in sing-song tone. "Come out and play!" He waited in silence, listening to the faint traces of his echo dancing down the halls, rapidly fading from earshot. His manic grin slowly slipped until it was nothing more than a grimace of irritation.

"I know you can hear me, you coward!" He roared. "Come and get your due!"

Once again, he was left with only his echoes as a response. The gold in his eyes intensified slightly. _If that's the way she wants it, then fine._ He strode forward, setting his sights on a faint beam of light slipping out of a partially closed doorway. He raised his hand as he advanced and unleashed the swirling energy clutched in his palm, which blasted the door off of its hinges and sent it clattering into the room beyond.

He stormed into the grand dining hall and quickly scanned it with a glance. The far end of the magnificent table had been blown to bits. Pieces of debris lay scattered all around the room from what had clearly been an explosion. Twelve bodies were lined up along one of the walls, covered by a large tablecloth.

His eyes locked on to a shield made of crystal and a deep growl escaped his throat. The fake Compass hadn't killed her, then. He grunted with a mixture of irritation and relief. While it would have been simpler for Cynthia to have been killed by the explosion, a small part of him wanted to look her in the eyes as the last of her life slowly drained out of her by his own hands.

He glanced at the half-eaten meals on the table, and his curiosity briefly took hold of him. Dismissing his Keyblade, he quickly pulled off one of his gloves and touched one of the un-carved turkeys still sitting on the table. It was still warm.

Faster than the blink of an eye, the No Name was back in his hand and Xanthos was standing in the entrance hall again. He ran from room to room as quickly as he could, kicking down every door that barred his path.

Yet every room remained the same, empty of life and with signs that the previous inhabitants of the manor had left in a hurry. Xanthos felt his anger building up with each empty room. He hadn't been that slow. The fake Compass had sent him the signal and less than five minutes later he had used a dark portal to follow it to this world.

"Where are you?" He shouted as he kicked down the door to a massive library. "Show yourself!" He leveled his Keyblade at the nearest bookshelf and blasted it with a ball of fire. Chunks of wood and shredded, burning books were thrown into the air. The force of the attack caused the now flaming bookshelf to topple onto its neighbor, initiating a domino effect as well as helping to spread the fire. He stood in the doorway, panting heavily as the fire quickly began to consume the library.

"You can't hide from me forever!" He roared, darting back into the hall to head for the only room still remaining in the manor. The only door that had yet to taste of Xanthos' rage was perhaps the most ornately decorated. Carved from mahogany, trimmed with gold and with a stained glass window displaying a pair of crossed Kingdom Key Keyblades and a handle made from ruby, the door was truly a work of art.

Without so much as stopping to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making the door, Xanthos blasted it into oblivion with a quick spell. The room beyond turned out to be a small office, large enough to hold the desk situated in the center of the room. Glass display cases lined the walls of the office, serving as the resting place for countless bits and baubles, as well as several uniquely designed weapons. An entire row of objects vanished if Xanthos so much as looked at it directly, reappearing only when he looked away. To his irritation, the room was empty of any life other than himself.

He turned to leave, his breath coming in heaves as he fought to keep his anger under control. A piece of parchment caught his eye as he turned, nailed into the desk with an ornately decorated dagger. He pulled the dagger from the desk and tossed it aside before unfolding the parchment. Only four words were written on it in writing that Xanthos immediately recognized.

'_Better luck next time.'_

The parchment burst into flames in Xanthos' hands. The Chaser stared blankly at the room before him for a moment. Then he snapped. With a ferocious roar, he summoned his Keyblade to his hand and swung it through the closest display case. Shards of glass flew through the air, not even having time to hit the ground before Xanthos had already lashed out at the next case.

In a matter of seconds, the floor was covered in the remains of the cases and the objects they had once displayed. Xanthos leaned against the desk, panting heavily. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the remains of a mirror across from him. His eyes were mostly golden now, only faint traces of silver left.

"_Is the Darkness really worth losing yourself over?"_

The Chaser shuddered and tried to force himself to look away from his reflection as a woman's voice filled his mind; the voice of a ghost from his past.

"_I don't really think the golden eyes suit you, you know. What's their real color?"_

Xanthos' reflection stared back sadly at its real world counterpart.

"_Silver, huh? I bet they're beautiful. It's got to be better than gold."_

The silver in his eyes quickly swallowed the gold as the anger inside of the Chaser faded, drowned out by a voice he hadn't heard in almost five thousand years.

With a sigh, Xanthos turned from the mirror and vanished in a flash of blue light, leaving Cynthia's manor behind him to burn.

_-LD-_

_Friday, July 2nd 4794 P.C._

_Destiny Islands_

Kairi stretched and hummed stretching sounds as she walked just a little closer to Sora than was absolutely necessary through the streets of Fatum. It was a nice day out, and she was beginning to feel a little peckish. Nanaki was beyond excited for the coming day, so much so that it brought an amused smile to Kairi's face, and especially since it wasn't for quite the same reasons why she, personally, was excited.

"It must be tragic," Kairi declared, "living on a world where there are no festivals."

"I knoow!" droned Selphie with an exasperated roll of her eyes. "How could you stand it?"

Nanaki wrinkled her forehead in a frowny-pout at the pair. "I think we might have had time for festivals if we weren't too busy trying not to get _eaten_ by _giant sand worms_!"

"That I turned to glass," Richard said, pointing a white thumb at his chest with pride. The others stopped and stared at him for a few seconds.

"I'm hungry," Kairi said, turning her head away as a signal the others all took to mean 'we should keep walking now'. "Let's go get something to eat."

"Fine!" huffed Richard, turning his nose and snubbing the group. "Just ignore the warlock. It's not like I have anything better to do with my time. Oh, Naminé, which way would you say would make that boy over there taste better? Braised in garlic butter, or baked with lemon and sage?"

Naminé whirled around, stopping dead and staring at Richard in complete horror. "What!? NEITHER!"

"Hm, you're right," Richard agreed. He turned away from her and opened his right palm while looking at the boy riding his skateboard. The boy couldn't have been older than twelve. Richard's white right hand became encased in rich yellow flame. "Fire-roasted it is, then."

Naminé and Sora lunged forward just as Richard reared his right arm back like a baseball pitcher. "No! No!" they exclaimed, each one grabbing an arm just before Roxas could wrap his arms around Richard's waist and attempt to drag him back. "No killing and eating kids!"

Richard looked at the trio trying to restrain him. "Are you sure?" he asked curiously.

"YES!"

"Not even a little nibble?" he continued. "He doesn't need both legs, and they taste good with a sprinkling of sea-salt after being charred on a spit."

"NO!"

"But that's no fun," Richard argued. "Isn't that right, Lily?" He glanced up at the bunny he'd tied to his head, waving a finger in front of its face with a little flame burning just beyond his fingertip.

'Lily' shivered uncontrollably, terrified out of its mind and unable to escape.

Naminé placed a hand to her head, like she couldn't even believe the depths this warlock would go to. "Just...just come with us and try not to destroy everything in our path."

"Fine by me," Richard said airily, stuffing his hands in his robe pockets and whistling a merry tune whilst walking after the group.

_-LD-_

"Cities made of steel and homes made of wood." Nanaki let out a low whistle as she drank in the sights around them. "Now I've seen everything."

"You're a pretty strange girl, you know that?" Selphie commented.

"To you, probably," Nanaki replied. "To me, you lot are the weird ones. Where I come from, wood is hard to come by. It wouldn't be wasted on buildings. We need it for fires and to keep our tools functional. Our homes were typically carved into stone to protect us from the Veneschall. It's very strange to see wood used so… commonly. Don't even get me started on steel. I know quite a few blacksmiths that would have a conniption fit if they saw steel used for building instead of tool making."

"Well, I don't know much about the steel, but wood's pretty common here," Selphie awkwardly mentioned. "Most of the smaller islands are covered in thick forests so it's pretty easy to get to."

"Forests, huh?" Nanaki mused. "I'd like to see a forest sometime."

"Maybe we'll get a chance later," Sora said, beaming back at his newest friend. "Stick with us and you'll see all sorts of awesome places."

"I don't doubt that," she said with a laugh. "After all, I'm here, aren't I? We don't have places like this on my world. Just barren landscapes as far as the eye can see and the body can travel. Your world is so much more vibrant. So alive." She inhaled deeply, taking a moment to enjoy the salty scent of the nearby ocean. "It's all so beautiful."

"Was your world really that bad?" Kairi asked, glancing back at the purple-haired teen.

"'Bad' isn't really how I'd describe it," Nanaki said. "It's… boring. Unless you're being attacked by wild animals. You can only stare out at the same, unchanging wasteland and the same, unchanging caves for so long before you get tired of it."

"That sounds depressing," Roxas said.

"It only is if you let it get to you." Nanaki slapped him comfortingly on the back, causing the blond to stumble forward. "Besides, when every day is another battle to survive, who has time to wallow in self pity? I'm free of there now. And that's all that matters!"

Tidus let out a laugh to match Nanaki's. "I like this girl," he said with a grin.

"Duh, who wouldn't?" The purple-haired Wielder gestured at herself. "You see this right here? All awesomeness in a convenient-ready to kick ass and take names package!" She jabbed her fists at a couple of invisible foes. "I'm am just so excited!"

"And she just can't hide it," Kairi chimed in. "Oh, there's the restaurant." She turned her head and grabbed Nanaki by the wrist, preparing to lead her into Destiny's. "Come on, you're going to love it. You've _got_ to try the Spider Sandwich."

"Ew!" Nanaki said. "You guys eat _spiders_?"

"No!" Kairi exclaimed. "A spider sandwich is deep-fried soft-shell crab in a bun." Sora's mouth started to water and he gripped his girlfriend's upper arm.

"Why didn't you tell me that your mom's place had those?" he asked her, eyes wild with desire. Roxas dashed past him, ignoring Naminé's call for him to wait up. Kairi giggled.

"Well I think I can tell what you and your brother are getting," she said. Nanaki looked between Sora and Kairi, bewildered.

"What's a soft-shell crab?"

Apart from Richard, what was left of the group collectively gasped.

"Oh you are so having a Spider Sandwich," Tidus said, taking Nanaki from Kairi's grip and leading her forward faster than the others.

"But what if I don't want to try it?" Nanaki asked loudly, indignant at having her free will being taken away.

"I thought that you were all about trying new things!" Sora called from behind.

"Do they serve baby?" asked Richard when they reached the doors.

"**NO!**"

Richard harumphed and folded his arms across his chest. "What kind of an establishment is this?"

"The respectable kind," Naminé muttered. "And I don't think that you're allowed to have 'Lily' in here."

Roxas turned around from where he was waiting by the hostess table and addressed the girl standing there, looking at the party. "Hi, table for," he glanced back and started counting, tapping his finger in the air as he did so, "twothreefourfivesix, eight," he finished. The hostess glanced down at the counter, made a very tiny nod to herself that would have been imperceptible to anyone who didn't have the honed reflexes and attention to details that battle hardened into a person, and started to grab menus.

Once they were all seated around a table she created by combining two, she informed them that their server would be with them shortly and left them to their own devices. Tidus immediately leaned forward and asked Sora, "Did you guys really find a city of _gold_?" Sora placed his head in his hands and began massaging his forehead with his fingers.

"We did," he moaned. "And we lost almost all of the gold we were bringing back from it!" Tidus groaned into his hand to match Sora, while Kairi and Naminé flaunted the gold earrings they were both wearing. Much to Selphie's delight, the rhombus-shaped jewelry sparkled and glittered in the light.

Tidus gave them a close look, and blew skeptical wind from his mouth. "Yeah, right. You could have gotten those from _Lustrous Jewelry_ at any time. That's no proof that you've been to a city of gold."

"Tidus!" Selphie scolded. "They're _gorgeous_. Can't you believe them?"

"Pictures or it didn't happen," he replied.

"I've got pictures!" Naminé exclaimed happily, immediately setting to finding the camera to show their friends.

"And I've got this!" Kairi declared, reaching into her purse and placing an object onto the table. All action stopped and every eye at the table (except for Richard's two, as he was busy watching a Coliseum fight with perhaps too much intensity) turned to look at the item while Kairi leaned back and proudly folded her arms over her chest.

A golden goblet stood in front of them. Its base was wide and swooped up into a thick ring before a three-inch stem. Carved into the base were the shapes of jaguars, and around the ring were the twin figures of eagles. The cup was deep and wide, easily large enough to accommodate at least two cups of liquid inside of it, and around the chalice's edges were six ovular stones that alternated between lapis lazuli and carnelian. Each stone was the eye of a different jungle animal amidst the engraved rainforest on the cup.

"Where did you...?" Nanaki asked. She stared at the goblet with her eyes wider than any of them had ever seen them before.

"El Dorado," Kairi said simply, smiling at the dumbfounded expression on Tidus' face. He gawked, mouth goldfishing, at the chalice before him.

"Kairi," Sora began, tearing his eyes away from the cup to gaze in wonder at his girlfriend, "when did you get that?" She turned her head, her proud smile never leaving her face. Her face lit up even more at the look in his eyes.

"Right before we started to sail the boat," she answered. "I saw the cup, knew it was too amazing to pick and choose over when we were out of the city, and grabbed it before Miguel and Tulio could notice it. Smart choice?"

Sora replied to her rhetorical question with a firm kiss on her cheek. It was at that very moment that their server approached.

"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Kyoko and I will be your server today. May I ask how everyone is doing...to...day?" Kyoko stopped, her lavender eyes stuck on the attractive person known as Sora and the equally attractive young woman he was kissing.

Her pen and pad almost flew out of her hands as she jumped Sora. Arms wrapped around his left side and she nuzzled up against him. "Sora!" she squealed. "We meet again my love!" She moved to kiss his left cheek.

Kairi reached around her boyfriend's face and planted her hand firmly on Kyoko's head. "Hey! Back off!" She found herself struggling to push the waitress back, and Kyoko made a pouting face. She continued to cling to Sora's left arm while still pushing against Kairi's palm.

"Aw...now why'd you have to go and bring _her_ here?" she pouted. Her neck muscles were straining as she made slow but steady ground against Kairi's counterattack. A patron at a nearby table got up with a murmur to his partner about getting the manager.

Sora, trying to break out of the vice-grip that Kyoko had his left arm in, gasped in response, but before he could even answer beyond a splutter, Kairi stood up in order to put more force into defending her claim and added her right hand to the server's forehead. "I'm his girlfriend, and his apprentice!" she growled lowly. "Do you have a problem with that?" Richard had somehow procured some popcorn, and both he and Lily were munching on it while watching the debacle. Interestingly enough, both of the participants of the Coliseum match he'd been watching were covered in flame.

"Is Kairi normally this possessive?" Nanaki asked quietly. Selphie and Naminé smiled with more than a little bit of embarrassment.

"I normally wouldn't," Kyoko retorted cheerfully in spite of Kairi's pure hostility and the hands she was mashing into Kyoko's face, "except that he's my boyfriend, so you can just sit quietly over there and let him give me some sugar. Muu..."

Somehow she'd managed to push Kairi back, and had leaned even closer to give Sora a kiss. Her lips met resistance and Kyoko opened her eyes. Sora had pressed the tip of a finger to her mouth. Kyoko blinked twice. Sora looked back at Kairi. "Forgive me," he muttered, "but it's for our own good."

He placed the fingertip Kyoko had kissed to his lips, kissed it, and then pressed it back to Kyoko's mouth. Her entire body, from her currently curling toes to the very crown of her head, turned red after the fashion of a thermometer. Steam piped out of her ears, pink hearts spawned in the air around her, and Kyoko fell backwards with her limbs splayed out, a somewhat disturbing smile on her face. Drool slowly leaked out the corner of her mouth in a string while she mumbled incoherently.

Sora was fully expecting at least a slap to the back of his head. What Kairi did surprised him a little. She sat back down, huffed a sigh, and crossed her arms. "Kairi, you're not killing him," Richard pointed out, looking unhappy with the fact that she wasn't currently slaughtering him. "Would you like me to do it for you?"

She huffed and shook her head. "Fu, no. I'm peeved, but more annoyed at that hussy than I am with Sora." She shot her boyfriend a glance. "You're still making it up to me later."

"Of course," Sora chuckled. "I'll buy you dinner." Kairi cheered up immediately. She picked up her menu, after giving her goblet one more fond look, and began to hum.

"You better be buying her dinner," Selphie told Sora with a small laugh, "she is the birthday girl after all." The brunette glanced at Tidus, giggled, and lightly elbowed him. "Hey, stop gawking at the goblet."

Tidus was just about to retort when a woman in heels yelped a greeting. "Kairi! You're back!" The whole group looked up to see Melissa approaching their table with a warm smile on her face. Kairi jumped up from her seat and carefully rushed around the table in order to hug her mother, and the man who had left to fetch the manager simply stared open-mouthed at the scene he did not expect. Wearily shaking his head, he resigned himself to having to deal with the chattering table and returned to his own.

"Oh, it's great to see you," Melissa crooned while she and her daughter hugged. "How've you been?"

"Great, for the most part," Kairi answered. She wasn't about to tell her mother about the recent combats she'd been in. No way in hell was she going to tell her mother that! "Oh, Mom, check it!" Kairi turned back towards the table, snatched the goblet in her hand, and presented it before Melissa. "I got this when Sora, Naminé, and I went to El Dorado!" Melissa took it in trembling fingers while Kairi continued to talk. "It's the first off-world treasure we've picked up. I'm thinking of starting a collection of mementos for each world we visit so that when Sora and I have our own place we can put them all on a shelf or decorate a room with them. What do you think?"

Melissa needed a few seconds to compose herself and remove the lump in her throat. The goblet her daughter had procured could probably make a considerable dent in their mortgage. She finally managed to get a working smile onto her face and handed the chalice back. "That sounds lovely, Kairi. He's been treating you well?" Kairi nodded her head.

"I'm right here," Sora reminded her, in a jokingly annoyed tone.

"I am too!" Roxas spoke up. "Hi!"

"Hi Roxas," Melissa said. She turned back to Kairi, and then did a double-take. She smiled again. "Hey, nice body. That new?"

"Yes it is."

"And I imagine that you'd like to fill it up with the yummy food that you couldn't last time?"

"Yes please!"

Melissa chuckled and then frowned slightly. "Well, a server should have come around by now. Where is...Sora, why is Kyoko drooling on the floor and projecting hearts?"

It took a few minutes, but eventually they resuscitated their waitress long enough for her to take their drink orders and for a few appetizers. Kairi sent her mother after Kyoko with the goblet, which she intended to have a nice drink of cool ice water from. When Melissa returned, Kairi took a quick sip without even looking into the goblet.

Her eyes widened and her tongue and mouth almost rejected the liquid outright from surprise. She managed to keep it in, though, and swallowed whatever it was that Melissa had poured into the cup. It turned out to be a dark burgundy liquid.

"Um...Mom, what is this?" Melissa set a glass of water down in front of her daughter.

"Don't tell anyone, but I'm allowing you to have a little wine tonight," she explained. "You're sixteen tomorrow, and a goblet like that simply is not allowed to be a vessel for plain water. Now then," she turned to peer at the rest of the table, "thank you for being very patient with my daughter and her boyfriend, but I believe now is the time for introductions."

_-LD-_

"Mom," Kairi said suddenly as Melissa turned to leave. Her mother had exhausted about as much time as she possibly could to catch up with her daughter and socialize with her friends and Richard, so much so that Kyoko had already left six minutes ago after delivering a large platter of breadsticks and a slightly smaller one of nachos. "I don't think that you should keep Kyoko around."

Melissa frowned at Kairi. "What do you mean? She's a little breezy upstairs, yes, but she's a fantastic employee. If this is just your jealousy and the wine talking then I expected much better from you, Kairi." The red-head flinched at the accusation, but put down her goblet all the same. She'd only had three sips from the cup, _three!_

"No Mom, she's an Apostle of the Star; she works for Maleficent."

Silence reigned between mother and daughter for several seconds, until it was broken by Richard pulling out his popcorn again and watching with interest. Even so, the eyes of the two women were only on each other.

"Kyoko?"

Answering the summons with disturbing cheer, Kyoko was beside their table in a second. "Yes Melissa?"

"Is it true that you work for my daughter's enemies?" Kyoko placed a finger to her lips and looked up in contemplation for a few seconds.

"Hmm... if you mean Maleficent, then I guess so," she answered. "Yes," she chirped brightly, hands coming down to rest in front of her waist with her round tray covering her lower abdomen, "yes, I suppose I do." Kyoko tilted her head slightly. "Why? Is that bad? It's not going to affect my job, is it?" she gasped.

Melissa shook her head. "So long as you don't start any fights while at work, no." She started to walk away, leaving Kairi too stunned to speak.

Naminé spoke for her. "Uwa! Me-Melissa!"

"Hm?"

Naminé spluttered in protest. "But...but she's our enemy!"

"And she's also a nice girl who does her job well," Melissa answered. "And I'm not about to sack one of my employees on the grounds that she, my daughters, and my daughters' boyfriends have a heavy grudge against one another."

"Oh, I don't have any problems with Sora!" Kyoko clarified with a winning smile. "He's really cool and handsome, though that chick over there does get in the way of our relationship," she pouted.

"Personal relationships are no grounds for dismissal, young ladies," Melissa continued, still directing her attention to Kairi and Naminé, "so I don't want to see you with swords out and magic flying the instant I turn my back. Do I make myself clear?"

Kairi gritted her teeth and bowed her head.

"I said, _do I make myself_-"

"Yes, Mom. I get it," Kairi retorted. She pointedly snatched up her goblet and took a large mouthful as Naminé sighed and confirmed that she wouldn't be starting any fights with their server.

"Good," Melissa replied, smiling warmly at the pair. "I'll see you when you get home tonight. Don't stay out too late now." She gave Sora and Roxas each a knowing look before walking away.

About six seconds passed.

"What are you even doing here?" Kairi snapped, glaring at Kyoko. "Shouldn't you be in the Castle That Never Was or something, wherever Maleficent's putting her headquarters these days?" Kyoko giggled.

"Normally I would, but the castle's just so boring all the time, and the Heartless creep me out... Besides, I like my job here and I get to talk to lots of people."

"Kyoko! You've got work to do!"

Panic stole her expression for a moment. "Oh crap, I forgot." She bowed to the table. "Excuse me, but I have other tables to attend to, unless I can get you anything else while you wait for your food."

"No, we're all good here!" Nanaki answered eagerly. Kyoko nodded her head and quickly made her exit. Smiling and humming a little to herself, the desert native grabbed a large handful of the nachos from the platter, long strings of melted cheese forming a momentary suspension bridge between the rest and her plate. "You guys don't know how much I'm enjoying these," she said with a small laugh in her voice. "These are absolutely amazing. And what's this wonderful brown stuff in them?"

"Aren't you the least bit worried that an enemy you'll have to fight has an agent serving you food?" Roxas asked her.

"Nope," Nanaki replied. "Now tell me, what is this brown stuff?"

"It's ground beef," Sora answered.

"And what's beef?"

"Cow," Tidus said.

"And what're cows?"

"Bovines," said Richard.

"And what are bovines?"

There was an audible _thump_ as Kairi's head hit the table. "Oh for the love of..." she muttered, "they're four-legged docile herd animals that weigh a huge amount, stand at shoulder-height, eat grass, and say 'Moo'. They're not really intelligent beasts that exist to eat grass, be food for predators and omnivores, and get launched from catapults."

She snorted at her own statement, and then took another small (_small_) sip of her wine before grabbing a breadstick.

"Don't forget the farting methane bit," Tidus reminded her, completely unsuccessful at holding back a grin. Sora just managed to keep from choking on a nacho, and a few of their heads turned to look at Richard. Who knew what would be going through the warlock's head at the mention of an animal that expelled flammable gas from its rear end? He was suddenly looking away from the group, whistling a tune and feeding Lily a hot ranseed pepper from the nachos. The bunny's facial expression became completely unreadable as it started to gag fire from the purple pepper.

"Quick! Somepony get that bunny some milk!" Roxas chortled.

"Roxas! You're horrible!" Naminé scolded. She turned to Richard, as she was sitting next to him, and grabbed the bunny from his hands. She promptly ignored his complaints and gently stroked the panicking Lily on the head. Fortunately, the rabbit seemed to sense that it was out of immediate danger and did not try to bite her. "Sshh, it's okay. You're okay." Naminé held a free hand out in front of her. "Freeze."

A small ball of ice formed out of the liquid in the air and solidified just above her palm. Naminé crushed it into a tiny handful of snow and softly murmured, "Aero." A gentle wind rippled around her and carried the little snowflakes down from her palm and into the panting rodent's mouth. Lily shivered for a few moments, but her breathing became a bit steadier and what looked like flames stopped emerging from her mouth. "There's a good girl," she cooed. "You're going to be just fine. No more hot peppers for you, though." She selected a nacho that was completely free of meat and brought it before the bunny. Lily appeared to sniff at it for several seconds before biting into the chip.

The bunny rabbit began munching contentedly on chips Naminé selected for it while the others devoured the remaining breadsticks and nachos, keeping up idle small talk about life and their general state of affairs while also planning for what they were all going to do at the festival the following day.

Then their main courses arrived.

Roxas and Sora practically melted into putty in their chairs as they ate their spider sandwiches, with Sora taking a quick potshot at Roxas about him and wanting a burger as soon as he had a body again suddenly _not having a burger_ now that he had a body again. Kairi bit deep into her Island burger, savouring the taste that she just couldn't replicate while on the gummi ship whenever she tried. Nanaki looked a little pensive when her spider sandwich came, still iffy on its name, but as soon as she bit into it her eyes widened to their fullest extent. She swallowed thickly.

"_What is this goodness?_" she asked.

"So I take it you like seafood now?" Selphie asked. Nanaki nodded her head.

"Ever since I left my world I have been amazed at the things I have seen," she said. "Granted, I haven't seen much but the inside of a gummi ship and now a bit of your home, but...MAN this is good!"

"That's not true, Nanaki. I took you with me when we visited Padosoan," Sora interjected with a mouthful of food. Nanaki shrugged and promptly took another bite of her food, her eyes rolled upwards in pure bliss.

"I think we're going to need to stock up on shrimp, scallops, and crab before we go, Sora," Kairi said with a little bit of good-natured mirth. Sora groaned through a smile and a mouthful of crab. He swallowed.

"You're going to be one expensive tag-along, you know that?" he said. Nanaki lightly punched him in the arm and the table (including Richard) laughed.

_-LD-_

Satisfied that the door to the alley behind Destiny's was shut, Kyoko whipped out her phone and quickly punched in a number.

She hardly had to wait before a faint _click_ on the other end of the line could be heard.

"_What is it, Kyoko?"_ Charden's voice asked, distorted slightly by static.

"Sora and his friends are back on the Islands," Kyoko said cheerily. "What do I do now?"

"_Nothing."_ Kyoko's eyes widened in surprise.

"Bu-but Charden!"

"_No 'but's, Kyoko. The only reason you were sent back to the Islands in the first place was so that we could verify that the Keyblade's Chosen One came back. Shiki and Doctor Kanzaki will be there tomorrow to capture the princess. If they need you, they'll contact you. Are we clear?"_

"Yes, but-" Kyoko tried to argue.

"_Good. I'll be out of contact for a few days. Maleficent is sending me to finalize her deal with Sidious."_ Kyoko wasn't even able to get in another word before a _click _in her earsignaled the end of her call.

With a growl of frustration, Kyoko's shot a fireball at one of the trashcans in the alleyway, reducing it quickly to a twisted piece of ruined metal.

"Why don't they ever let me do anything other than watch people?!" She groaned. "It's so annoying!"

_-LD-_

"That was a _goood_ meal," Nanaki announced while stepping outside into the light of the sun once again. She stretched and hummed, soaking in the sun's light on her face. There still looked to be quite a lot of daylight left to them.

"What time is it?" Naminé asked her companions.

"Four-twelve," Tidus answered after a quick glance at his watch. He looked at the others. "Anything you feel like doing while you're back for a bit?"

"Let's hit the beach," Naminé said. "I could use a tan. My skin's gotten so pale."

Kairi laughed. "Naminé sweetie, your skin's _always_ been pale." Naminé flushed a little in irritation.

"Well, you try living cooped up indoors or inside your other's heart for most of your life and keeping bronzed skin," she pouted.

"Tell me about it," Richard agreed. "I can sunbathe for five hours four days straight and my skin's still white as bone." He tapped a finger to his chin. "Although, that might be due to having no blood circulation. Do you think I should see a specialist?"

"Are you going to incinerate him the moment he tells you that you're dead?" Selphie asked jokingly.

"Of course not!" Richard replied, revolted.

"Aha!" Selphie declared. "I knew my first impression of you was-"

"I'd rip his head off and then make a hat from his intestines and eyeballs," clarified the warlock.

A greenish tinge touched the cheeks of everyone in the group besides Richard and the bunny that now rested on Naminé's shoulder.

"Spot-on?" Nanaki finished for Selphie.

"Where did you say you picked this guy up again?" asked Tidus.

"From a summon charm," Naminé answered thickly, like she was trying to hold her supper/lunch down, "and he refused to be unsummoned."

"Well...sucks to be you guys," Tidus said.

"Not...quite," said Naminé uneasily as she remembered the situation that had warranted summoning the warlock in the first place. "If it weren't for Richard, I'd probably be dead, or in a coma or paralyzed at the least."

"Naminé?" Selphie asked. "Are you okay? Would you like to talk about it?" The blonde Wielder shook her head.

"Kai and I talked about it a little on the gummi ship on our way here, but I don't really want to think about it right now."

They walked in quiet for about ten seconds, the mood now quite different from the cheerful air about them when they exited the restaurant. Nanaki broke the silence with a twist in front of the group and a shout.

"Hey! Aren't we supposed to be having fun? C'mon guys! This is the first world I've come to after leaving my home and there's a big party going on tomorrow. Let's see some excited faces ready to show the visitor around."

Her rousing speech seemed to work somewhat as smiles slipped back onto the other teenagers' faces.

"Yeah, right," said Selphie. "What are we doing moping? Let's go hit the surf and sand, guys."

"Yeah!" Sora, Roxas, Tidus, Kairi, and Nanaki all shouted. They were prepared to rush off right then and there, if Naminé hadn't first called a stop due to a very, _very_, important prerequisite that she still needed to fill.

"I don't have a swimsuit yet," she informed them, looking down at her toes with a slight blush filling her cheeks with pink.

Kairi's answer to her dilemma came out slowly. "Wellll I suppose I could let you borrow one of mine for today..."

Nanaki tilted her head slightly to the side. "Swim...suit?"

"...or we could go shopping!" Kairi finished cheerily. She quickly linked her arm around Nanaki's while Selphie did the same with Naminé, the bffs grinning at each other like two girls on a shopping trip. "C'mon girls, let's go swimsuit shopping!"

Selphie noticed the apprehensive looks that the boys were sharing with one another and took a _little_ bit of pity on them. "Don't worry boys. You don't have to come with and we won't take _too_ long. Meet you at the beach in, say, an hour?"

Sora looked at Kairi in astonishment. "You two can finish shopping and get to the beach in an _hour_?"

"Hey!" Kairi retorted in mock anger. "We can totally do all of our shopping in an hour!"

"I bet you can't," Sora challenged. He snapped his fingers and looked at Tidus. "I bet you three hundred munny that you can't. Hey, Tidus, you agree with me, right? Those two cannot go on a shopping trip and be back in an hour?" Tidus' gaze flickered between Sora and the female duo clinging onto the two who needed the shopping trip more than they for a few seconds, likely appraising his situation.

"I'm in," he said, agreeing with the betting master of their circle. "Three hundred munny that we won't see you on the beach in under one hour."

"Done," Selphie declared. "We meet at _Surfin' Sundaes_ at...five-twenty."

"Agreed." Sora, Tidus, Kairi, and Selphie all shook hands before the girls sprinted off with their 'captives', shouting a guttural "Oooooooo!" as they ran.

"Easiest three hundred munny you've ever made," Sora told Tidus with a small grin on his face.

_-LD-_

"Welcome, Nanaki," Selphie said with practised pomp and a dramatic wave of her arm, "welcome to the greatest invention of mankind..."

"...the mall!" she and Kairi declared simultaneously.

Nanaki stared at the building in awe and bafflement. Not only were her earlier thoughts about steel being used for building violently bouncing around in her head after just a single glance at the structure of the giant building, she had never seen so much glass in her entire life, let alone in a single place! The building had to have at least two floors with how tall it was, and past the double set of glass push doors she could just make out what looked to be the trunk of a tree. But, that couldn't be a tree, could it? It was inside a building.

"Two floors, one-hundred and twenty-five stores, a food court with fifteen different options, a movie theatre and a petting zoo all rolled into one package of awesomeness," announced Kairi, waving her hand at the mall like it was a game show prize on display. "And you, my lucky new friend, get to experience most of it in a whirlwind shopping spree!"

"Come on now!" Selphie exclaimed. "We're wasting time! Let's go go go." She grabbed Naminé's arm and led the former Nobody inside, and Kairi 'gently' coaxed Nanaki to follow.

It really was a tree. A palm tree gently arched its way to a leafy crown sixteen feet off the ground, with another tree of a similar height planted five feet behind it and both with the bottoms of their trunks surrounded by black iron grates set into the floor above the sand and soil their roots set into. Two wooden benches were on either side, within the shade cast by the trees for the one person sitting down and reading a book. Nanaki didn't even need a full moment to wonder why they were providing shade when she saw a glass dome in the ceiling high, high above her head, and running down the length of the mall. People were absolutely everywhere! Some with shopping bags, some just chatting in groups, and others munching on food or pushing strollers with squalling or sleeping babies.

Kairi and Selphie allowed a minute for both Nanaki and Naminé to stare in awe at the majesty that was the inside of the girls' haunt (outside of Club Vinyl), and then got right down to business.

"Right, so there are six different stores that Selphie and I shop at when we go looking for swimwear. Two of them are close to where we are, but they don't have the greatest selection. The biggest one with the best numbers is on the other end of the mall, but it will take us ten minutes to walk there barring traffic. The other three are scattered around and sometimes have really great stuff on sale. What do you want to hit up first?"

"Uh, why don't we just start with the closest store?" Naminé asked. Kairi and Selphie shared evil grins and quickly grabbed both Naminé and Nanaki. Half a minute later they were standing outside the store.

"Like I said, not the greatest selection," Kairi said, watching as Naminé gulped and blushed a little, and Nanaki's face went completely red, "but there is a small section devoted to them and you could even swim in some of the other stuff instead. It's still not the best for swimming in because they're made for comfort and appearance instead of swimming, but they _can_ work..."

"I...I don't want to go into this store," Nanaki said quickly, turning her head away and putting a hand over her eyes. Even so, she kept sneaking glances at the models on the posters.

"Ugh!" Selphie playfully scoffed, "come on," and dragged Nanaki into _Victoria's Secret_. Naminé looked at Kairi again.

"Are you sure that a bras and knickers for saucy situations store has bathing suits?" she asked. Kairi giggled.

"Like I said, there's a wall. It's a small wall, but it's there, and don't you want to pick out something for yourself since we're here? Something for Roxas, maybe?" Kairi tapped her nose suggestively, and Naminé blushed but shot Kairi a look.

"And I suppose you've plucked up the courage to show Sora that little number you got on Radiant Garden? The scarlet one with black lace trim, complete with stockings and garter?"

"Touché, dear sister, touché," said Kairi, and both walked into the store.

_-LD-_

Roxas dipped the red plastic spoon in his hand into the vanilla ice cream that made up his banana split, his red spoon picking up the hardened dark liquid-chocolate syrup-that covered the top of that particular scoop as well as a bit of whipped cream, and the cherry. He almost moaned when he brought it to his lips. The cold treat was exactly what he needed after close to an hour of surfing and wipeouts with Sora and Tidus. Good as both of them were on a surfboard, they'd actually been _doing_ it instead of working with just the memories of someone else, which meant that he still pretty much sucked at it.

He still felt that he'd had some pretty awesome wipeouts though.

"You looked like a pansy out there, Roxas," Kim said, sitting down next to him with a strawberry sundae in her bowl. Roxas frowned at the golden-haired girl, his mental image of himself shattering into a thousand shards at her words.

"Sure, just crush my dreams of world-famous surfing stardom," he muttered. Sora and Tidus came over and sat down, Sora's hair still dripping a little water onto his now decidedly well-toned chest.

"The time," he declared, "is now five thirty-five in the afternoon." Cheerily, he tucked into his chocolate caramel ripple sundae. "They are now fifteen minutes late, and the bet is won." His spoon went into his mouth, and he mimicked the exaggerated moan Tidus was making.

"The sweet, sweet taste of victory," said the blond.

"Told you it would be the easiest munny you ever made," Sora said. "Ah, six hundred munny...what will I do with it?"

"Six hundred?" Roxas asked. "I thought the bet was three hundred?"

"Yes, it was," Sora stated. "Against both Kairi and Selphie. Three hundred from Kairi and three hundred from Selphie to me, and three hundred from Kairi and three hundred from Selphie to Tidus." Grinning at his logic, he dipped his spoon into the cold confection again.

"They're going to fight your ass so hard for trying to get them to pay up six hundred munny," Kim said with a shake of her head.

"Too bad! They lost a bet," Tidus remarked. "If they think it's unfair, then tough! They should have been here on time so we'd pay up." He scooped up another spoonful of his ice cream and brought it up to his lips and into his mouth. Tidus savoured the taste, knowing that he'd be getting back the munny he'd just used to buy it, plus more.

"Something's been bugging me a bit since we got here," Sora said, addressing Tidus, "but now that it's mostly just us guys I feel as though I can ask you."

"Yeah?" Tidus asked with a spoon in his mouth. "And what's that?"

"Were you and Selphie on a date when the rest of us showed up?" Sora drilled.

Tidus almost choked on his spoon. "What-what gave you that idea?"

"Tidus, you two were walking side-by-side with Wakka nowhere in sight. As far as I remember, a situation like that is pretty rare," Sora reminded him with an evil grin.

"Hey, what about all of the times you and Kairi were off in your own world without Riku but weren't on dates? Need I remind you that we had a betting pool on you two?"

"Touché, but that didn't answer my question," Sora admitted. "Did we interrupt a date?"

Tidus grumbled a bit. "Yeah, you guys did, jerks." He took in another scoop of his ice cream.

"Aw, sorry man," Roxas apologized.

"Don't be," Tidus said with his mouth full of ice cream. "It's probably going a lot better this way. She got to go shopping with her best friend and we get to catch up with you guys. Plus this gets her in her swimsuit, which I hadn't planned on today." He gave Sora a lewd grin, and extended his fist. Sora chuckled and bumped it with his own.

"Damn straight," Sora laughed. "I can't wait to see Kairi in a bikini now."

"Haven't you seen her in her underwear?" Roxas asked.

"Shut up!" Kim exclaimed. She looked at Sora and grinned, impressed.

"No I haven't!" Sora denied furiously.

"You bastard," Tidus growled. "What did she let you touch? How far did you get?"

"I think she let him touch them," Roxas passively told them. "He enjoyed it."

"I swear to Kingdom Hearts, Roxas, I will eviscerate you!" Sora shouted, while Roxas calmly ate his ice cream.

"Well then, if she's let you play ball with her boobs then I really say that they're not going to pay up six hundred each without a fight," Kim said.

"They can fight all they want, but they're going to pay it," Sora said, waving his hand dismissively. He shot her a glare. "And that didn't happen!"

"Oh really?"

"Hm?"

Sora, Kim, Roxas, and Tidus all looked up as Kairi and Selphie stood beside their table, arms crossed and triumphant smirks on their faces. Sora couldn't help but eye Kairi's form appreciatively, her shapely curves exposed in a two-piece scarlet bikini, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Selphie sporting a stylish banana-yellow bandeau top tied around her neck by a string around a ring attached to the fabric in-between her breasts. "We may be late and have lost the bet," Kairi said, "but we're each only paying out three hundred to you two. And you'll have to agree when you see the fruits of our labour."

"I think Sora's seen enough of your 'fruits', Kairi," Kim giggled, waggling her eyebrows at Kairi's chest suggestively. Kairi drew an arm in front of herself.

"What do you mean?" she asked defensively.

"Titty time in bed," Roxas said. "You two have it, right?" Kairi's face became as red as her top and hair, and she narrowed her eyes at Sora.

"What have you been telling them?" she asked, her voice dangerously cool.

"What you are witnessing is the product of Roxas' troublemaking and has absolutely nothing to do with me not exaggerating our non-existent sex life," Sora told her. "Feel free to punch him as much as you want."

Sora took one more spoonful of his ice cream into his mouth, and swallowed it down with a smile while the sounds of Roxas feebly defending himself against Kairi's not _too_ vicious assault on his head serenaded Sora's ears. He leaned back on his chair and smiled when he saw Kairi quickly checking him out with Roxas hunched over on the table, pretending to be in severe pain. She deserved to check him out, though. He had given her a good once-over too. "Well, this had better be good, babe, or I'm still gonna just order you to fulfill your end of the bet."

"Oh, don't worry, Sora," said Selphie, "it will be." She turned around and reached her hands for something, or someone, hiding behind Kairi.

"No! I don't want-!"

"Now presenting...Nanaki!"

Kairi twisted away, and the boys and Kim got a good look at the desert native in her very first swimsuit. She was in a one-piece, and stood slightly awkwardly and shuffled her bare feet. The swimwear fit her well, with straps wrapping around her neck from where they came off the bust, and patterned in jagged horizontal stripes of ocean blue and white on a violet background. They could make out ruffles on the section of her bathing suit dedicated to her cleavage. Nanaki was blushing quite profusely, and she glanced up at the table.

"I-if-if any of you laugh, I swear I'll cut you to ribbons!" she spat in a quiet voice. Her eyes flickered between the centre of the table, down at herself, and Kim's chest sporadically, and the boys didn't need to be geniuses to see why.

Kim was beside them in a black bikini top with tiny golden polka dots (and a pair of ridiculously short tan-coloured shorts with frayed legs), and the halter cut on the top was specifically drawing emphasis to her large and luscious DD-cup dumplings. Nanaki, on the other hand, was clearly flat as a board in the boob department. Sora and Roxas had never noticed that her assets were so lacking before, as the clothing she'd always worn had been quite excellent on covering up that she didn't have anything worth covering up.

Roxas and Sora both withheld their moans of disappointment. Tidus didn't quite cover it up so much, and Nanaki stamped. "Shut up!" She took two quick steps forward and launched a wicked punch to Tidus' cheek. The teen went spinning out of his chair and stopped a couple of feet away from where he'd been seated.

"I guess I deserved that," he muttered, and got back into his chair. "Good thing I've got a remedy right here." He spooned another spoon of his ice cream into his mouth and soothed the inside of his aching cheek.

Nanaki was still bright red in the face, and turned on Sora and Roxas with an upraised fist. "Well! Either of you got a problem? Am I not as big as you were hoping for you lecherous perverts!?"

"It looks cute," Roxas said with his eyes closed and a small hand gesture. He was the picture of suave. Nanaki's anger vanished in the blink of an eye.

"I agree," Sora added with a nod of his head. "That looks cute on you, Nanaki."

Her face turned five different shades of pink in the span of a single second and she slid back to where Kairi and Selphie were standing.

"They said I looked cute. No one's ever said I looked cute before..."

Kairi shook her head slightly and Selphie bounded away towards a bamboo wall of the shack. "And now for our next contestant, please feast your eyes upon our very own... the lovely, the beautiful, the precious drop-dead gorgeous-"

"Don't you think you're upselling her a bit much?" Kim asked.

"-Naminé!"

Roxas felt his whole world stop as Naminé entered his field of vision.

She was blushing slightly from nerves, curling a finger up close to her chin. A bright blue flower sat in her hair. Across her chest was a white bandeau with an aqua starburst flower pattern on her left side, and her hips had a wavy pure white skirt that flowed until just a few inches above her kneecaps.

Kairi hadn't spoken near enough to justify just how adorable Roxas felt Naminé looked right now. In fact, he was blushing and placed a hand over his mouth as his face went red.

Sora whistled. "Looking good, Naminé!"

"Ow! Ow!" added Tidus, punching the air.

"See," Selphie whispered to the former Nobody as she led her to take 'centre stage' in front of her small judging panel, "I told you that you looked great in it!" Naminé placed her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly, a smile coming onto her face as she looked directly at her boyfriend.

"Well? Roxas?" Naminé placed her hands out to her side and twirled around once. The skirt flirted with the breeze, flying up and just showcasing the bottom of her white bikini bottom underneath. "What do you think?"

"I think that Roxas has lost the capability of speech," Kairi giggled. "Either that or you..." she stopped as Roxas started to breathe out a few words.

"You look...so adorable," Roxas whispered. Naminé's blush brightened a tad and she swished her skirt with her right hand. She lightly stepped forward and placed her hand against Roxas' cheek, and thanked him for his thoughts with a soft peck on his lips.

Naminé leaned back from the kiss and dragged her tongue around her own lips. She smiled. "I can taste the ice cream on your lips," she purred. Roxas gulped. He never realized just how sexy Naminé could make ice cream sound. Naminé suddenly dumped herself on his lap and stole the spoon from his hand. "Gimme some!"

Roxas blinked, and wasn't able to react until Naminé had already placed a heaping spoonful of the chocolate scoop of his banana split into her mouth. "Hey! Wait! Naminé that's not fair! You know how much I like ice cream!" Naminé simply smiled brightly at him with the red spoon sticking into her mouth. She glanced at Kim, barely making eye contact with her fellow blonde before she quickly looked away, clutching at her head from a sudden surge of pain. Roxas' concern was quick to replace his disdain at her stealing his favourite treat. "Naminé, are you okay?"

She grimaced but nodded her head, forcing a smile onto her face. "Yeah, just a brain freeze is all."

"Well that's what you get for eating my ice cream," Roxas told her definitively.

Kim shifted slightly in her chair.

Sora sighed. "Alright, Kairi, fine. You and Selphie only have to pay up three hundred each. Nanaki, come over here and pull up a chair. I'll buy you an ice cream."

"Um...okay," Nanaki said timidly. She quickly grabbed a chair and sat down, still looking at her feet with a tinge of pink on her cheeks. Her hands went to her bathing suit and she ran them down her stomach a couple of times. "Hey, uh, where's Richard?"

Kairi and Naminé looked around frantically. "Oh shit! Did you guys lose him?"

"He said that he was entering a fishing contest," Sora said with a slight frown on his face.

_-LD-_

The judges' eyes were as wide as saucers, and they stared speechless at the hooded and cloaked warlock as he stood beside his catch. "Well? Do I win?" Richard asked.

"That's a...a...that's a Vulkna Shark..." the head judge said, pointing at the 'fish' that was strung twenty-five feet high in the air beside Richard. Grey-black bands coloured its otherwise white underside while the top half of the shark was camouflaged a slightly greyed blue. Rows upon rows of sharp white teeth graced its mouth.

"Really?" Richard asked. "It's just what I found when I went out. Is that significant?"

"It's the most dangerous sea-creature that lives within forty miles of these shores!"

"_Really?_" the warlock said again, looking in surprise at the creature beside him. "He sure didn't put up much of a fight. Are you sure it's dangerous?" The judges nodded their heads. "Well, still, do I win?"

_-LD-_

A little later, Naminé was lying on a towel on the beach, peacefully enjoying the feeling of Roxas' hands on her back as he spread suntan lotion over her skin. The lotion was cool, which had startled her at first and caused a little bit of shuddering. Now, however, she had her eyes closed and relaxed while Roxas spread the lotion. His hands rubbed gently, but she could still feel the strength within them that could arise at a moment's notice. It made her feel content; safe in their loving care.

Naminé let a soft moan escape her lips and she opened her eyes a little. Out playing in the surf were Sora, Kairi, Tidus, and Selphie. Sora and Tidus had Kairi and Selphie on their shoulders, respectively, and the two girls had their hands locked and were trying to push each other down into the water. Nanaki and Kim watched from the shore, close enough to get their bums wet by the waves as they came breaking up the sand. A few beachgoing boys appeared to be attempting to talk to them, but Nanaki was still far too coy to do more than stutter. Naminé found it endearing in a way that such a strong warrior from a harsh world compared to the Islands was so flustered in a bathing suit and as the object of male attention. Kim, though, was doing a fine job on taking up the boys' attentions. Naminé scowled. Stupid Kim and her stupid boobs.

She turned her eyes from Kim and back to the foursome engaged in their chicken fight. Ever since she'd placed her eyes on Kim that first time in the ice cream shop her temple had begun itching, and the first time was the worst. Something had just felt off. No, off wasn't the right word. Something about Kim felt...wrong; like Naminé didn't actually know who she was. And the worst part wasn't the vibe she was getting, it was that when she had glanced at Kim after stealing Roxas' ice cream she had been expecting to see her with a humoured, or at least a patient but annoyed, expression on her face, and she had.

However, underneath that she also saw a deep scowl.

Selphie and Tidus succeeded in knocking Kairi and Sora into the water. Naminé smiled at Kairi's girlish scream. The blonde then gasped and twittered a giggle when Kairi surfaced and yelped again, and Selphie leapt from Tidus' shoulders to almost tackle Kairi back underwater, hands reaching out wide. She missed, though, and was too late. The brunette had the redhead turn her back while she worked, but Sora had already seen what lay underneath the scarlet fabric that only an instant later had been floating freely in the ocean.

"I guess that Sora's having a really good day," Naminé mused. Roxas knelt down and kneaded his palms into the small of Naminé's back, drawing forth another cooing moan from his girlfriend.

"And why's that?" he asked. Kairi was now berating Selphie while the girl apologized profusely, and utterly failing considering how she kinda _did_ want Sora to see what she had inadvertently shown him, just not at this current time in such a manner as it ended up happening. Sora, on the other hand, had his back turned to them and had dropped down so that only his head was visible above the waves, and Tidus was laughing hysterically and had his hand up for a continuously ignored high-five.

"He just got to see Kairi topless," she answered. "Don't bother looking. Selphie's gotten the top back on."

"Aww...dang," he said, bemoaning his luck. "I guess I'll just have to make do with rubbing lotion on my girl's beautiful back." Naminé turned her head on the orange and yellow towel.

"You are too sweet, Roxas." She could tell he was nodding while he quietly chuckled above her body. His hands paused in their ministrations.

"Uh, Naminé, would you like me to rub the lotion on the skin underneath the band, or just go around it?" Naminé thought about it for a few seconds.

_Well,_ she mused, _ he has been very good recently, and I am really happy that he has a body of his own now so that we can be together. Today's also going by really good so...sure. Why not let him indulge?_

She hummed in her throat before cracking open her smiling lips. "You're allowed to go underneath the bandeau, but your hands are restricted to my back," said the girl. She tilted her head to look up at him suggestively. "The front is reserved for when we're in private."

_Oh wow, did I just say that? But...he's so cute when he's flustered!_

Roxas went back to work, his fingers trembling on her skin with eager nerves. She could tell as he reached her sides that he was trying very, _very_ hard to not test the boundaries that she'd set. After all, they were in public, and it wouldn't be very good for his reputation with Melissa if-on the day her mother discovered that her boyfriend had a body of his own-she learned that he'd been acting like a horny rascal to her little girl.

Naminé gently repositioned his hands to the centre of her back again with a faint giggle. "Forget what my mother would do to you if she found out you have wandering hands," she said, "just imagine what my dad would do." Roxas laughed weakly above her.

"Heh, heh, right... Okay, stick to the safe spots, got it."

"And I'll do my chest when I turn over," Naminé added, "just to keep you safe from daddy's wroth."

"Wroth?" chuckled Roxas.

"Wrath, ire, fury, take your pick. Wroth just sounded better in my head." Roxas laughed again.

"Ever the artist..." he muttered.

"Well...would you have me any other way?" she asked, her voice light like the gentle breeze blowing in from the ocean with the taste and smell of the surf and salt. Again, Roxas' amused laughter touched her ears, and he felt his hands come out from underneath the back of her top. Suddenly she could feel his breath against her cheek.

"No, I sure as hell wouldn't," he replied, and then he softly pressed a kiss to the back of her neck.

He finished applying the sunscreen to her shoulders and upper back, and Naminé turned around and started to work on her upper chest and abdomen, rubbing the cool lotion in with wide circles until the white cream had integrated with her skin. She finished up on both sides of her legs, noticing that Roxas was trying not to be too obvious in his staring when her hands were going over her recently-shaved thighs. She smiled a little and prematurely congratulated herself on her newfound boldness when she placed a large dollop of the cream into her palm.

"Would you like to tan with me, Roxas?"

"Huh? Oh! Sure!"

Naminé gestured with the hand holding the lotion. "May I?"

"Of course," said Roxas with a nod. Naminé's smile became just a little broader and she shuffled over on her knees. Now it was her turn to massage the lotion into Roxas' shoulders and back, and she realized just how much muscle was hiding underneath that skin of his. Roxas didn't have the visibly buff nature of Riku, but the strength buried beneath his skin was impressively tight. Even so, it melted underneath her fingertips and the blond Wielder relaxed to her soothing application of the sunscreen.

The seconds passed and Naminé could tell that her hands were roving over Roxas' body, yet she just couldn't seem to care enough to stop. Roxas also didn't appear too keen on telling her to cease, either, and his lips were unable to voice any sort of disagreement while her own were keeping them occupied.

"While I'd love to have nieces and nephews, I'd rather not be able to tell them that I was there to witness their conception!"

Naminé removed herself from Roxas at Kairi's shout like she'd been hit with a thunder spell. She and Roxas both sported rather pronounced blushes, and Naminé averted her eyes for a moment. She coughed. "Uhm, why don't you finish with the sunscreen? I'll just...just lie down now."

"Y-yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Roxas agreed, and both of them kept to the act of not looking at one another for a minute or so. Then Naminé glanced at Roxas again.

She sniggered.

Roxas chuckled.

Naminé's giggle increased in volume, immediately followed by the same thing happening to Roxas' laughter, until both of them were sharing a good laugh at moderate volume. Their laughter abated as Roxas brought Naminé into a one-armed hug and pulled her down with her back on his chest, and both of them looked up into the blue sky and started to watch the clouds pass as the sun shone down on them.

Neither of them had to say it, but both of them knew it were true. Life had been crazy recently, but right now it was calm; it was peaceful, and it was soothing for them to just take the late afternoon/early evening, lie down on the beach together, and relax. In short, life was good at the moment, and it promised to get even better tomorrow.

_-LD-_

There was one thing Keila could always count on to help her think or to even put her mind at ease: a sunset. And the Destiny Islands had one of the most beautiful sunsets that she had ever borne witness to.

The way the sun's light danced across the ocean, dyeing it gold in the last moments before nightfall claimed the world, complete with countless reflections of the life-giving star glittering on the waves was entrancing to look at. The sky above seemed to have been painted by a master artist with shades of violet, gold and crimson blending together in aesthetically pleasing manner. Combined with the gentle lapping of the waves against her bare feet, Keila felt at peace for what felt like the first time in weeks.

She gently rolled the silver egg Devin had given her across her palm. She was slightly intrigued by how it always remained cool to the touch, regardless of how long she held onto it. There was something about the object that she found oddly soothing. Perhaps it was the ocean's calming effect playing tricks on her. She couldn't be certain.

However, Keila's mind refused to relax. A whole day she had spent on this world, and her thoughts had been whirling around in her head like a typhoon such that she'd hardly noticed it passing until now that the sun was setting. _Two beings of Darkness, huh?_ She glanced at the staff of ironwood she had thrust into the ground next to her. A shiver ran down her spine, forcing Keila to look quickly away. Every time she so much as glanced at Oathbreaker, she couldn't help but feel as though it stared back at her, accusing her of something. It did very little to put her mind at ease.

"I'll be glad when Devin has this," she murmured. Another shiver shook her, and she kept her gaze away from Oathbreaker. "I don't like holding onto it at all."

Perhaps it was her imagination, but she could've sworn she felt the air between her and Oathbreaker shiver in retaliation to her words. "Yeah. Definitely creepy."

Quickly losing herself in the gentle motions of the ocean waters, Keila found her mind drifting away from the weapon. It bounced around from random thought to random thought, never finding purchase and never lingering for more than a few moments. Moments like this had been rare in her life, and Keila had every intention of enjoying this one to the fullest.

"I never knew how calming the ocean could be." Keila's voice was barely above a whisper. She kicked her feet absent mindedly, allowing her toes to barely graze the water below the dock she sat upon. A chuckle escaped her lips. "Maybe I was born on an island somewhere."

_Not that I would know. Mother has always been so tight-lipped about where she finds all of us._ With a groan, Keila allowed herself to fall backward onto the dock, instead turning her gaze to the rapidly darkening sky. _It's always about training. Making ourselves the best. Heh. I bet she never thought that maybe a vacation once in a while might've done us some good. It's certainly doing me wonders._

She let out an unnecessarily loud yawn and arched her back like a cat for a moment, savoring the pull of her muscles along her spine as she stretched herself out. _That's what this assignment has felt like; one big vacation with a couple of chores on the side. I haven't been this relaxed since before... since before I killed... _Keila's thoughts ground to a halt as her train of thought brought up a barrage of images.

_**The howling of the wind in her ears. Flurries of snow impairing her vision. He stands there, silver hair thrown about in the gale. Her Keyblade flashes into existence as she pounces. He counters half-heartedly. His eyes meet hers. Pleading. Shocked. Hurt. She attacks. He defends. Over and over again. Her armor shatters. Crystal fragments dot the battlefield. "Are you okay?" he asks. She grins up at him. Their lips meet. For a moment, she nearly loses herself to the physical contact. She smirks. The feeling of flesh giving way to crystal barely registers in her mind. Blood soaks through her glove. He steps back, shock on his face. Her Keyblade is in her hand before she knows it. She strikes. He vanishes over the cliff edge.**_

Keila sat up with a startled gasp. She shook her head rapidly from side to side, willing her memories to leave her alone. Of course, she knew well enough by now that would never be the case.

Eidetic memory had been one of the many things she was unhappy with about herself when it first manifested a few years back. It was the same with many of her brothers and sisters. At least a third of them shared this burden. And their mother never gave them a straightforward reason as to why so many of them possessed it.

And the last thing Keila wanted coming to mind while she was trying to relax was the memory of her first and only kill. _"It only gets easier."_ That's what her mother had promised. But Keila knew that was a lie. Any time she thought about the kill, her body was rocked with a powerful wave of nausea. His body had been a bloody mess at the base of that cliff, like a bug on a windshield, except with bones.

She groaned, leaning over the wooden planks to give her head better access to the water. Her reflection stared back, looking a little green around the gills. At least she knew she wasn't a natural born killer, if the churning of her stomach was anything to go by. Granted, it was only a small comfort in the grand scheme of things.

_If it wasn't for mother... I never would've killed him. She used me. Like she'd use a tool._ The nausea was beginning to pass. _Does she only see me as a tool? Is that all I am?_

With a sigh, Keila turned her focus back to the sunset as the star kissed the horizon; but she couldn't enjoy it now. She quickly lost herself in the darkness of her own musings as day gave way to night.

_-LD-_

* * *

_Hey look! A new chapter! Don't make any sudden movements. You might scare it away!_

_In all seriousness though, I hope you all enjoyed reading the combined efforts of myself and __**Shire Folk**__. Seriously, this guy is awesome. If you haven't read any of his stories, go do so. I guarantee that they're worth your time._

_As I type this, __**Shire**__ and I are hard at work on thirty four, which was originally part of this chapter. Ultimately, due to the length and obvious splitting point in the original thirty three, I had it split in two._

_In case you're wondering, thirty four is past the halfway point in production. Take that as you will._

_In other news, Daybreak has broken three hundred reviews! Probably means more to me than you guys, but still! Thanks a million, everyone!_

_Well. That's it for tonight. Check out the new poll I've put up, if you're up to it._

_Back to thirty four I go._

**_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._**

**_Shadow Horizons_**


	34. The Sun's Shadow Festival

_Wait. What? Impossible. I released another chapter only a month after the last one came out? What sorcery is this?_

_For starters, it's not sorcery. This is what happens when I actually don't have writer's block. Well, that, and having the assistance of another author really helped.  
_

_That's right. Once again, **Shire Folk** has contributed his writing prowess to help this arc along. Without his help, this monster of a chapter never would've been possible._

_So, here's our challenge to you: we want to see how many of you can figure out which parts of this chapter were written by **Shire** and which parts were written by myself. (Hint: One in particular sticks out like a sore thumb. You'll see why.)_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or their affiliates. I own my Original Characters, plot line, and original ideas. But you already knew that._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Four: The Sun's Shadow Festival**

_Saturday, July 3rd, 4794 P.C._

_Destiny Islands_

Kairi sighed tiredly as she summoned Oathkeeper to her hand and tapped her front door with its tip. The bolt locking the door _clicked_ as the Keyblade's magic slid it back inside of the door, and Kairi prayed that this time the door wouldn't squeak when she opened it.

It did. Just a faint sound, but the door did squeak while it was being opened, and to Kairi that made it as loud as the foghorn on the Guiding Star lighthouse atop the cliffs of Selene's Fall.

"Okay, be quiet," she whispered to Naminé and Nanaki behind her. It was dark, very dark, except for the light of the full moon and a clear sky of stars, but it was also very, very, _very_ late!

Naminé made a motion to show that her lips were sealed and Nanaki nodded her head. Together, the three teens that were shivering in goosebump-riddled skin underneath their still-slightly-damp bathing suits snuck inside, and Kairi slowly closed the door and gradually edged the lock back into place. Each of them slipped off their shoes as quietly as they could and tried not to bump into each other too much while doing so. Once accomplished, Kairi led the way out of the entryway and up a couple of steps into the living room.

Despite being the mayor of Destiny Islands, Jonathan Brightheart's house was just a tad nicer than the split-level homes of Kairi's friends. It had two storeys and a basement like theirs, but the difference lay in that her house was certainly a bit larger in comparison. The living room in front of the door in Kairi's home was at least one-and-a-half times the size of Sora's, also with a swanky kitchen and dining room big enough for twenty, and a den that if Kairi were to hold a house party and invite all of her friends from school it would still have room for the surviving crew of the _Black Pearl_ to drink rum and sing lewd songs in. From the living room a curved stairway with wooden banisters led up to a small sitting room that began the hallway where the majority of the house's bedrooms resided.

Kairi motioned in the almost-darkness inside of her house for them to follow her up the smooth wooden stairs, and her knuckles bumped the edge of the railing to indicate where it was. She slid it into her hand, and carefully creeped up the staircase.

"Our clothes are in your room, right?" Nanaki whispered as quietly as she could, and in the silence it carried easily to Kairi's currently knife-sharp ears. Kairi almost didn't dare to answer the purple-haired fellow Keyblade Wielder.

"Yes," she answered in a barely audible ghost of sound.

They reached the top of the stairs, and Kairi looked past the shadowed forms of the recliners towards the hallway. Her room was the third door on the left, with a spare that was being used as an office between hers and the master bedroom. She couldn't see the door handle at all in the darkness, but it didn't matter. She knew this house inside and out, and knew that in six steps she will have cleared the sitting room, and then she could simply let her hand slide along the wall until she reached her door.

She got two steps in when a light suddenly blinded her.

In both recliners flanking the reading lamp sat her parents, and their eyes weren't burning from the sudden burst of light since the lamp was behind them.

"Hello girls," Melissa said. "Do you know what time it is?"

_Oh fucking hell,_ Kairi thought. _I am sooo dead._

"Uh... midnight?" she answered in a guilty groan.

"Try half-past one," said her father.

_Goodbye life. It was a nice sixteen years now._

"I believe I told you not to be out too late, young lady," Melissa said. "Beyond one in the morning counts as _too late_." She narrowed her eyes at both of her daughters. "What were you two doing that you could have lost track of time to such a degree?"

"Uh..." Kairi said, mind spinning.

"I take it that you're in trouble," Nanaki said with a wince.

"Yeah..." Kairi muttered. "Please tell me that this is a part of our culture you do not need explained."

"No. Staying out too late is pretty universal," Nanaki answered. "Doesn't matter which world you're from."

_Well that's a relief,_ thought Kairi.

"It's not what you think!" Naminé blurted out.

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what do you think we're thinking?"

Caught in her own trap, Naminé blushed and blinked, and avoided the glare of the lamp as best as she could. "Uh, deh, well...that we were doing inappropriate things with our boyfriends and Nanaki was witness, and I swear that we didn't just spend the last four hours since the sun went down doing inappropriate things with our boyfriends!"

"That's an oddly specific timeframe, Naminé," Jonathan said. "I didn't know that Roxas could last four hours."

"He must be some stud," Melissa agreed, nodding at her husband. "And look! Dear Naminé is glowing."

"What are you two talking about?" Naminé screamed at half-volume with her entire skin able to shame a cardinal into becoming a blue jay.

"We had a bonfire at Selphie's after we were done on the beach!" Kairi explained. "And it just kept getting later and later. I'm sorry! I won't stay out 'till past one again until I'm eighteen or nineteen! Promise!"

Her parents glanced at each other. "We'll accept your apology, Kairi," said Melissa, "and let you off the hook this time, but on one condition."

Kairi groaned inwardly, but tried not to show it on her face. She shivered. She was still somewhat cold, but she was warming up now. The warm night air of the islands still didn't mean anything when you'd really just jumped out of a hot tub six minutes ago and your skin was still wet. "What?"

"You need to answer a question." Jonathan said.

Kairi waited.

He cracked a sudden smile. "How long are you going to stand there before you give your dad an 'I'm back' hug?"

Kairi smiled, realizing that her parents had been pulling her leg the whole time, and quickly enveloped her dad in as big and heartfelt a hug as she could muster. Her mother came into the hug too to welcome Kairi home a second time. She was home; she really was home. It was only for a couple of days, she knew, but the fact that her family was here and was happy to be reunited with their daughter made her gladder than when Sora had come back from his Anti-Form's control.

"We can hear all about how you've been tomorrow," Jonathan said, releasing her. "Right now though you should probably get to sleep. The Sun's Shadow Festival starts in the morning after all."

"Right," Kairi said with a nod. "G'night."

"Night, Kairi," her parents said. Melissa gave her one last hug and whispered, "Sweet dreams," before turning the interrogation/reading lamp off and parting ways for their bedroom. The blackness returned to the house, and Kairi got Naminé and Nanaki following her to her room. For a second the three of them were blinded again, but their eyes had already become mostly accustomed to the light and needed only a brief amount of time before they could see normally once more.

Their clothes were all right where the trio had left them, in three crumpled piles on Kairi's Queen-sized bed. Kairi went right to her pile and chucked everything into the hamper against the wall close to the door before going to her dresser for fresh underwear and a pink silk nightdress with three yellow butterflies at the hip that just touched the middle of her thighs in length. She saw that Naminé hadn't quite followed her example, but was stowing her own clothes from the day into the rust-coloured overnight bag she had brought from the _Kingdom_ and was fishing out the somewhat revealing white slip she had purchased in Radiant Garden that she used as a nightie.

It wasn't until Kairi had slipped off her scarlet bikini top and begun to put her bra on that she noticed that Nanaki was looking anywhere but at them with the same blush she had had on her face when they'd first changed into their bathing suits.

"What's up?" Kairi asked. Nanaki took in a couple of deep breaths before looking up at Kairi. The redhead noticed that the other teen's eyes flickered to Kairi's bust for a second, which made Kairi only hurry to place her underwear back on.

"I'm feeling a little uncomfortable," Nanaki muttered. "I haven't ever been in a situation like this before."

Naminé, despite having one more piece to go through than Kairi, was already further along than her former-Somebody-now-sister and stood bare with her back turned and working on getting her bottoms on. "Situation like what?" she asked, tossing her head over her shoulder.

"Changing with other girls my age," she said. "And, I don't have anything like what you're each putting on to wear." Kairi had to pause for a second.

"You haven't? You don't?" Nanaki shook her head, still blushing in a fine bit of embarrassment. "Well...here, you can wear this." Kairi returned to her dresser and fumbled around for a bit, looking for a garment that might compliment Nanaki's hair and not draw attention to her lacking of a bust, even though like as not the only people who'd be witnessing her in it would be herself and Naminé.

Then again, Sora had once walked in on her after she'd gotten out of the shower, so who knew?

She found a decent-sized nightdress that Kairi had gotten several months ago. It was a light cyan made of silk with silver threads trimming the hem in a wave pattern. It was suspended by shoulder straps and was thick enough to provide warmth on some of the cooler, rainy nights while still being able to breathe when it was warmer. Nanaki thanked her and asked if Kairi and Naminé could turn around while she got out of the swimsuit and put it on.

"So you've never had a sleepover, then?" Kairi asked with her back turned while she finished slipping on her own light nightdress.

"I guess not," Nanaki replied. "We didn't have too many of those on Lynfael, or maybe I just didn't hear about them often when I was growing up. You can turn around now." Kairi did, and she had to admit that Nanaki looked pretty cute in what she'd picked out.

"Thanks, I guess," said Nanaki, her cheeks still tinged a healthy shade of red. "It's embarrassing, but I've never really been complemented like that before."

"I noticed." Kairi started grabbing spare pillows and blankets to make a makeshift bed in the carpet beside her bed. "You really were out of your element when Sora and Roxas and those boys complimented you."

"Well, I never attracted much attention like that on Lynfael," Nanaki answered in a quiet voice. She was silent for a second. "Thank you, by the way."

"For what?" Naminé asked, plopping down on Kairi's bed with a _thump!_

"For not teasing me because of my, you know..." she trailed off, gesturing a little at her flat chest.

"Nanaki, I don't know if you noticed, but Kairi and I aren't that big in the," Naminé gestured at her own chest with a small wave of her hand, "boob, department either."

"Still, you've got more than I do," Nanaki replied, looking down. Kairi groaned and growled.

"Doesn't matter. Even combined, the three of us have less than Kim and her fricking cow tits," she griped. "That's the one thing I can't stand about her. Why do her boobs have to be so fricking huge?" She shoved a pair of pillows into the mass of blankets she had arrayed beside the bed. "So, how do we want to do this? The bed's plenty big enough for two."

"It's your bed, you should have it," Nanaki said.

"Well then that settles it," Kairi replied with a conspirator's smile. "I'll sleep right here, and you and Naminé can share my bed." Naminé snorted and Kairi quickly corrected her flub. "I mean you two can both sleep in my bed, I didn't...ugh! Nanaki, you can place your clothes down there beside the laundry hamper, and try not to asphyxiate Naminé overnight." Nanaki nodded her head and sat down on the bed. Her eyes widened as it sank and bounced back a little from her weight.

"I've never been on a bed this soft," she commented in quiet awe. A giggle came out of her and she bounced up and down for a moment.

"I've heard a lot of 'I've never's out of you lately," Kairi said. She shut off the light and cuddled into her pile of sheets. Kairi moaned as she clutched at the blankets and got comfortable, and listened to the sounds of Naminé and Nanaki getting into her bed. "Say, Nanaki. What was your world like?"

"Just like I told you earlier," Nanaki replied tiredly. "Barren wastelands as far as the eye can see in all directions above ground and predators who wouldn't bat an eyelash to gobbling up a human for lunch or notice if they squished one underfoot."

"I get that," Kairi said, her voice hushed to the volume befitting late-night conversations in darkness. "But that doesn't really explain anything. What was your world _like_? If that's all it was, then how did you survive? Where are you from? What about your family?"

Nanaki shifted, and her answer came back defensive. "Why do you want to know all of a sudden? We're off of Lynfael, and I'm never going back, so why does it matter?"

"Because you helped Sora and Roxas save us from the men who kidnapped us," Naminé said, rolling over to look at Nanaki's form. Naminé was chewing the inside of her cheek. "And you really haven't said much about yourself since. We don't know you, Nanaki, and we'd like to know you as more than just the girl who helped rescue us who has a Keyblade and left her world because it sucked."

Nanaki sighed. "Well, I guess I do owe you guys that much. Don't really want to be remembered as 'she's just the girl who helped save us' now do I?" She laughed a little to show that she wasn't being all that serious and quieted for a little while to put her thoughts in order. "I guess I should start with Lynfael, shouldn't I?"

"That'd be nice," Naminé said. "Although we can skip the whole 'barren wastelands and no oceans or forests' stuff."

"Well, I wasn't really telling the exact truth about no forests," Nanaki admitted, "but let me start at the beginning.

"At one time, our world was beautiful. Actually, beautiful might not be the right word, but it was vibrant and alive. There were thick jungles growing out of shallow seas with nutrient-rich silt beds, teeming with critters that lived and thrived in the canopies above the water. Vast plains stretched across the land with bluegrass-covered hills and meadows. Prairies with grasses as tall as a tall man would stretch for more miles than the eye could see and triple that, and the oceans were like the ones here. You could walk into a forest from one side and it would take you four weeks to reach the opposite edge even by following the road. Entire civilizations of our people flourished."

"Sounds beautiful to me," Kairi said.

"I wouldn't know. That's just what I've read in the paleoclimatologists', paleontologists', and archaeologists' journals and reports," Nanaki answered. "Then two, three? I can't remember, thousand years ago, disaster struck. According to the few scattered surviving records, stories passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, and our scientists' findings; there was a week-long rain of fire as a cluster of small asteroids collided with our world. The atmosphere and land burned, entire cities were reduced to rubble at the bottoms of craters in the blink of an eye. The impacts sent long-dormant volcanoes into fierce activity, pouring lava flows down their sides in never-ending waves of red. The dust from the hail of rock and the ash from the eruptions covered the atmosphere and blocked out all light for years, producing an age of ice on the surface that lasted a generation. Nothing grew, and all plant-life that survived the fires and impacts died.

"Now Lynfael has six rings around it, made of dust and the smaller asteroids that were caught in our world's gravity but didn't impact. The vast plains and prairies are barren, sandy, and roamed by fierce predators that survive in the extreme temperatures. You've already seen the Veneschall. What plant-life that exists is sparse and hardy, and isn't anywhere even remotely close to the abundance needed to properly regulate Lynfael's climate. The seas are far too basic to support life anymore, except for some microbes that can survive in extremely alkaline solutions. We humans survived the apocalypse by digging in and building underground cities in the mountains and rockier regions of the world, and because we're human."

"What do you mean by that?" Kairi asked.

"We're _human_," Nanaki said. "We're smart; we're intelligent. We can overcome adversity and adapt our environment to suit ourselves instead of adapting our bodies to suit our environment. We didn't need to become vicious predatory monsters that can rip apart whatever they come across in order to eat it, because we can develop tools to do for us what our fragile bodies can't. Technology developed rapidly once real civilization started to form again after a very long period of unrest from the relocation underground. We've even been able to make some of the lands outside of our cities arable, and grow crops there. There aren't a lot, but they produce yields you wouldn't even be able to imagine. Think of...of...of celery stalks or broccoli! Except, picture them fifty feet tall."

"So you have tiny forests of broccoli," Kairi said, blinking.

"Think of how big a pot you would need to steam that beast," said Naminé. "You could feed ten people broccoli for two weeks with that thing."

"That's the jist of it," Nanaki said. "That's why our agricultural advancements developed so much. With only a small percentage of land able to support the growth of crops, we need to make the most of it.

"However, not all of the communities are connected. We're loosely collaborated with each other, but we're all city-states separate from one another. Every generation or two a war starts up between two or sometimes three of the city-states for reasons I don't know and didn't care for."

"What city are you from?" Naminé asked.

"Eselyun," answered Nanaki. "It's the hub of scientific advancement. Eselyun scientists and engineers developed my goggles and skimmer. But, even though I haven't been there in a year, I'm pretty sure they still haven't achieved their goal of finding a way off of Lynfael to find a world that's more suitable for habitation."

"Radiant Garden might be able to help," Kairi said. Nanaki shook her head.

"They wouldn't take it. The chiefs are a bunch of stubborn old men who'd rather do it themselves than accept the help of others. Don't ask. It's a pride thing."

"Oh, well, that I can understand," Kairi agreed. "We're warriors, after all. Pride means a lot to us." Nanaki nodded her head, not that anyone besides Naminé could really see that she did.

"Anyway, that's Lynfael in a nutshell. I guess now it's time for my life story, huh?" She sighed, and looked up at the canopy of Kairi's bed. "You're lucky; both of you, that you've got a family like this. I was born seventeen years and two months ago, and my mom died in childbirth so I never got to know her."

Kairi's heart clenched a little. "Actually, I kinda do know what you're talking about."

"Hmm?" asked Nanaki. "But, but I thought..."

"I'm adopted," explained Kairi. "I was born in Radiant Garden, but I somehow came to Destiny Islands when I was five. I've got no memory of my life before coming here; who my parents were, whether I had any siblings. Besides a couple of faint memories of my grandmother, it's all a blank before waking up here in front of the mayor's house."

"I'm sorry," Nanaki said. Kairi shook her head, smiling.

"Don't be. I'm not. I've had a great life growing up here on the Islands. And besides, I wouldn't have met Sora or Riku or Selphie if I had grown up there. I wouldn't trade my life now for the life I might have had at all."

Nanaki smiled in agreement, and Naminé chuckled quietly. "Hey, I thought that this was supposed to be Nanaki's story."

"Alright, I'll shut up."

Nanaki laughed. "It's okay. Anyway, I never knew my mom, and my dad was one of the chief project scientists and was always busy with his work, so for the most part I grew up in the care of family friends. It wasn't exactly the best of circumstances, but it was certainly better than many others'. However, I think it was because I kept bouncing around between others and places, I never really got to be close to a whole lot of people. I was something of a shut-in."

"Certainly don't act like it," Naminé commented.

"That was my Master's doing." Nanaki smiled in the darkness. "He taught me that there was so much more to life than just surviving; that letting people into your heart can make you a stronger and better person than an ice queen who distances herself from everyone."

"You talk about him in the past tense..." Kairi realized. "Did he...?"

Nanaki sniffed, and rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. "He came to Lynfael on a crashing ship about two years ago, right when all the stars were going out. He couldn't fix it, but took me on as an Apprentice Keyblade Wielder after performing an Inheritance Ceremony. He stayed to train me, and I learned so much from him that my Master was like a second father to me when my own couldn't be there. He and my dad even hit it off pretty well, and they got me my surface skimmer together. But, even underground away from the more dangerous predators Lynfael isn't safe, and my Master got crushed by a cave-in. He never did get to take me to see the stars like he promised."

Naminé wrapped Nanaki up in a hug underneath the blankets. "Thanks, Naminé, but I'm okay, really. After it happened I quit the city and headed up to the surface for good, to use what I'd learned to help out others who were sick of living in the dark if I could find them. I'd been bouncing around on the surface for a year before the ship with you two in it crashed and I ran into your boyfriends fighting a larval venescall. And that, as they say, is that."

"Wow, sounds like you had it pretty rough," Kairi said. "I'm in awe."

"Thank you, thank you," said Nanaki with humour. "But, as you can plainly see, I am alive and kicking and ready to have new adventures in places where the world itself isn't trying to kill me and in the company of adventure-loving teenagers like myself, even if I'm a year older than you."

"Year older, maybe, but not as experienced," Kairi refuted.

"Oh? I've been living on my own in giant sand worm infested wastelands for a year and survived using only my own skills and wits. How am I less experienced?"

"Have you ever kissed a boy?" Kairi asked, an evil grin on her face that matched the tone of her voice.

"N-n-n-No!" Nanaki whispered. "Guys never gave me a second glance on Lynfael, even after I started coming out of my shell. If you didn't have a chest bigger than one of your grapes you weren't worth chasing after regardless of your personality because you wouldn't be able to properly nurse their babies as well as the girls who actually had boobs."

"Ew," said Naminé. "You mean that they only thought about the babies they could have with girls instead of the usual perverted boy thoughts?"

Nanaki frowned. "What are the 'usual perverted boy thoughts' then? If procreation isn't-"

"See, this is what you don't get," Kairi interjected, even though she was blushing. "On a base level, yes it's because of procreation, but guys seem to like T and A just on the fact that they're T and A. They're the forbidden always-concealed fruit of the fairer sex."

"It's why girls like Kim attract the attention of so many guys and earn the everlasting position of freinemy." Naminé grinned wickedly as she clutched her hand into a fist. "One pass on the street causes guys to turn their heads, just for another quick glance to make sure that they saw them. It's because of girls like her, with their pointlessly large breasts that make them walking boy magnets who can get guys to do anything that they want just because they're always tempted by them. Oh it makes me sick!"

"What are you complaining about?" Nanaki asked. "Don't you two already have boyfriends who pamper you like princesses?"

"Oh right," Kairi said, "forgot about that."

"How could you possibly forget when you and Sora were making out so hard an hour ago that the hot tub physically got even hotter!?" Nanaki sighed exasperatedly. "Seriously? What's with you two? Can you never get a room?"

"Yeah, you two are pretty terrible," Naminé said, rolling over so that she could look down at where Kairi lay. "Seriously, your PDAs would probably get you in trouble at school if you were still going."

"Ugh!" Kairi moaned. "Naminé's so mean! Stop picking on me!" The blonde and violet-haired girls lying on the bed laughed, and Kairi stuck her tongue out at them, even though neither could see it. She suddenly shot upright. "I've got it!"

"Huh?" Naminé asked.

"Got what?" asked a bewildered Nanaki.

Kairi grinned. "We...are going to get you a man on this adventure, Nanaki."

"_EH!?_"

"What? Are we trying to get her laid or something?" Naminé asked. "Kairi, we're not even letting _our_ guys get any. Why are we going to try something like that?"

"I didn't say get her laid!" Kairi refuted. "I said get her a man!"

"Don't I get a say in this?" Nanaki asked. "I don't want a boyfriend! It takes work to build a relationship like that, doesn't it?"

"Of course it does, but it's rewarding and fun," Kairi said simply. "Besides, you've basically already told us that no guy on your world would give you the time of day, but you've already gotten hit on by guys here. So obviously out here amongst the stars there's got to be at least one fish in the barrel who'll catch your eye."

"Kairi do we even have room on the _Kingdom_ for another person?" Naminé asked incredulously. "Richard blew up his charm and has claimed the couch, Roxas got his own body, and we picked up Nanaki. I think we're out of room for a guy to pick up just to be Nanaki's boyfriend. Are you and Sora going to start sharing a bed, then? You wander into his often enough."

"What? And no! I sleepwalk when I have bad dreams! We're not ready to share a room!"

"I already said that I'm not getting a boyfriend!" Nanaki hissed. "No matchmaking's going to work on _this_ fighter. The day that I get a boyfriend is the day I let my hair grow out, which will be never."

"You're going to regret that within five years," Kairi said, ignoring every word out of Nanaki's mouth. "This adventure won't last forever, and I take it that you might like to settle down somewhere stable. Maybe I won't be able to hook you up with somebody while we're out saving the worlds, but I'm not gonna stop trying."

"And I'm not going to stop trying to push your and Sora's buttons," Naminé added viciously. "Come on, Roxas was onto something earlier. Don't play the nice and innocent card, Kairi, I know what you two were like before Sora and Riku took their Mark of Mastery exam."

"I have _not_ taken my top off for Sora, Naminé, but _you_ were taking your sweet time putting sunscreen on Roxas earlier! Maybe we should be needling you as to how far you're willing to let Roxas go."

"Roxas, me, and his sexy chest are not going-"

Naminé was interrupted by a sudden sound that was a bit louder than their hushed conversation. They could hear it coming from the door, and it sounded like somebody saying, "_Ohhhh_!" in a somewhat high-pitched voice.

"What was that?" Nanaki asked.

"I'm not sure," said Naminé.

"Didn't it sound like your mom?" Nanaki wondered.

Kairi's entire brain froze. She clutched at her head and buried herself in the blankets and pillows. "No! No! No! No! No! No! I am not thinking that! I can't believe that I'm thinking that! They aren't doing that! I refuse to believe that they're doing that! Goodnight!"

"I...I think we should go to bed now," Naminé said, her voice strained.

"Y-yeah," Nanaki said awkwardly, and she rolled over. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

…

"Hey, Kairi?"

"What?"

"I guess it's not for lack of trying that Mom and Dad didn't have kids before you dropped in."

"DIE!" Kairi screamed a war-cry and chucked her pillow at Naminé's head. Thus began Nanaki's first pillow fight.

_-LD-_

"Well, shit," said Sora as he tried his door handle and found the door not opening even after it was unlocked.

"What's up?" Roxas asked, suddenly wondering why Sora was wincing.

"Mom's got the storm bolt on," Sora explained. "It's not part of the door's lock, so the Keyblade can't get it open."

"So that means we have to wake her up..." Roxas said quietly, his voice trailing away with the breeze.

"Yeah," Sora sighed before ringing the doorbell. They only had to wait a minute before the sound of the bolt scraping back was heard and the door swung open.

Allison stood in the doorway, dressed in a fluffy blue robe and with her hair in the tangles left by sleep. Her eyes were awake, though, and they were glaring at her son.

"Welcome back. Kitchen table, now."

_-LD-_

"I can't help but feel like we're forgetting something," Sora said, tossing Roxas a blanket and some pillows. The lecture Allison had given the pair of them had gone on for a solid thirty minutes and it wasn't an experience either of them really wanted to repeat. "Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid." Roxas gave his brother a snarky grin. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to get some Zees."

Sora shrugged as he climbed into his bed and almost immediately started to drift off. _Still, I can't shake that forgetful feeling. I wonder what it is?_

_-LD-_

Richard stared woefully up at the moon shining overhead from his perch on a paopu tree. Next to him, Lily the rabbit slept peacefully, now free of her restraints yet oddly attached to the undead warlock. At his feet were several coolers filled with ice and the sliced up remains of the Vulkna shark he had caught earlier. Around his neck was a necklace of the shark's teeth.

"_All by myself."_ Richard's dulcet tones carried out across the waves as he sang a lamentful song to the heavens. _"Don't wanna be, all by myself. Anymore."_

_-LD-_

King Mickey idly watched as the other people gathered in the room exchanged greetings, introducing themselves to newer arrivals and getting to know their allies a bit better. Admittedly, everyone present had a slightly awkward smile on their faces. After all, most of them were on different worlds or didn't have the proper means to meet on one world. So, utilizing holographic technology (provided by the combined efforts of Cid and Chronos), the various leaders and representatives from the various factions that now formed the Alliance were gathered together for the first time.

But time was of the essence. The holographic communicators had a limited lifespan, and as such, Mickey wanted to keep the meetings as short as possible until the technology was improved upon (something Cid promised him would take up to a year to complete if they were unlucky).

Clearing his throat loudly, Mickey drew attention onto himself and the room quickly fell silent.

"Thank you all for agreeing to meet on such short notice," the mouse-king said, rising from his feet to join the others milling about. "I've met with all of you one-on-one before, but it's great that we can all finally be together, just like an alliance should be."

"I couldn't agree more," Alan Westerlund, president of the former Twilight Town said. He gave Mickey a curt nod. "The time has come to discuss what we're going to do about Maleficent and her forces of Darkness."

"I can't help but notice that we're a few members short, your Highness," the southern-accented voice of the Director of Project Freelancer filled room. The Director was, to Mickey at least, a strange man. No matter where he stood, even as a hologram, he managed to keep the upper-half of his face concealed in shadow as though it were a natural part of him. Only the lower rim of his glasses and below were visible. He stood proudly, both arms folded behind his uniform. His beard was neatly trimmed to the point that it was almost stubble. "Surely this meeting would be more effective if all of those involved were actually present?"

"The Director is right," Sephiria Arks, leader of the Chronos Numbers added. "I was under the impression that we'd be joined by the Chaser and the Grand Templar. Neither of them are present."

"Leon isn't here either," Axel pointed out from where he leaned against an invisible wall.

"Leon was called away to deal with an unexpected issue with other members of Radiant Garden's government," Merlin said as he appeared in a flash of blue light. "It sounded quite serious. So I'll be filling in for him."

"And I don't know where my brother went," Jenna said. "Xanthos just up and left the Forge behind without so much as a word to me."

"And the Grand Templar?" Sephiria asked. "Where is he?"

"Derrick is busy handling issues of his own," Mickey explained, eager to get the actual meeting started. "He won't be able to join us either."

"Instead of sitting around wondering where why some of us couldn't make it, shouldn't we instead focus on the purpose of this meeting?" Jonathan Brightheart, mayor of the island of Exin in the Destiny Islands said with a slightly hurried tone. "I haven't had a chance to spend much time with my daughter since she returned home. And today's her birthday."

"I couldn't agree more," Mickey said. "Let's get right to it. Maleficent has six of the seven Princesses of Heart."

Silence fell across the room at that as the group exchanged looks of shock, anger and confusion.

"How is this possible?"

Haldir paused as he stood in front of the King of Rohan. "I bring word from Elrond of Rivendell," he said. "An alliance once existed between Elves and Men. Long ago we fought and died together." He paused again at the sounds of rushed footsteps, and smiled when he saw to whom they belonged. "We come to honour that allegiance."

"_Mae govannen,_" Aragorn exclaimed with a broad smile, coming down the steps from the hold towards the elf of the Golden Wood. He embraced Haldir, with the latter returning it in amusement after a moment. "You are most welcome."

As one, the three hundred Elves under Haldir's command turned to the right in perfect precision to stand facing Théoden and the knights of his household. "We're proud to fight alongside Men once more," declared Haldir.

"How is this possible?" Jenna demanded as she slammed her fist down on a table that flickered to life in the hologram for only a brief second. "Ever since the end of the War, the Princesses were always guarded by the Templars! Why aren't they doing their jobs?"

"We are doing our jobs!" Jonathan snapped at her. "Our numbers have been in a gradual decline since the last Keyblade War. Hell, there's only five of us left. Five! And only one of us has a Keyblade! Just how are we supposed to protect seven princesses when there's only five Templars? One of which has to guard the Cornerstone!"

"He's right. The Cornerstones are too important to lose," Princess Cadenza said solemnly. Mickey turned to look at her. Easily the youngest of all present, Princess Cadenza maintained an aura of calm grace. She was garbed in a light cerise dress that faded to shades of violet at the fringes. Her neckline was accented by a heart-shaped, pale blue crystal pendant. Her eyes were a grayish-purple that seemed to pierce the soul. Her hair was mostly a dark violet with streaks of rose and gold faintly accenting it as it curled slightly at the ends.

Princess Cadenza, even though she couldn't physically be present, gave of a gentle, loving aura that seemed to have an immediate effect on the rising emotions of the Alliance leaders. Both Jonathan and Jenna seemed a little less angry, though they kept throwing slightly irked glances at one another.

"The Cornerstone of Light can protect itself. Pure Darkness can't even go anywhere near it," she continued. "And the Cornerstone of Harmony divided itself into six parts thousands of years ago, so no Darkness would ever be able to take it."

"And what of the Cornerstone of Darkness?" A dark skinned man, dressed in a dark brown and tan robe asked. "I highly doubt it protects itself from Darkness."

"Master Windu is right," Yen Sid said slowly. "The Cornerstone of Darkness won't protect itself from Darkness. Instead, the Templars keep it sealed away on a small, almost unnoticeable world. There it is protected by numerous enchantments, blood seals, and binding contracts with all manner of terrifying beings to keep it safe."

"And that's why I can never leave the Islands," Jonathan added. "I have to stand guard over the Cornerstone. That leaves only four other Templars to travel the worlds and guard the princesses."

"And with only one Templar wielding a Keyblade," Mickey finished. "It would be next to impossible for the others to find the Princesses."

"Which Princess hasn't been taken yet?" The man in the brown robe, Mace Windu, asked.

"Princess Kairi." The Director's distinct accent immediately drew all attention to him. "A week ago, two of my agents went rogue and were hired by one of the politicians on Radiant Garden to kidnap the girl. Though, my Recovery team informs me that the kidnapping was unsuccessful."

"I should hope so," Jonathan said with a huff. "Like I've said already, she's back here on the Destiny Islands."

"Can I interrupt?" President Westerlund said, holding up his hands to get the others to be quiet for a moment. "What is this War I keep hearing about? And why are these Cornerstones so important?"

"The Cornerstones keep the balance of the Realm of Light," Jenna explained. "Light and Darkness, existing in Harmony. If the forces of Darkness upsets the balance, then the world would be plunged into chaos and disarray. As for the war…"

"The Keyblade Wars of yore plunged the true Kingdom Hearts into Darkness," Master Yen Sid said, his magically crafted ethereal form stepping into the center of the room. "And the χ-blade,its counterpart, was shattered. But the Light still shining in the hearts of children rebuilt the world that we know today. And the Light from the broken χ-bladewas then divided into seven. That Light became the seven purest hearts we now know as the Princesses of Heart. Those seven pure hearts form the very source of all light in the world. If they are lost, the world will again give way to shadow."

Yen Sid turned to face President Westerlund, his expression blank and unreadable. "Does that answer your questions?"

"For now, yes." President Westerlund gave a courteous nod to the former Keyblade Master.

"We're getting off topic," Mace Windu noted. "And it is difficult to maintain this connection through the Gateway. Our timelines won't remain synchronized for much longer."

"This is why I hate meetings," Axel muttered. "So, Maleficent has all but one of the Princesses. Right?"

"That is correct," the Director confirmed. "We're running out of time."

"If six Princesses Maleficent has, then go after the seventh, she will," the raspy voice of a small, wrinkled green figure sitting next to the image of Mace Windu said slowly.

"Master Yoda is right," Mickey said. "Her focus in undoubtedly on Kairi now."

"Which means we should focus our efforts into ensuring her safety," the Director.

"I've got an idea on how we can do that," Axel announced. "But, I don't know how many of you are going to like it. Hell, I know she _really_ won't like it if she finds out."

_-LD-_

When Naminé woke, there was no light. She shifted groggily, unsure as to whether or not she had even woken up seeing as she couldn't even see anything. However, after a few moments of moving around and reacting to how the sheets moved as she did, and that there was a definite mass that coincided somewhat with her last recollection of where Nanaki had collapsed after their pillow war, Naminé admitted that she had, in fact, awoken.

"What time is it?" she grumbled, rubbing her eyes with her hands. Nobody answered her except with sounds of sleep, so Naminé looked around for the red light that would be Kairi's alarm clock. She ended up having to get out of the bed because she couldn't find it, and accidentally stepped on Kairi. The redhead squawked in surprise and pain, and Naminé shrieked at the sudden squishyness underneath her foot.

"What's going on?" Nanaki asked in a groan, the sudden noises unfortunately waking her.

"Holy! Naminé have you been putting on weight?" Kairi asked, breathing heavily and probably staring up at where she assumed the blonde was standing. Naminé grimaced and growled.

"Yes, actually, I've put on one hundred and thirty-three pounds in the last month, thank you for noticing." She gingerly stepped around Kairi, scouting first with her big toe. "Where the heck's your alarm clock, anyway? I can't see anything and I have no idea what time it is."

"You wouldn't see anything anyway," Kairi replied, "the curtains are closed." Naminé heard the sounds of her sister getting out of the tangled mess of blankets she had wrapped herself into and the blonde couldn't resist a giggle as Kairi verbally equated to getting out as being stuck in a straightjacket. Kairi fumbled for a moment while Naminé continued to search for the elusive alarm clock. The curtains were pulled open, and only a shadowy luminescence entered the room.

"That's right," Kairi muttered. "During the Sun's Shadow Festival, the entire day is spent with Destiny Islands in a total solar eclipse. There is no dawn today."

"Great! So how am I supposed to find your stupid clock?" Naminé grumbled. "By whatever moonlight is coming in through your window?" Naminé continued to cast her eyes around, looking for the telltale red light from the clock but not finding it anywhere! She could barely see shapes now, but it still wasn't enough.

With a snap and a crackle, light suddenly gave the room shadowy, flickering illumination. Naminé turned around to look for the source, and found Kairi standing by the window with a snarky grin on her face and an orb of merrily crackling fire hovering above her hand. "Like this?" she asked, even though she had her eyes closed from the sudden change.

Naminé threw her arms up. "Oh sure! Let's just be smart and use fire magic to make floating torches." She turned away, sighing in dramatically exaggerated exasperation, and found the light switch. Once the lights were running, Kairi extinguished her fire, and Naminé took another look around the room.

"Aright, who tossed the pillow over the clock?" Naminé asked.

"That was me," Nanaki grouched, leaning up in bed. "It started beeping at me like crazy so I whacked it with a nearby pillow until it shut up." Naminé quickly removed the pillow from above the alarm clock, and a gasp got strangled in her throat.

"It's twenty after ten!" Naminé spluttered.

Kairi nearly stumbled on her pile of blankets in her haste to reach the door. She wrenched it open and dove out into the hallway, hollering, "First dibs on the shower!"

"Fine! Then I'll have breakfast first!" Naminé answered, and she quickly left the room.

Nanaki blearily watched the door for a few seconds after the two of them had left, only partially hearing the thudding of their footsteps on the floor. She sank back into the bed and moaned lowly, pulling the blankets back up around her body and over her head to block out the light. "Mmm...so soft..." she crooned while snuggling into the bed, blankets, and pillow.

_-LD-_

Sora glanced at his watch, tapping his foot impatiently while Roxas paced back and forth with his arms folded. Behind the pair stood the hundreds, if not thousands, of Islanders who had come out for the opening ceremonies for the Sun's Shadow Festival, waiting to be let into the festival fairgrounds which would occur only after the festival's opening ceremonies, which were to begin promptly at ten-thirty in the morning. Selphie, Tidus, Wakka, Richard with Lily, and Kim were all present with him and Roxas at the very back of the congregation, and all of them were showing signs of annoyance.

They had agreed to meet at ten o'clock in the morning. It was now now twenty-eight past the hour.

"Late yesterday, and late today," Roxas grumbled. He looked at Sora and tossed his hand up in the air with an irritated flair. "What's up with Kairi and being late?"

"She slept in," Sora growled while tapping his foot. "She had to have slept in."

"Do you think she could be sleeping, permanently?" Richard asked.

"Not a chance," Selphie said. "If there were some sort of attack the whole city would know. We don't exactly live in a violent world."

"Au contraire, just four seconds ago I saw a child mauling a poor, defenceless, teddy bear! What say you to that?" Before any of them could open their mouths to snap out a retort, the voice of Kairi's father boomed out over them on the loudspeakers.

"Good morning, evening, night, or whatever you want to call today," Jonathan declared from the podium he stood at.

"Great, it's starting already," Tidus said.

"Good morning, and welcome, to this the thirty-seventh Sun's Shadow Festival!" Cheering erupted from the gathered crowds at Jonathan's words, booming out over several loudspeakers scattered about. "Today, the sun will remain eclipsed with the largest of our moons, Nox, while his sisters, Aurora, and Sol keep vigil on the horizon. The festival got its start nearly two millennia ago, when the first inhabitants of these Islands worshipped the moons as their gods.

"The story begins with Nox, the shadow of the sun, and his jealousy toward his younger sister, Sol, the guiding light. The Islanders believed Sol to be the true giver of life, and always gave her thanks for their crops. Nox, on the other hand, received very little thanks. For by his night, ships were lost to the whims of the sea, and monsters emerged to prey on the careless. His stars and brilliance, in his eyes, went ignored. So, to spite his sister, he placed himself between the sun and the world just before dawn and cast his shadow over the lands and seas. Bringing forth a day where the sun did not shine upon the world.

"Despite Nox's efforts, Sol was not wounded by his actions, nor was she lost to darkness. Instead, she felt only pity for her brother. But, she could not allow Nox to trap our world in an endless cycle of nighttime. She cared for the people of the world and saw how Nox was terrifying them. She rose up against her elder sibling and clashed with him.

"For a full day they fought, neither side willing to give in to the other. And, no matter how hard she tried, Sol could not get Nox to dispel his shadow that blanketed the day. Nox refused and as the second dawn without day approached, Sol despaired.

"It was then that Aurora, the eldest of the three stepped in. Compared to her might, Nox was an insect caught in a storm. And when dawn broke, the sun rose free of shadow. Aurora comforted her brother, who wallowed in his defeat and vowed revenge. She promised him that every fifty years, when a new generation of Islanders would be thriving, that he could cast his shadow over the sun and bring forth a single day of night.

"Broken and defeated, Nox conceded. And fifty years later, when Nox covered the sun, the people of the Islands chose to celebrate the night with a feast. And the Sun's Shadow Festival began, a tradition we've held every fifty years since and will continue to do so for as long as Nox keeps casting his shadow upon us.

"But I've kept you long enough. Please, enjoy the Festival to your hearts' content!"

"And look, still no sign of Kairi," Selphie deadpanned as the crowds around them applauded for Jonathan and began to migrate toward the fairgrounds. "You'd never be able to guess it, but she sure can be lazier than you, Sora."

"I resent that." Sora turned away from Selphie, made a pouting face, and sat down on the ground. He folded his arms and watched the street while the sounds of thousands of feet and half as many voices stormed his ears. Richard sat down next to Sora, and adopted the same pose. "What are you doing?" Sora asked.

"You looked like you were waiting for a rampaging earth elemental to appear so you could kill it. Naturally, I shall join you."

"Seriously, yah, where did you pick this guy up from?" Wakka whispered.

Sora snorted. "Actually, she's closer to a fire elemental than an earth one," he answered.

And so they waited; Sora and Richard sat on the ground and stared into the gloom lit only by streetlamps and additional lighting setup for the festival, and the rest made scattered loud smalltalk behind them, wondering what the festival would be like.

After an eternity that was really only ten minutes, Sora was able to see four people heading in their direction, three running and one walking casually. Kairi, Naminé, and Nanaki were racing towards them, a muffin in Kairi's hand and a piece of toast clutched in her teeth; Naminé held onto an orange and was also munching on toast, and Nanaki, interestingly, wasn't actually running as Sora first thought. She was standing on her surface skimmer and piloting it with one hand while eating a muffin with the other. It looked like there was a glass of juice in a cupholder he hadn't noticed before, and she was...she was balancing on the controls...

Sora got to his feet in amazement. "Have you got waffles!?"

Nanaki smiled as she landed the skimmer right beside him. "Yep," she declared smugly. "I've got waffles, a muffin, and a nice cool glass of orange juice."

"How were you able to hold the plate there?" Tidus asked.

"I'm boss, that's why," Nanaki answered, picking up the paper plate and folding the glass into the crook of her arm. She pressed a button and the skimmer neatly folded up into a tiny cube. Nanaki was just finishing putting the cube into a pouch by her hip when Kairi and Naminé finally arrived, with their mother trailing behind them at an easy pace.

"You're late," Sora said, raising his eyebrows at his girlfriend. "You're _really_ late." Kairi bit down on her toast and pulled the rest of it from her mouth, chewed, and swallowed thickly. Her hair was still shining with moisture.

"Blame her," she said, jerking her thumb at Nanaki. "We only got up at, like, a quarter after because she chucked a pillow over the alarm when it went off."

"I was tired and it was annoying," Nanaki defended. "Sleep triumphs over all." She bit into her muffin, and moaned. "Mmm...muffin..."

Kairi and Naminé were about to retort when Melissa began her greeting. "Well, I can see that you're all assembled," she said with a warm smile. "Have fun today, kids, and don't forget, Kairi, the party's at two in Century Park."

"We wone forget," Naminé answered through a mouthful of toast. Melissa hugged each of them, said something about going to find Jonathan and for her girls not to take too much advantage of all the dark nooks they and their boyfriends could hide away in, and departed. Kairi glared after her mother's retreating image before finding Sora tapping her face with a finger. She looked at him, saw his smile, and shared a quick 'nice to see you' smooch.

Sora gestured towards the fairgrounds. "Well, shall we go?"

_-LD-_

"I don't understand why we can't take the target now."

Keila rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the oversized cotton candy she had purchased. So far, she had been forced to listen to one of her silver cloaked companions complain almost non-stop since the opening ceremony. The other two, thankfully enough, had remained silent. Though, whether that was actually a good thing or not was still up for debate since it allowed the largest of them to continue with his moaning and groaning about their leader's decisions.

"In the middle of a crowd, where who knows how many law enforcement agents are lying in wait?" The only other female in their group finally asked. "Not to mention at least four Keyblade Wielders. Do you want to be killed?"

"I say we let them try and stop us." The large one pounded his fists together. "I've been itching for a good fight for weeks now, but the boss never lets us do anything. It's always him or Naleten out doing the fun stuff."

"It's because you aren't subtle," the other man in a cloak pointed out. "Not only are you a hulking brute, but you've got a loud mouth and a habit for breaking things." He turned toward the woman next to him. "Are we sure he's a Nobody like us?"

"Or a really good actor," she replied. "It doesn't matter now. We wait until Jevenan gives us the signal, and we keep the target out of the public's sight."

"So, why am I with you lot?" Keila asked, drawing the attention of her companions for what felt like the first time. "You don't even need me until you get your 'target'. So why am I here?" All she got in response were shrugs.

"In case we need you to pick a lock for us?" the brute laughed. Keila let out a groan and allowed her head to fall onto the table in front of her.

_Just once, can I get put on a mission where I don't have to work with a bunch of weirdos? Please?_

She lifted her head slightly and gripped the 'Magic Eight Ball' she had won earlier and shook it. The icosahedral die inside rolled around inside for a brief moment before settling on 'Don't count on it'. Keila stared at the toy for a moment before slamming her head on the table again.

"Great," she grumbled, now also in pain from frustration. "Just my luck..."

Slowly, Keila raised her head from the table again, and took another bite of the cotton candy into her mouth. The super-sugary treat wasn't quite enough to fix the fact that she was with a bunch of Nobodies that she had absolutely zero interest in being with, but it was a start; however, she still had no idea how long it would take until Jevenan gave them the signal.

"Come one! Come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Bellatrix!"

Turning her head at the declaration, Keila saw a young woman appear on a stage in a plume of smoke. Her skin was white and creamy, hair a pale cornflower blue, and she was dressed in a purple cape and hat covered in stars over a light blue chemise and black shorts, with big black boots halfway up her shins. A wand with a star on it was in her hand, and a roman candle of blue sparks shot out of it.

_Well,_ thought Keila, _might as well take in a show while I'm here._

_-LD-_

"Never again, Kairi," Sora muttered, holding onto the rails of a fence and waiting for his head to stop spinning.

"Oh come on, Sora," Kairi laughed. "Don't be such a spoilsport."

"Never again," he repeated.

"You can pilot a gummi ship in a fierce dogfight, doing all sorts of spins and tricks, and regularly do flips and twists on your own in a fight, and yet you feel lightheaded from a little spinning and Gs in the Gravitron?"

"I didn't mean that," Sora said weakly. "I meant, 'never again on an empty stomach'. But, probably not a full one either."

Kairi laughed, but placed a sympathetic arm over his shoulders. "Hey, you okay?"

Sora shook his head, but chuckled a little bit. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine. Just being a wimp for a moment." He took a deep breath and stood up straight, forcing a grin. "There, see? All better."

Kairi humoured him with a smile, and linked her arms around his. "How about we skip the rides for now? Want to try some of the games?"

Sora broke away from looking at a fire-eater and nodded his head. "Sure, why not? We've still got a bit of time left." Kairi agreed, and the two walked a little ways away from the spinning death trap behind them into the lines and lines of booths of the midway. They looked left and right, spotting games of chance, skill, and strength all over, with thousands of prizes hanging up on displays.

Sora beat out Kairi and three other competitors at a game where the objective was to shoot water from a nozzle onto a small target circle and race your chocobo against the other players. He got a small plush Mareep from that, which he was quick to teasingly gloat over in front of his Kairi and refuse to give to her. Neither of them won anything on any of the six betting games that they tried, not that they were really expecting to win, anyway. Kairi managed to beat Sora out, though, at a toy archery booth, and lorded her victory over him with the many annoying sounds that her funky yellow alien made while its belly also lit up with red light. Sora then one-upped her by shooting ten blitzballs through a hoop in twelve seconds, and got a big foam-rubber composite sword that looked like it was from a medieval Lego set.

It was while the pair of them were each munching on a shared small basket of fries, that Kairi saw it, the grand prize of the milk bottle toss. A giant stuffed winged horse, at least a third of her size. Its hide was cream-coloured, with a straight dark brown mane and the image of a flaming tire on her flank.

"Sora," Kairi said in a low voice filled with awe. "I want that."

"Huh?" Sora asked, turning around to look.

"That!" Kairi exclaimed, pointing. "That pegasus. I want it!"

"Milk bottles, huh?" Sora asked. "Alright, let's finish these fries off, and then have a go before heading to the park." Kairi nodded her head, and began shoveling the fries into her mouth with a gusto. Sora yelped and quickly grabbed some of them. "Hey, leave a few for me here!" She grinned at him and laughed. Sora groaned and rolled his eyes.

The fries consumed, Sora chucked the basket into a waste bin, and followed Kairi towards the booth. The man running it grinned and tipped his hat at the pair. "Welcome, friend! Step right up and take your shot! Best prizes on the midway, right here, if you can win."

"How'd you play?" Kairi asked, looking around for the signs and down the range at the three big milk bottles stacked in a triangular shape.

"Fifty munny gets you three balls," the carney explained. "You have three chances to knock the bottles down. Get it in three, you pick any of the prizes closest to the ground; in two, any of those or the ones above them; and in one, you get yourself Wild Fire there." He pointed up at the giant stuffed pony with a stick in his hand. "Well? What say you, friends? You and your strong-looking man there going to try for Wild Fire?"

"Oh you bet," Kairi said, laying down fifty munny. The man grinned, and presented her with three balls. Kairi picked one up, and her face fell. The ball was far lighter than its size suggested. She wasn't sure just how much force she could generate with it.

But Kairi looked up at Wild Fire, and nodded her head. She reared her arm back.

A sudden flash from a camera inside the booth went off, breaking her concentration and causing her to throw with less force than she wanted. Her ball struck the top bottle and harmlessly bounced off with a _ping_!

"Aw, tough luck there. Don't give up! You still have two balls left!" Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Kairi threw her second ball, and missed entirely.

"Calm down," Sora said patiently, watching. Kairi grabbed her third ball, and took a few deep breaths.

"Calm down," she repeated. "Just relax and throw your ball?"

"That's right," Sora said. "Remember, it's just a game." Kairi nodded her head.

"Relax. Relax. Relax."

Sora shook his head and rolled his eyes at the sky. Repeating the word 'relax' over and over wasn't going to help her relax at all. He leaned towards her ear, and grabbed her shoulders in his hands, and rotated his fingers into the skin. "_Reelaaxx..._"

Kairi laughed and danced out of his clutches. "Alright, alright! I'm fine now." She giggled again, just a little, and took aim with her third ball. She sent it flying on a beautiful bee-line towards the dead centre of the stack, and it bounced off!

Kairi stared at her result in pure shock as the carney muttered insincere condolences to her. Sora roughly stepped past her and dropped fifty munny onto the counter. "Are you going to play the hero now, young man?" The man asked. "Win a prize for your lady?"

"Bring it," Sora challenged, though without a hint of his usual smile. The three balls were placed in front of him, and Sora picked up the first one.

_There is no possible conventional way that this ball would knock those bottles over,_ he realized upon picking it up. The ball was far too light to be of any practical use except as a child's plaything.

_I'm willing to bet that nobody's won a prize at all today from these guys,_ he thought, _and this time I'd win on that bet. Well, two can play at that game._

Sora took a step back, readying himself for his throw.

"Force," he whispered under his breath, and felt the ball become heavier as his gravity spell took hold. A flash came from inside of the booth, but Sora was ready for it, and powered through the distraction and sent the ball hurtling towards the stacked bottles with all the force that the Keyblade Master could bring to bear.

It blasted through the bottles, scattering them to the floor, and the ball thudded into thick padding over painted particle board at the back of the booth, still spinning.

Sora smirked at the dumbfounded and completely flabbergasted look on the man's face, and said, "I think that we'll take this," and grabbed Wild Fire from where it hung. "Thank you very much." Kairi tightly hugged the giant stuffed animal with the smile of a child on Christmas morning, and thanked Sora with a messy kiss before the two of them left the shellshocked carney's booth.

They made sure that they tipped off security about how absurdly rigged the game was. They both knew that a little rigging was fine, but that was beyond ridiculous.

_-LD-_

Tidus collapsed backward off of his bench, groaning and clutching at his stomach. "No more. I give."

"And we're down to our final two competitors!" The master of ceremonies announced as the crowd exploded into cheers. "Still in the running are Roxas and Nanaki and neither of them look ready to give up!"

Roxas shot a smirk in Nanaki's direction as he swallowed the last of the pies that had been set in front of him. Nanaki retaliated with a mile-wide smile as she tossed a plate off to the side.

"Gotta say, I never took you for the competitive eating type," the blond said as the empty plates in front of him were cleared by the event staff. "I only suggested this because it had seven different foods you haven't tried yet. I'm impressed you've made it this far."

"Don't insult me," Nanaki said with a laugh. "This stuff is lightweight compared to what we had to eat back on my world. I'd bet just about anything that my digestive system is a lot hardier than yours."

"We'll see. We'll see." Roxas crossed his arms smugly as the final food of the competition was placed in front of the two of them. "Because this just so happens to be my favorite food."

Nanaki glanced down at the final stage of the contest. Placed in front of her was one of the strangest looking pile of food she had ever seen. A banana was cut in half lengthwise and laid in the dish. Three scoops of ice cream, one each of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry were served in a row between the banana. A crushed pineapple topping was spooned over the strawberry ice cream, chocolate syrup over the vanilla, and strawberry topping over the chocolate. It was garnished with crushed nuts, whipped cream, and a lone maraschino cherry.

"Our finalists have done a fantastic job so far in this contest, but can they face the final round and still come out on top?" the master of ceremonies called into the microphone. "These banana splits are generously donated to our contest by the Surfin' Sundaes seaside shack. Which one of our finalists has the guts of steel needed to win this contest? Are you ready to find out?!"

The crowd erupted into wild cheers and shouts of excitement. The MC spun around and dramatically pointed at Roxas and Nanaki. "Contestants, are you ready?!"

"Bring it on!" Roxas said, gripping his spoon tightly.

"Let me show you how it's done, buddy," Nanaki sneered.

"Alright! Ten minutes on the clock. And... Go!"

As the crowd began to roar, the two Keyblade Wielders dug their spoons into their splits, each determined to win.

_-LD-_

Tidus chuckled as he leaned against the wall next to the public restrooms. The sounds of two people rejecting the food they had scarfed escaped the plastic walls.

"I warned you that this is what would happen if we entered that contest," he shouted through the wall next to him.

"Screw-HURGHK- you, Tidus!" Roxas' queasy voice shouted back. "At least I- guh- won!"

Tidus shook his head in amusement. "Well I hope it was worth it."

"Totally was!" Nanaki shouted back. "And, now my stomach will be empty again, meaning that I can still enjoy all kinds of different foods today!"

"That's a very positive, and disgusting, way to look at it. You guys done yet?"

"No. I've still got a couple hot dogs in here fighting their way back up," Roxas groaned.

"And that's my limit." Tidus made a face of disgust. "Come find me when you two are done bonding over your porcelain thrones."

"We're not bonding, we're worshipping and offering them a sacrifice of food!"

"That's even worse!" Tidus shot back before closing the door behind him.

_-LD-_

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Kairi asked as Sora led her down another side alley.

"I sure hope so." Sora shot her a slightly nervous grin.

The two of them had quickly discovered that it was easy to get lost and turned around in a sea of people when they tried to escape the main roads. In an effort to guide them quickly to the central plaza where a lunch to celebrate Kairi's birthday had been planned, Sora had led Kairi toward the nearest side street. Sora however, had never ventured beyond the main roads in Fatum to familiarize himself with the side streets and alleys.

"You do realize that we're going to be late, right?" Kairi said with a laugh as she watched Sora try and figure out where they were.

"It's a party for you, right? So, it doesn't start until you get there, which means we can't possibly be late," Sora rationalized.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works." Kairi let out a small giggle as Sora led her down yet another alleyway. "Can't we just fly there? What were all those lessons in the simulator good for if we don't actually fly?"

"Well that's no fun." Sora glanced back at her and grinned. "Come on, Kairi. Where's your sense of adventure?"

"I left it back on the Gummi ship," the birthday-girl said, a hint of playful sarcasm in her voice. "I didn't think I'd need it on the world where I grew up."

"Look at it this way, if we hadn't stuck around for that last booth, you wouldn't have Wild Fire, now would you?" Sora said with a grin as he made another turn. Kairi glanced down at the stuffed cream pegasus that was currently tucked under her free arm, and blocking most of her body from sight.

"True enough." She squeezed Sora's hand a little tighter. "Thanks again for winning her for me. Sora paused in his efforts to find the right path out of the maze of alleyways.

"No problem," he said with a grin. "Besides, it felt good to show up those cheats running the place."

"I still can't believe that someone would rig a carnival game like that." Kairi shook her head in disappointment. "It's not fun when the game's rigged."

"Guess some people only care about making munny and not just about having a good time," Sora grumbled.

"I couldn't have said it better myself."

Sora and Kairi turned at the sound of an unfamiliar voice and were greeted by a group of seven people, all obscured by the dark of the night. Before the two teens could make a sound, the figure closest to them lunged forward, swinging a long object in its hand. Sora's hand was torn from Kairi's grasp as the weapon struck him across the head with a dull thud, sending him crashing heavily against the wall of the alley.

Lights danced in Sora's eyes and a ringing filled his ears as he struggled to get back onto his feet. However, the descending fist of his attacker quickly put an end to that plan. Pain exploded through Sora's skull as he collapsed onto the pavement. A single gasp of pain left his lips as his attacker placed a foot on his head and pressed down hard.

"Sora!" Kairi tried to rush to her boyfriend's side, only to be intercepted by three of the other shadowy figures. She quickly found herself pinned to side of the alley, five hands holding her arms and legs still while another pressed a knife up against the side of her face.

"You're a right pain in my ass, you know that?" The man currently pressing his foot into Sora's face growled. "Thanks to you, all of our booths have been shut down. Do you know how much munny you've cost me tonight?"

"I don't care," Sora grumbled. "You guys were cheating."

"It's called 'making a profit', kid." The assailant ground his heel against the side of Sora's face a bit. "And you're gonna pay me every last bit you've got on you. But, I'm guessing you don't have very much." Sora glared up at his attacker, doing his best to ignore the throbbing pain in his head. If his head hadn't had been the target, he'd be able to focus on some magic and put this cheating thief in his place.

"So, here's what me and my boys are gonna do," the assailant continued, either unaware or not caring that Sora was glaring daggers at him. "We're going to take everything you've got on you that's worth something. Then, we're going to break your knees and your wrists so you can't run away. That way, you can sit and watch as my boys share this 'treat' you brought with you." The other shadowy figures all chuckled, hinting at their anticipation. A shiver ran up Sora and Kairi's spines.

"I swear, if you so much as breathe on her…" Sora growled.

"You'll what?" The assailant spat. "You can barely see straight in your condition and we have you outnumbered. You wouldn't last two seconds against us!"

"Then it's a good thing he won't be doing the fighting," a male voice said from the shadows directly behind the assailant. A flash of light lit up the darkness, illuminating the speaker's face for a brief instant as the Way to the Dawn appeared in his grip.

"Riku!" Sora and Kairi cried out in unison. Sora's assailant didn't have time to react before Riku struck him with the flat side of his weapon. The man was sent crashing to the ground, a howl of pain escaping him as he went. A wreath of green light appeared around the Way to the Dawn as its Wielder held it over Sora.

Immediately, Sora felt the pain leave his head. He was on his feet in a flash, the Kingdom Key appearing in his hand as he rose.

"Son of a bitch!" Sora's assailant howled. "Who the hell are… you?" He looked up from the ground, only to find the Way to the Dawn mere inches from his nose.

"Someone who doesn't appreciate you threatening his friends." Riku swung his Keyblade and bashed the assailant over the head, knocking him unconscious. "How's it going back there, you two?" He glanced behind him in time to see one of the attackers get flattened by Kairi's Oathkeeper.

"Good to go!" Sora said, flashing Riku a grin as his Keyblade took down the last of his and Kairi's attackers. Riku grinned back.

"Why is it that I always have to be the one to save your skin?" He asked, feigning annoyance.

"It's because you're the oldest," Sora replied as he dismissed his weapon. "You have to." Riku rolled his eyes. He turned back toward the alley's exit only to nearly be knocked to the ground as Kairi threw her arms around him in a bone-crushing hug.

"Not even a 'hello'?" the red-head grumbled as she squeezed the life out of him. "We don't see you in a month and you can't even give us a normal greeting?"

"I thought saving you guys was a 'normal greeting'," Riku wheezed. Kairi released him and gave him a light punch to his shoulder.

"Jerk," she said with a giggle.

Riku opened his mouth to retaliate, but stopped as the sound of several pairs of feet running toward them reached his ears. Apparently, Sora and Kairi had heard them as well, as they both summoned their Keyblades back to their hands in response.

Four figures slid into view at the entrance, only to collide with one another. Sora and Kairi both winced as the new arrivals all let out cries of shock and fell over one another, resulting in a painful looking pile of tangled limbs. Riku raised a hand to his head with a sigh.

"You guys took your time getting here." He let out a chuckle and dismissed his Keyblade.

"Well, excuse us for not growing up here!" Hayner snapped as he pulled himself out from underneath Olette and Nikki. "You're the one who ran off without even telling us where to go."

"Then it's your fault for not being able to keep up." Riku shrugged.

Hayner opened his mouth to let out a retort, but his words died in his throat as he caught sight of Sora and Kairi, both of whom were now standing in the dim light of a street lamp. The two Wielders stared back, each with an equal look of surprise on their faces.

Before either of them could react, Hayner, Pence and Olette all cried out in excitement. The next thing Sora and Kairi knew, they were flat on their backs from a tackling hug their friends from Twilight Town delivered. All three Twilight Town natives were babbling greetings over one another to the point where it became an incoherent mess of noise.

"Hayner? Pence? Olette?" Kairi managed to gasp as her lungs reunited with their good friend, oxygen. "What are you guys doing here?"

"_How_ are you guys here?" Sora asked as he managed to get to his feet.

"Riku, obviously," Pence replied. "We hitched a ride with him."

"And ate all of my food in the process..." Riku crossed his arms and shot a glare at Hayner. The blond replied with a cheeky grin.

"Come on, you were fully stocked. It's not like we ate _that_ much..."

"My mind is still boggled on how you could have possibly eaten all of my food in a day and a half!"

Olette gave Riku a look of bemusement. "Have you ever _seen_ Hayner eat?"

"Well I have now..." Riku lamented, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Hayner has a hollow leg," Pence said with a laugh. "All that food has to go somewhere."

Kairi let out a giggle. "Okay, that answers the 'how', but what about the 'why'?"

"For you, obviously." Olette gave a Kairi a wide smile. "After Sora and the others went through that portal to the virtual Twilight Town, we had no idea if you two found each other. For all we knew, something even worse had happened to you.

"But, when we met Riku on the Frozen Fields, he filled us in with the rest of the details. He was even sweet enough to bring us here with him before we head off to Radiant Garden." Riku gave a small cough and turned away, doing his best to hide the pink tinge his cheeks had developed. All he got in return was a bout of giggles from the two girls.

"So, what were you guys already doing away from Twilight Town?" Sora asked. "I didn't think you had a Gummi ship." The three off-worlders' expressions fell almost instantly. A heavy silence hung in the air around them for a few seconds.

Hayner spoke up first. "We don't. We were evacuated."

"Evacuated?" Kairi looked over at Olette for confirmation. To her surprise, Olette looked the most downtrodden of the three. She looked on the brink of tears.

"The Heartless took Twilight Town's heart," Riku explained. "They attacked in force. They never stood a chance."

"'In force'?" Sora repeated. "That doesn't make sense. I've only seen the Heartless attack in large groups twice. Why would they attack Twilight Town?"

"Because of me..." Olette choked out. The others turned to face her. Sora and Kairi shared a brief, confused glance. Olette held out her hand and summoned her No Name into existence. Sora and Kairi's jaws dropped.

"When did you get a Keyblade?!" Sora exclaimed.

"Just before the Heartless attacked." Olette stared sadly at the Keyblade for a moment before willing it to vanish. "I accidentally touched Master Xanthos' Keyblade and triggered an Inheritance Ceremony." She drew in a shaky breath to steady herself. "Then the Heartless started popping up everywhere. Master Xanthos said it was because they saw me, a new Wielder as easy prey."

"Don't go blaming yourself, Olette." Hayner placed a comforting arm around her. "Xanthos said himself that it was just dumb bad luck."

"I know." Olette wiped away the tears that had started to form. "It's just… hard to think about what happened."

"Hey. Come here." Kairi pried Hayner's arm off of the brunette and pulled her into a comforting embrace. "You know what you need? Cake."

"Cake?" Olette gave the red-head a confused look.

Kairi nodded. "Cake makes everything better. And I happen to have it on good word that there's a rather large red-velvet cake waiting in the park." She pulled away slightly from the embrace to give her friend a small smile. "Besides, the Islands are basically one big celebration today. So you need to cheer up, and put on a smile! Birthday girls' orders!"

That got Olette to smile. The brunette wiped the tears that had started to form on the back of her hand. "As you wish, your majesty," she said with a small laugh.

"We can always catch up later." Sora glanced down at the watch his mother had lent him. "We need to hurry if we aren't going to be late."

"Sora's actually being proactive and trying to avoid being late?" Riku shook his head with a chuckle. "What is the world coming to?"

"Hey!"

_-LD-_

"You look troubled."

Naminé gave a start as Roxas' voice broke her mile-long stare. He stood over her, offering a cup of iced tea. She smiled and graciously accepted the drink. Roxas sat down on the bench next to her and fixed his gaze in the direction she had been staring.

Waiting for Sora and Kairi to show up was about as glamorous as one would expect. None of the others who were there with them were complaining just yet; for which Roxas was thankful. Instead, he had spent time wandering amongst friends and family, getting to know them a bit better. He didn't want to have to rely on Sora's own experiences and interactions with people when he could make his own, after all.

He almost hadn't noticed that Naminé was sitting to the side, away from the other partygoers. Her fingers had been drumming against her knees and Roxas, being the gentleman that he was, immediately set out to learn what was worrying her.

"It's nothing." Naminé's gaze shifted back to a spot off in the distance. "I've just... there's a lot on my mind, at the moment."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Roxas fixed her with a worried look.

"Thanks, but I can handle it." Naminé took hold of Roxas' hand. "But, I promise to talk to you right away if I start to doubt myself. Deal?"

"Deal," Roxas said, squeezing her hand slightly. Naminé gave him an appreciative smile and sighed.

"So, how are you feeling" she asked.

"Huh?"

Naminé rolled her eyes and poked him right over the blue ribbon he had proudly pinned to his chest. "Roxas, you and Nanaki were puking your guts out for seven minutes after that contest. You feeling okay?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Never better. Especially after I got some drink and a bit of what your dad's grilling up back into me." Naminé laughed and kissed his cheek, called him a goof, and smiled fondly at him, only for her gaze to harden as something caught her eye.

"Naminé?" Roxas was startled as she suddenly leapt to her feet.

"Sorry, Roxas." She bent down and gave her boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek. "I've gotta use the little girl's room. Before Roxas even had time to form a cohesive response, Naminé had already dashed away and disappeared inside one of the park's public restrooms.

"What was that all about?" He muttered.

Naminé let out a quick sigh of relief as she shut the restroom door behind her. She really didn't want to have to explain her behavior to Roxas, not when she knew she could handle the issue herself. She quickly put on a smile as her eyes locked onto the only other occupant of the restroom, Kim.

Kim turned at the sound of the door latching shut, a look of carefully veiled contempt crossing her face for brief moment. Naminé smiled back, an unusual feeling of confidence swelling in her chest.

"Hello, Kim." Naminé kept the smile on her face as she moved to stand next to her.

"Naminé." Kim went back to examining her reflection, sparing Naminé a glance out of the corner of her eye. "Enjoying the festival?"

"It's been fun," Naminé said as she fiddled with how her hair fell across her shoulders. "Roxas and I spent a lot of time riding the rides they have out."

"That's good," Kim muttered. She cast another glance in Naminé's direction and saw that she was smirking at her. "Did you... do anything else?"

"Well..." Naminé said, setting her mouth into a line. "Not today. But I did learn something interesting yesterday."

"And that would-" Kim was swiftly cut off as Naminé suddenly lunged at her, pinning Kim to the wall of the restroom. "Naminé! What the hell?!" A flash of light nearly blinded Kim as Naminé summoned the Rejection of Fate.

"I learned that _someone_ has kept us all under a pretty powerful illusion spell." Naminé glared fiercely at her captive. Kim's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed in agitation.

"How did you figure it out?" she demanded.

"I've got a special talent," Naminé explained smugly. "I have a unique connection to the memories of everyone who's close to Sora. I didn't figure it out at first, since my power was weakened when I rejoined with Kairi. But then I got my own body. I became my own person and my powers started growing again. And my connection to memories and illusions is stronger than ever. When I saw you yesterday, I sensed something was off. It took me a while to figure it out, but when I did, your spell lost its hold on me."

"Good for you, you can break an illusion. Whoop-dee-do." Kim rolled her eyes. "So are you going to kill me or what?"

Naminé pressed Rejection of Fate a little closer, the edge of the blade sliding against Kim's neck. She could see every pore on Kim's face beginning to bead with sweat at the cold metal's touch. Naminé growled in her throat. "Not just yet," she told Kim in a low voice. "And that's only because Kairi is still under the effects of your spell. If I killed you now, that'd totally ruin Kairi's birthday, and..." Rejection of Fate drew a thin line into Kim's neck, and a tiny bead of crimson rolled onto the Keyblade's silver blade, "...I don't want that."

Suddenly the Keyblade was gone from the other blonde's neck, and Kim dropped to the ground and placed a hand to her windpipe as Naminé turned away. The former Nobody turned a baleful eye onto the other illusionist while she slowly strolled towards the exit. "I know that you're a fake, Kim, and if you make any move against Kairi today, I won't spare you a second time."

Kim stayed in the public restroom for a minute after Naminé had left, and healed the hurt on her throat with a minor cure spell. She laughed weakly, and a wicked grin grew on her face. "Damn. Looks like I get to take out that bitch sooner than I expected to."

_-LD-_

It didn't take Kairi long to decide that she had officially been on the receiving end of enough hugs to last her a lifetime. She and the others had barely made it ten steps into the park before she was glomped by Selphie, crushed against Wakka, lifted off her feet and spun around until she was dizzy by Tidus, smothered by both of her parents (separately and together), squeezed by Naminé and Roxas, passed back and forth between Sora's mother and Riku's parents, practically had her spine snapped by Nanaki (who was under the impression that a proper Destiny Island greeting involved painfully tight hugs because of Tidus), embraced by Richard until her face turned purple, and given a one armed hug by Kim.

"I am going to be the first person in history to die from a hug overdose," Kairi groaned as she plopped down on a bench next to Sora. Sora smirked at her, having watched from afar for his own safety.

"What? You don't want your family and friends to show their love for you?" He teased.

"It's not that. It's just that I could've lived without all the hugs one right after the other." Kairi's head made contact with Sora's shoulder as she let out a sigh of relief. "And if you try to hug me too, I'll chop your arm off."

"If you say so," Sora chuckled, lowering the arm he had been about to drape around her. He settled for planting a quick kiss on her cheek instead. "Better?"

"Much." Kairi gave her boyfriend an appreciative smile. "I meant what I said about the arm, though."

"Noted." Sora got to his feet and held out a hand in Kairi's direction. "Well, come on. It's party time!" Kairi grinned and accepted Sora's hand.

"Just no more hugging," she insisted. "You're on anti-hug duty." Sora rolled his eyes as he led Kairi over to the pair of picnic tables serving as a buffet for their rather large group.

Kairi's mouth started watering as her eyes locked onto the spread her mother had prepared for the party. There were slices of watermelon arranged in the shape of an open lotus. Large plates of jerk pork tenderloin with jicama salsa and applesauce on the side caught the eye with the faint traces of steam still rising into the air. Sliced pieces of yellowfin tuna sizzled alongside several shrimp kabobs on a portable grill. Oversized bowls of potato and pasta salads were surrounded by an assortment of hamburger fixings. A platter of cold-cut sandwiches took up the center of the buffet, arranged in a visually aesthetic fashion. Bags of various chips were lined up alongside nine different kinds of dips and salsas. Two large trays of cut fruits were arrayed on the ends of the tables, made up of the choicest-looking pieces of pineapple, starfruit, dragonfruit, kiwis, strawberries, and both green and red grapes with a pink-coloured dip in the centre of it all-a full quarter of the pineapple and strawberries were already gone, to Kairi's annoyance.

Sora let out a low whistle from behind her, snapping Kairi out of her reverie. "Look at that spread! Your mom really knows how to go all out."

"Would you expect any less for my Kairi's sixteenth?" Melissa asked as she appeared suddenly beside the two teens. "Granted, I could've done more, but the birthday girl talked me down to what you see here."

"Would we really need a lobster platter?" Kairi turned and gave her mother a gracious smile. "It's more than enough food. And it all looks spectacular. Thanks, Mom."

"My pleasure, sweetheart." Ignoring her daughter's pleas for Sora's help, Melissa swept Kairi into a tight hug. Kairi let out an exasperated groan, which died quickly in her throat when she realized what her mother had shoved into her hand.

"Mom?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did you give me a margarita?" Kairi held up the glass with the neon green concoction contained within.

"Why not?" Melissa asked, her lips curled into a mischievous smirk. "There's hardly any alcohol in that. It's practically a virgin." She raised her own glass and tapped it against Kairi's with a small _clink_. "Besides, one weak drink like that won't do you much harm. If you had three beers and a bottle of rum like I did on my sixteenth..."

"Mom!"

Melissa laughed at Kairi's shocked expression. "I'm just kidding, sweetie. Or am I?" She laughed maniacally for a few seconds before taking a sip from her glass. "Well, I'll leave you to it. I'd hate to hog you when you have so many people to see. Be sure to eat plenty of food! There's more than enough to go around." With a wave and a grin, Melissa strode off in the direction of Allison and Sharon, both of whom were in the process of pulling out cameras, preparing for what would undoubtedly be an endless stream of possible embarrassing pictures to one day tease their children about.

Kairi shook her head and began to load up a plate that Sora courteously held for her with various edibles from the table. "It's a good thing my mother can cook," she grumbled, despite being unable to resist smiling.

"Or what? You'd break up with her?" Sora teased. Kairi responded by shoving a slice of watermelon in his mouth.

"Shush, mister. Eat your fruit." Sora gave her a sarcastic salute, earning him a slap on the shoulder from his girlfriend. Kairi snatched her plate from Sora and stuck her tongue out at him, which Sora only laughed at. He turned his back on her long enough to quickly take what he wanted from the spread.

Kairi quickly scanned their surroundings to find a place to sit and eat. The flickering torchlight revealed a nice spot on a pair of large rocks somewhat close to the barbeque, where her father was currently watching over the burgers that he was expertly grilling-complete with his 'Love the Chef' apron on. Kairi pointed them out, being careful not to spill the margarita that her mother had given her, and she began to make her way over to the grey stones with Sora following and sipping on the melon pop he had grabbed.

The burgers hissed and spat, and the fire beneath the iron grate underneath them leapt up to kiss their undersides after Jonathan flipped them over. Kairi saw his face clearly in the flash of flame flaring up from the burger grease, and the aroma of the grilling meat wafted through the air. He obviously saw their approach, because he turned and raised his flipper into the air and gave a greeting. "Happy birthday kiddo. How're you two doing?"

"Wondering if mom's sixteenth really was as wild as she says it was," Kairi said, shaking her head. "Did she really have three beers and a bottle of rum?" Jonathan grinned and chuckled.

"Your mother's sixteenth?" he laughed. "Oh yes. If you think your mother's bad," he nodded at her margarita with his flipper, "you should have seen your grandfather. That man got us all completely smashed for his baby girl's birthday every year from sixteen onward. He even shoved her into their spare bedroom with her then-boyfriend and told him to 'treat her like a lady' before locking the door."

Sora laughed and extended his plate (that had an empty bun on it) towards the grillmaster. "You're joking." Jonathan held his free hand up to his mouth and exhaled. He sniffed.

"Nope; I can still smell the liquor on my breath," he claimed. "And that bed was squeaky and Mel's always been a screamer." Kairi felt her mouth drop.

"DAD!" she yelped. "Seriously! On my birthday? Last night wasn't bad enough?"

"What happened last night?" Sora asked, giving Kairi a quizzical expression.

"I am not talking about it," Kairi muttered darkly. "Let's just say that what has been heard cannot be unheard."

"I'm not telling Sora to do that, now am I?" Jonathan asked his daughter. "You asked if your mother's sixteenth birthday was crazy, and I'm telling you that it was." He plopped a burger onto Sora's bun and gave him a stern look. "And if that was your plan...I don't want to hear any complaints from her." Sora involuntarily took a step back, and Kairi prayed that dying from embarrassment wasn't possible.

"Even if that was going to happen, which it _isn't_," Kairi said, her cheeks burning a bright shade of red, "I wouldn't come running to you!"

"No, you wouldn't. You'd go to your mother, and she'd tell me," Jonathan reasoned. "So, I'd better not hear about her having a bad first time, Sora."

"N-no sir!" Sora replied. "You won't. You'll hear about a great one instead." Kairi looked at the two incredulously.

"Sora!" she hissed. "I thought that we'd-" she stopped when her father started barking his laughter over the sound of the flaring burgers on the grill, and when she spotted Sora's somewhat amused grin. Jonathan clapped a hand to Sora's shoulder, and nodded his head at the Keyblade Master, and winked. Kairi bowed her head and quickly beat her retreat to the rocks, whereupon she sat down and took a large gulp from her margarita, completely ignoring the rim of sea-salt around it and the lime wedge.

_I cannot __**believe**__ my family today!_

Sora laughed as he sat down next to her, and Kairi pointedly snubbed his presence with a slight shift of her head away from him. "Aw, come on, it's not like it was that bad."

"You and my dad are joking about sex with me," Kairi huffed, "don't you think I'd be a little upset about something like that?"

"I'm shocked that your dad was the one who brought it up," Sora answered, "but what was I supposed to say?"

"Nothing," Kairi told him. She bit off half of a strawberry. Sora shrugged.

"I think making him laugh was the better option," he said, and picked up his burger. Kairi chewed, swallowed, finished her strawberry and ate another one before dipping the piece of tenderloin she'd picked up in the applesauce. She watched as Hayner and Tidus sat at opposite ends of a picnic table, engaging each other in an arm wrestle while Selphie and Olette cheered them on and Richard shouted bits of nonsense advice to both combatants.

"I guess it's okay," Kairi said at last, breaking the silence, "but you'd better make good on that promise when it happens." She caught Sora blushing and he coughed and glanced at anything but her.

"Uh, sure, don't worry," he mumbled. He coughed again. "So, uh, are you happy with how today has been?"

Kairi took a sip of her margarita and decided to be just a teeny bit mean. "Well, it has had a couple of rough spots..." she said, and let her sentence hang for a few seconds, "but..." she gave Sora a quick peck on the cheek, "Wildfire makes up for it. So the day hasn't been a total loss. Yes, I'm enjoying myself." Sora laughed in what she took to be relief.

"Glad to hear it," he said. He looked like he was about to say something else, but stopped when a certain tune started to enter his ears. "Oh no."

Kairi blinked a couple of times and looked around for the loudspeakers that had been set up all throughout the islands over the last couple of days. She couldn't see them in the eclipse's gloom, but Kairi could certainly hear what they were broadcasting. "Wait, isn't that..." Her eyes widened and a joyful smile leapt onto her face as she recognized the sound of the pahu and the beat it was making. The deep drum beats were joined with a quick clicking that sounded like the crackling of fire and the clacking of drumsticks striking each other, all in a quick and rambunctious tempo. "That's the intro to _The Maiden of Fire_!" Kairi exclaimed, and quickly put aside both her margarita and her food. She jumped to her feet, and turned to look at Sora. "Sora, do you know it?"

He looked away, and suddenly winced. Kairi followed his gaze and saw Allison looking directly at the pair of them with an evil smile on her face and a camera in her hands. Sora half groaned. "Yes, I know it," he said, defeated. A smile quickened to Kairi's face and she grabbed Sora's hand.

"Great! I need a partner, but you knew that already, didn't you?"

Kairi kicked off her shoes, pulled her socks from her feet, dragged Sora out into the open, and had him stand a couple of paces in front of her, and both of them waited for the appropriate place in the music. The birthday girl could feel the eyes of her friends and family on her and Sora, and her feet suddenly started to feel like they were pieces of lead attached to legs of gelatin. _The Maiden of Fire_ was a traditional folk dance between lovers, representing the two players of the old tale between an ancient fire spirit and the human man who fell in love with her, and whose love she eventually returned in kind after his arduous courtship. The accompanying dance is as quick as the music, except for a minute-long section three-quarters through the song where it slows to a crawl and becomes very intimate, and leaves both dancers panting and sweating but feeling completely empowered by the end.

Her nerves were suddenly steadied when Kairi discovered that she and Sora were not alone in front of their friends and family; that Selphie had come to stand loosely beside Kairi and forced Tidus opposite her. The brunette flashed the birthday girl a smile, but there wasn't time for anything else, as with a triple-clack of the drumsticks and a great boom from the pahu their cue was sounded and followed by a hush. Kairi's arms and hands flew up to the sky and she placed her right foot behind her, leaning back slightly and slowly bringing down her arms with fingers splayed out.

The drum beat once, twice, now three times, and the two girls were off!

Her friends and parents watched as Kairi and Selphie went through the steps and moves that they had painstakingly practiced over and over again in their after school dance class. Their hips swung around and bare feet carried them lightly in shallow circles, spins, and wild leaps, including the leap that landed each of them straight into the startled embraces of Sora and Tidus. There was a slight falter and pause in the music, and then it began anew and Kairi and Selphie quick-stepped backwards out of the boys' grasp.

Sora and Tidus gave chase as they fulfilled their part, each circling his partner and performing the same steps and actions, trying to get close to her, but always just a flirtatious distance away. The boys would drive in like a storm, and the girls would flee like birds. Tidus would encircle Selphie like the water surrounds a rock, and Kairi would escape like fire leaps from branch to branch; quick, darting, dangerously close but always just out of reach. All the while the music was building, and slowly increasing in tempo slightly as the _clicks_ grew louder and the pahu beat faster until it reached a crescendo-

-until Kairi and Selphie each made a wrong turn, and wound up with their fingers entwined with their partner's at a frighteningly close distance. The drum had ceased, leaving only the clicking sounds that crackled like burning wood to lead the dancers as the girls reluctantly tried to escape, but the boys held fast to the prize they'd sought and finally ensnared. The human had dared to touch the fire spirit and miraculously was not burned; he had been the first to not be turned to cinders at her touch. The spirit touched the man more: a quick flicker against his cheek, a pass at his chest and side. He touched her back: a stroke against her neck, a hand against her back that pressed her close.

Suddenly the drum came back, and with it arrived an eager smile on the fire spirit's face, and so too came a smile to the man who'd caught her, and with their hands never leaving each other's they fell into a quick modified box step that had them spinning around and around each other. The box step evolved into a wild tango, and with a loud clash of the drums the man dipped the fire spirit with his head low, and slowly brought his head and her back up until he was looking into her eyes from just above her chest.

As they danced, their friends and family could see two very different dances being done by the four teens, even though they were all performing the same steps. For Tidus and Selphie, it was a little coy, each approaching with a hint of timidity as they began to try to become something more than what they were, unsure whether or not if would work but taking small steps in that direction all the same. For Sora and Kairi, the dance was more energetic and passionate, the mark of two young souls bound together and comfortably aware of it, looking excitedly to explore and expand their constantly growing and deepening relationship with new experiences as each uncovered new facets of their partner. Their smiles shone brighter, and their touching hands touched easier.

The drum boomed a few more times with a quick beat, and the fiery maiden spun upright and joined hands with her partner once again, and both swooped into a quick and deep bow before coming back up, pulling tight against each other, and then the fire maiden spinning back into the embrace of her lover right at the end.

Cheers, applause, and catcalls filled the ears of the four dancers at the dance's (and song's) conclusion, and with faces red from the exertion and glowing in the torchlight (and from the places the boys' hands were touching that made an excited thrill run through Kairi's and Selphie's veins), they breathlessly separated and took a bow. Kairi quickly returned to her food and margarita, and downed what was left of the drink in four deep gulps, no matter the small burning in her throat and the slight tingle in her forehead from it. Her body felt hot, both from the look in Sora's eyes in the final moments and the feeling of his hand sliding up her thigh to rest against the side of her bum, his fingertips just pressing against the fabric of her underwear beneath the hem of her dress. Kairi shook her head, and she looked up at Sora in wonder as he stood next to her, draining his melon pop. Sweat was glistening on his neck. Another folk song was starting up, but Kairi didn't have any more dance in her after _The Maiden of Fire_.

"I didn't think you knew how to do that," she said, completely enthralled at the surprises Sora still had in store for her, "or Tidus."

Sora swallowed and took a few deep breaths before answering. "Mom forced me into learning it," he admitted. "She told me that I was going to have to learn the traditional dances whether I liked it or not, because one day it might come in handy at a certain girl's sixteenth. She's a devil. She worked out that your sixteenth birthday would take place on the Sun's Shadow Festival."

"Wow," Kairi said breathlessly. "Remind me to thank your mother. And Tidus?"

"Who do you think I was able to bully into learning it with me?" Sora asked rhetorically. "Mom and his mom are old friends too, so when my mom told his what she was planning on having me do she jumped at the chance of having Tidus learn too."

Kairi laughed. She really couldn't help it. "You are such a mama's boy."

"Shut up. You love me for it."

Kairi threw herself at her dance partner and kissed him with fiery passion. She ignored the wolf-whistles that the act attracted with such ferocity that a great laugh rose from the gathering at her proudly displayed upright middle finger.

"You're right, I do," she said when she was done with him.

_-LD-_

They each grabbed more to eat and drink, with Melissa forcing a second margarita on her daughter and both mothers embarrassing the pair with a plethora of pictures taken during their dance. Riku fortunately saved them from that, and Kairi wandered around with him, Sora, Selphie, and Tidus for a bit, and genuinely enjoyed the praise that she received for the dance she and Sora had shared when they conversed in small-talk with the rest of her friends. Nanaki was really interested in them, but had said pretty quick that she was sure that she wouldn't be able to master their native dances, at all, period, especially when she found out that traditionally that dance was supposed to have been performed with both the fire maiden and the man wearing far less clothing than what the four who performed it were.

"We're supposed to have been in a really provocative red top and skirt," Kairi had said, "with yellow and orange sashes tied to our wrists and ankles and an orange headband, and the guys are supposed to have been in a grass skirt and nothing else. That's how it's done by the dance groups that perform it at our festivals."

"It's a shame that we didn't do it that way," Riku had said. "because I would have killed to get a picture of Sora and Tidus in grass skirts."

"Riku, I'd rather live not knowing that," Sora told him.

"Why not? Blackmail for life right there."

Nanaki blushed. "When you say, 'nothing else', do you mean...?"

"Not anymore," Selphie had told her. "About seventy years ago the girls were allowed red underwear underneath the skirt and the guys could wear beige, but before that it was just this itty bitty top that barely covered and the skirt; and both men and women were buck naked underneath."

Nanaki's eyes quickly glanced at Sora and Tidus, her face turned an even brighter shade of red than before, and she quickly excused herself, muttering, "You guys have really strange customs."

A loud banging of wood on metal alerted Kairi that it was time to stop forcing Olette to laugh at her denial of giving her master 'snu-snu' whenever he asked, and turn her attention to Jonathan, the one who had been rapping the cooling barbeque lid with the wooden handle of his flipper. "May I have your attention please?" he asked loudly. It took a few moments for the scattered remnants of chatter to cease, but attention was given to him. "Thank all of you for coming today. As you are all aware, today is my daughter, Kairi Brightheart,'s sixteenth birthday. I know that I haven't met all of you before today, but from the bottom of my heart, thank you friends from all over for coming together today to wish her well on this special occasion." Cheers and applause met with his proclamation, and Kairi couldn't help but blush. "However, I do believe that now is the time we have all been waiting for! Allison, bring her out!"

Heads turned as Allison produced a rather large parcel and placed it on the mostly clear table. Inside was a large, dual layered red velvet cake, decorated with a cream cheese frosting. Written in crimson lettering were the words "Happy 16th Birthday Kairi!" along the cake's edge. A gel paopu fruit had been hand-piped onto the centre of the cake and was surrounded by an appropriate number of candles.

"Allison, this cake looks wonderful!" Selphie fawned.

"You should see my wedding cakes," Allison said with a chuckle as the others all moved to circle the table. "I can't find my matchbook. Can anyone light these?"

"My pleasure." Richard's hands were quickly engulfed in flame as he raised them up.

_FWOOSH!_

"How many times do we have to tell you?" Roxas snapped as he grabbed the warlock's arms and forced them down. "No fire!"

"Then it's not really a party, is it?" Richard countered.

"Ignore him." Naminé snapped her fingers and the wicks of the candles ignited.

"You're lighting the cake on fire?" Nanaki tilted her head in confusion. "Is this some sort of ritualistic sacrifice to your gods?"

Wakka almost cracked a rib laughing. "Nah, it's tradition, yah? On a birthday you light candles on the cake, and then the birthday person makes a wish and tries to blow them all out in one breath. If they do, the wish's supposed to come true, yah?"

"And if he or she doesn't," Olette added, "the number of candles still burning are the number of boyfriends or girlfriends they're going to get that year." She giggled. "So that mean's Kairi's looking for either one left or none."

"She's looking for none," Sora mock-growled. "She's already gotten a boyfriend this year."

"I thought she got a master this year," Tidus reminded him.

"I'm her boyfriend too!"

"Semantics."

"_Happy birthday to you," _Melissa started to sing. _"Happy birthday to you."_

Kairi winced and giggled as the disjointed, off-key tones of nineteen voices joined her mother's. _"Happy birthday dear Kairi~! Happy birthday to you!" _

Kairi smiled widely at all of her friends and family, and Richard, before turning her attention to the flaming dessert in front of her. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on a wish. Inhaling deeply, Kairi opened her eyes and locked on to her target. With a single breath, the flames were blown away. Several camera flashes practically blinded Kairi in the dim light as the mothers went shutter-crazy.

"So, what'd you wish for?" Nanaki asked.

"I can't say." Kairi smirked. "If I do, it won't come true."

"Your culture confuses me sometimes." Nanaki shook her head. "So many rules."

"It's all part of the fun!" Selphie said cheerfully. "Plus, things like that add _mystery_!" Nanaki shook her head.

"Mystery," she muttered. "I just don't see the point."

"Give it time." Kairi giggled and looked around. "So, where's the plate for the birthday girl's piece of cake?"

"Right here, Kairi," Melissa said. Kairi quickly took the plate from her mother and tried to avoid making much eye contact. Her dad's words swam in her head and she knew that it'd probably take another couple of hours before she'd be able to get over what he had told her, regardless whether or not he was lying just to get a reaction from her.

"The knife?"

"Oh dear me!" Allison cried. "I can't believe it! I forgot the knife. Kairi, I think you'll just have to do the honours!" Kairi laughed, though she figured that she should have been more annoyed than she was, and grinned. She placed the plate down on the table next to the cake, and extended her right hand. There was a flash of light and Oathkeeper appeared within her grasp.

"You're seriously going to cut the cake with a Keyblade," Nikki deadpanned. Kairi grinned at her.

"Yep!" she cheerily declared. "It's my party and I'll cut my cake how I want to." She sliced downwards, and neatly cut the cake in two before lifting her Keyblade back up. The weapon's sides were now covered in crumbs of red cake and pieces of frosting, but Kairi didn't care at the moment. She'd clean it later. "This half is mine," she said childishly, "and this half is Olette's because I promised her cake. No cake for the rest of you." Melissa gasped and laughed at her husband.

"Our daughter's a greedy bitch." Kairi included herself in the raucous laughter, and then began cutting the left half of the cake into smaller pieces with Oathkeeper. She took a large piece with a bit of the paopu design for herself, and Sharon brought forward the knife that Allison had 'forgotten' and set about serving the rest of them. Kairi was about to stick a fork into her piece of cake when she stopped, and glanced at the Keyblade she'd set down on the table.

"Um, does anybody have a cloth?" she asked.

"I brought one for the knife," Allison said. "Here, let me go get it." While she was gone, Kairi quickly found a bowl and filled it with warm water. Allison returned and Kairi thoroughly cleaned Oathkeeper of the cake she'd put on it.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she did the task, "I shouldn't have done that to you. You're a beautiful, wonderful weapon and deserve more respect than what I showed by using you to cut a cake."

"Kairi is now speaking to her sword," Richard stated. "I do believe that her mind has snapped. What say you that we be merciful and put her out of her misery. Who's with me?" He raised his hand up high, and looked around expectantly.

"Just ignore it," Roxas told him, handing the warlock a slice of cake, "it'll pass."

"I shall do what you say but only because you have given me cake," Richard said. "I still believe that we should burn her before she starts singing to the bees and milking the snakes."

Kairi heard him, and laughed quietly in her throat before she took up her plate again and grabbed another slice of cake to take to her father's guard. She'd seen him on the perimeter of their party, and knew him by face if not by name, and felt that he should at least get to eat some cake too. He was standing in the shadows behind one of the trees that edged the portion of the park that they'd set up her party in. Her father's guard wasn't something of his choice either, but his secretary badgered him that his position as Mayor warranted it until he had finally caved. The man always shadowed her father wherever he went, and Kairi had figured that he was stationed in the house next door...or hiding in their basement. Even on the occasion when she, Sora, and Riku had returned to the Islands after Xemnas' defeat, she had just been able to spot him outside of Destiny's through one of the windows.

She was rather forward in her approach, coming straight at the man after leaving the table. He noticed when she was about three-quarters of the way over to him, and turned from the tree he was leaning against in order to survey the surrounding area in the gloom of the day-long eclipse. "Hey!" Kairi hailed, venturing close enough to start speaking, "Want some cake? It's double-layered red velvet!"

"Chocolate or white red velvet?" he asked. Kairi frowned and looked at the cake again. She'd moved away from the main source of light, and couldn't quite remember what it had looked like nor could she see. Expertly getting both plates into one hand, she used her other to pinch some crumbs out of her own slice.

"Chocolate," she answered.

"Excellent, lass! I'll have a piece." He placed his spear against the tree trunk, and received the plate from Kairi with a grateful smile. Kairi gave him a once-over while he stuck the plastic fork into the cake. He looked like he was in his middle-late twenties, and stood a little on the short side of the scale. His shortness didn't mean that she could make any assumptions, though, because his arms were like tree trunks of muscle. A small amount of crumbs from the cake and icing fell into his thick ginger beard, matching the colour of the sleek stuff that emerged from his skull and was tied back into a ponytail underneath the steel cap that normally would be on his head but currently was sitting beside where he'd placed his weapon. A brown brigandine covered his torso with leather cuisses and greaves attached to the iron poleyns over his knees. Leather pauldrons were on his shoulders and the upper half of his upper arm, showing the symbol of his rank at the joint. Kairi assumed that it must have been somewhat high to be the mayor's guard, but she had no idea what the insignia she saw there meant. Along with the spear he'd set aside, the man also had a round wooden shield, painted green, with an iron boss in the centre, the boss looking almost like a metal mountain standing on a field with how close to being pointed it was, on his back; a bearded axe with a sharp gleam on its edge was set in his belt; and a sheathed dagger was strapped to his leg.

"You've got a lot of weapons," Kairi noted. He swallowed the bit of cake in his mouth and smiled at her. His face was a little on the rugged side, for a twenty-something, and there was a thin white scar that she could barely make out on his cheek

"Ye can never be too careful, lass," he told her.

"All I've got is my Keyblade and magic," Kairi muttered. She put a piece of the cake in her mouth and began chewing thoughtfully. It was moist and soft, and the rich milk chocolate flavour melted on her tongue in waves of goodness in tandem with the cream cheese icing.

"Ach, that won't do. Get yerself a dagger, if nothing else," he told her. "Magic and magic returning longsword should never be all ye have at yer disposal." He leaned down with his hand reaching for his boot. The hiss of metal on leather whispered into Kairi's ears and her neck hairs stood on end at the surprising entry of the sound. A steel dagger was now in his free hand, two parallel fullers running down the majority of the blade's 12" length, with a forward-curving crossguard and simple steel pommel. He regarded it for a few seconds and then swung it in two quick arcs left and right before thrusting forward into an imaginary foe. Nodding to himself, he lowered his plate to the grass by his toes and presented the weapon hilt-first to Kairi. "Happy birthday, lass."

The giggle that Kairi wanted to let out at his continued use of calling her 'lass' never made it to her throat, as she was more impressed by the serious nature of him gifting her a weapon out of the blue when they didn't even know each other. Regardless, Kairi took the offered blade in her free hand and brought it before her eyes, admiring the shine on the metal's edges in what light there was to see by. "Thank you," she uttered graciously. Suddenly overcome, she put down her plate and looked him in the eye, thrusting her empty right hand towards him and drawing the dagger back to her body and switching to holding it in a reverse grip. "I'm Kairi."

"Aye, I know," he said with a chuckle. He took her hand in his and shook it. "Bael Stoutiron, at yer service, lass." Their greeting ended and he picked up his plate of cake again. He nodded at her with the plastic fork. "Ye'd best get a sheath fer tha' soon," he told her. "Wicked sharp, it is. Cut through yer dress like it wasn't even there."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kairi giggled. She carefully manoeuvred her hand to be able to eat the cake while holding onto her plate after picking it up again.

Bael Stoutiron nodded at her again. "Ye'd best get back to yer friends too, lass; it is yer party after all."

"But-"

"Dun worry, I'll bring the plate back," he said. "Go on, and thanks again fer thinking of a poor overlooked guard like me." Kairi smiled and shook her head.

"You protect my father. You're anything but a poor overlooked guard." Kairi's lips quirked upward in something resembling an impish smile as a thought suddenly came to her. Acting on the impulse, she quick-stepped forward and left a light kiss on his cheek. The man's beard tickled her face and caused another giggle to come from her as she stepped back. She gestured with the hand that held onto the present. "Thank you again, Bael Stoutiron."

"Yer welcome, Kairi Brightheart," he returned pleasantly. "Happy birthday." Nodding at each other, Kairi turned and started to make her way back to the party.

_Damn mother and her margaritas,_ Kairi thought. _I never would have done that without them. But...he seemed happy for it, so maybe it's okay._

"Hey, where'd you run off to, birthday girl?" Selphie asked as Kairi returned. The redhead's reply came back rather chipper.

"I went to give dad's guard some cake," she told her bff. "And he gave me this as a birthday present."

"Wow," Selphie said, looking at the small weapon in Kairi's grasp. She coughed in her throat. "Well then, I guess that tells us what time it is." She turned her head so that it was facing the general majority of the group and shouted. "Alright, present time!"

Excited voices greeted Selphie's call to arms, and within two minutes there was a circle of people in front of her with brightly and mundanely wrapped presents in their arms. Melissa forced another margarita on her daughter before she could protest, and Kairi quickly finished her cake (vowing internally to have more later) and transferred over to the rocks where she and Sora had initially been eating. Sora, naturally, sat down next to her while Selphie and Riku hung out beside them, with Naminé and Roxas flanking them.

"Alright," Kairi said with a giggle (she was doing a lot of that, she noticed), "who wants to go first?"

"I will," said Riku with a small grin. "Here, catch. Happy B-Day." He tossed her a small package about the size of his hand and as thick as his fist, brightly wrapped in gold and white wrapping paper. Kairi fumbled her catch for just a moment before her fingers found their grip and kept a hold of it. Grinning to herself, Kairi started ripping open the wrapping paper, and found a second layer taped on underneath. She ripped that off too, and smiled at the box that had been buried.

"Aw, _cool_! An mp3 player! I've been meaning to get one of these! Thanks a bunch, Riku!"

He chuckled and waved away her praise. "No prob, Kai." Kairi set the box aside to her right and balled the wrapping paper into a wad, which she discarded to her left. She took another sip of her third margarita.

"Now I'll be able to listen to all of my music while we're on another world," Kairi said aloud. She sipped her drink again. "Alright, next! Um..." she glanced around, trying to decide who to ask or if she even should.

Riku's parents relieved her of that duty and stepped forward. "Here you go Kairi," Sharon said with a smile on her face. "Happy sixteenth." She and David handed her a small present in metallic silver and red with a red bow on the top.

"I guess we're going by families," Sora said while Kairi worked at getting the wrapping paper off. A small cardboard box was underneath the paper, and Kairi found a use for her new dagger by carefully using it to cut the tape that bound it shut. She smiled in annoyance at the newspaper that lined the inside and hid the contents of the box, but her smile increased threefold when she discovered what was inside. Kairi's hands pulled out two silver earrings, each of them with a teardrop-shaped lapis lazuli stone the size of her fingernail wrapped in a pattern of silver leaves.

"Ooh," fawned Selphie. "Those are gorgeous, Kairi."

"They are gorgeous," Kairi said, turning them around and around in her hand.

"We found them when we were looking for Riku," David said. He chuckled. "But Sharon's allergic to silver and we figured that Riku wouldn't like them as much." Riku rolled his eyes.

"Well maybe he would if he got his ears pierced," Hayner sniped.

"Yeah. No chance." Riku let out a huff of irritation, his eyes zeroed in on Hayner.

"I don't know, you've got the hair for it," Kairi said, holding one of the earrings up at eye level and lining it up with Riku. "And these would go well with your natural coloring." The group erupted into laughter at Riku's expense.

Riku hung his head with a groan. "That's it. I'm cutting my hair." Another round of laughter, though a bit quieter this time, humiliated him further before Kairi thanked his parents for the earrings. She placed them back into their box and placed it with Riku's present.

Another gift was already on its way to her hands by the time she'd chucked the wrapping paper down beside her, this one coming from her father. "Happy birthday, Kairi," he said, leaning down and giving her yet another hug before leaving the present and its accompanying card in her hands. Kairi grimaced at the hug and shot Sora a look, to which he returned with an amused shrug. Kairi took another sip from her margarita and began to read the card's front aloud. It had an elderly woman on the front.

"Take every birthday with a grain of salt." She flipped the card open, and there was the same picture of the woman, only extended to reveal her holding a margarita glass with a lime-green liquid on the inside. "This works much better if the salt is accompanying a margarita."

Kairi snorted in amusement and glanced at the card, and the margarita in her hand, while everyone else howled in laughter at the situational perfectness of the card. She looked to both her father and her mother, the margarita, the card, and her parents again. "You two planned this, didn't you?" Guilty smiles and nods answered her, and Kairi couldn't help but smile and raise her glass towards them before having another sip. What could she say? The margaritas had grown on her.

Either that or she was progressively growing more drunk from the so-called 'practically virgin' drinks and had simply ceased caring.

Her present turned out to be an e-reader, already out of its packaging and fully charged. Intrigued, Kairi turned it on, and she gasped in excitement when she discovered that at least thirty of her favourite books and book series were already ported onto the device. Ignoring her own decree to Sora, she leapt to her feet and hugged her father tightly in gratitude. No longer would she be eternally bored on the _Kingdom_ while they travelled between worlds or while she recovered from injuries sustained in battle, as she now had her books to read!

Jonathan chuckled slightly in the embrace and patted his girl on the head. "You're very welcome, Kairi." She nodded her head and returned to her rock to place the present down.

"And this one is from me," Melissa appeared by Kairi's side. She set down a flat, square parcel in her daughter's lap. Kairi let out a small grunt of surprise at the weight of the parcel. It certainly didn't look as heavy as it felt. Eager to find out why, Kairi lifted the lid off and peered inside.

Snugly nestled inside the walls of the parcel was a thick, leather bound book. A pair of elegantly designed golden forks were inlayed on the front cover. The gold seemed to shine of its own accord, illuminating the dark space around the book.

"Hang on." Kairi recognized this book. She had seen it countless times growing up whenever she helped her mother in the kitchen. "Mom, isn't this your recipe book?" Melissa smiled at her daughter and pulled her into a hug.

"Not anymore," she said. "I'm passing it on to you. That book has been in our family since your great-grandmother first wrote in it. It's been passed down, mother to daughter ever since. The women in our family have always had an adventurous streak in them during their youth, something I've noticed that you picked up from me as well. This book has been all over our world and is filled with so many wonderful recipes." Melissa let out a small laugh. "I even used this book to open up the restaurant. But, I think it's seen enough of our world. I want you to take it out to the stars and fill it with new and exciting recipes. Don't worry about running out of room to write, it's enchanted to always have however many pages you need. And maybe one day, you'll pass it on to your daughter as well."

Kairi moved the book off to the side and wrapped her arms around her mother squeezing her tightly. "Thanks, Mom. I'll take really good care of it."

When she turned back toward the others, she found herself face to face with Richard. The warlock was leaning over her, so close the she actually realized just how white his skin was.

"For you." He held out a hand toward her. Resting in his palm was a ruby, carved in the shape of a fireball. Magical energy within the gem danced and flickered, giving it a sense of realism.

"Oh, wow." Kairi was taken aback. This was the first normal thing she had seen Richard do so far. "It's beautiful, Richard. Thank you."

"But of course." Kairi assumed the warlock was smiling, if the way his eye's moved were any indication. "Just point it at your enemies and let the ruby do its work."

"Say what?" Kairi blinked in confusion.

"The Ruby of Fwoosh!" Richard cackled. "There's nothing its flames can't burn! It even burns fire!"

"It burns... fire?" Kairi deadpanned. "Isn't that redundant?"

"Clearly you've never seen fire burn." Richard strode away from her, happily seeking out additional food from the remaining selection. Everyone else watched him in silence, unsure of how to respond to the warlock's eccentricities.

"Okay then," Kairi gently placed the Ruby of Fwoosh! down _carefully_ next to the rapidly growing pile of gifts she had received. "Who's next?"

"I guess I will be," said Naminé. She reached into one of her pockets of her Khaki shorts and withdrew what looked to be a piece of paper. Naminé gave it to Kairi, and the birthday girl looked at the delicately written note. Naminé's cursive was really impressive.

_IOU one all expenses-paid-by-me day at the spa! Love, Naminé. Happy B-Day sister!_

"Okay," Kairi said, leaning back with a grin dominating her face after Richard's strange gift, "_this_ is awesome Naminé. I'll be sure to take you up on it."

"Just not right now," Naminé said sheepishly. "I don't quite have the munny I need for it yet."

"What is it?" Nanaki asked.

"What does the note say?" added Olette. Kairi waved it in front of them, but it was near impossible for them to make out the writing at a distance.

"A day at the spa, courtesy of Naminé," she declared cheerily. Kairi gave Naminé an evil grin. "And I don't plan on letting her back out of it later."

"Why would I?" Naminé asked with a giggle. "It's not just for you, it's for me too. Spa date! Boo-yah!" Kairi nodded and placed the note in her purse.

"And this one is from me," Roxas said. He tossed Kairi a small package wrapped in black and white checkerboard paper. The box nearly slipped out of Kairi's grip as she tried to find where the paper had been folded. To her surprise, she found that every fold was covered in tape.

"Looks like someone got a little tape-happy," Riku said with a laugh.

"What do you expect from a guy who's never handled the stuff before?" Roxas retorted. "It's a miracle I even got the paper on at all."

Kairi giggled as she continued to fumble with the package. "It's alright, Roxas. I like a challenge." Roxas responded by sticking his tongue out at her. Finally finding a weak point in the gift's defense, Kairi attacked it with a swift slice from her nail. The paper fell away from the box inside neatly as Kairi took the lid off of the box.

Nestled on a bed of packing foam was what appeared to be a green-handled pocket knife, decorated with a white circle that had a small black block hammer in its center. Kairi's eyes widened at the sight. Alatori utility knives were hard to come by away from their shores.

"Where'd you get your hands on that?" David asked, leaning in for a better look. "I've only seen them outside of Alator twice!" Kairi removed the knife from its box, turning it over in her hand as she examined it.

"I met a guy." Roxas gave a small shrug. "I figured Kairi could use something with a bit of practicality."

"Since when do you think of 'practicality'?" Sora asked with a smirk.

"It doesn't matter," Kairi said, giving Roxas a hug before he had the chance to escape her. "Thanks, Roxas."

"What was that about anti-hug duty?" Sora asked.

"Shush. That was only for other people giving me hugs," Kairi told him. Selphie started to fidget next to her, and Kairi turned her head towards her best friend with a suspicious look. "Oh? Does this mean that you're giving me my present now, Selphie?

"You bet!" declared the brunette. She handed Kairi a box, wrapped in banana-yellow and red. "Happy birthday, Kairi." She continued to speak as Kairi worked at unwrapping the present. "I actually got it a long time ago, thinking that you and Sora still wouldn't be an item by now, so it was supposed to help give you that extra 'push' to get you and him together, but..." she waved her hand in the air in a dismissive gesture, "oh well."

"Now I'm intrigued," Kairi said, tossing aside the wrapping paper and looking for where the cardboard box opened. She flipped up the lid and pulled out a bottle that looked like it contained about 250mL of liquid, with a push-spritz top screwed on. The bottle itself was clear and colourless, but the liquid inside was a light rose pink colour. The label read 'Irresistible' with red hearts over the 'i's. "Um, Selphie, what exactly is this? Did you get me perfume?"

"_Perfume of Attraction_," Selphie said knowledgeably with a finger pointed in the air. "When worn, for twenty-four hours the person who sprays it on becomes more attractive to a single person of their choosing."

"So you were planning on using some kind of mind-compulsion love perfume to make Sora and Kairi hook up?" Riku asked. He grinned. "That's devious."

"Well..." Selphie sighed, "if they were still beating around the bush by now they would have needed a drastic measure like this to kick them into gear."

"I think we were fine when it came to drastic measures," Sora said defensively, "especially since Master Xanthos had to practically beat me to death before asking me if I had any regrets for it to happen."

Selphie leaned forward, eyes half-lidded in annoyance. "Really? It took a dumb near-death experience by a guy who's really a friend in order to hook you two up? Seriously? Couldn't you have at least waited the month for Kairi to mind-control you into it with this instead of being that dumb and clueless?"

"Yeah," Roxas chimed in. "It's like you guys were in the plot of a poorly written romance slash adventure story."

"It's not _my_ fault that Xanthos beat the crap out of me, okay! Can we just get over it? Kairi and I are together now and happy with the result. Let's move on." Selphie scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Fine...I hope you put that perfume to good use, Kairi."

"Oh, I probably will," she replied. "Thanks Selphie."

"I have a gift for you as well." Kairi looked around as Nikki's voice reached her. "Though we've known each other for less than a day, I hope you'll accept it. I'm sorry for not having time to wrap it." She held her hands out to Kairi, offering her what appeared to be a fairly large blanket made up of countless red and gold feathers that had been woven together.

"Oh wow." Kairi exclaimed breathlessly, taken by surprise at the beauty of the blanket. The feathers caught every tiny bit of light and seemed to glow as if they were ablaze as Kairi took hold of the blanket. It even felt unnaturally warm.

"This is a Phoenix Down," Nikki explained. "It can heal any wound, regardless of how terrible or life-threatening it is. It can even bring the dead back to life as long as they've only been so for under ten minutes. Since phoenixes rarely give up their down feathers to make these, Phoenix Downs are incredibly rare. Use it only as a last resort, because it's only good for one use."

"Thank you, Nikki. I will." Kairi got to her feet, stumbling slightly as she stood to embrace her new friend. Sora got up from his rock and Kairi looked at him. "Where are you off to?"

"I'm thirsty, so I'm getting another drink." Kairi shrugged at his response and went to sit back down, placing the Phoenix Down atop the pile of presents.

"Tidus, how about now, man?" Wakka asked. Tidus clapped his hands.

"Alright, we'll do it now." He nodded, and quickly grabbed a parcel beside him. "Kairi, this is from me and Wakka. Happy birthday." What he handed her was something soft and squishy, wrapped up in brown paper and tied together with a string. It immediately made Kairi think 'clothes' just from the feel of it.

"Oh boy, let's see what this is," Kairi said. "If I don't like it, I can always exchange it, right?"

Selphie shook her head with a knowing grin. "You're not going to be exchanging this one Kairi, trust me." Sora returned with another melon pop in his hands and Kairi untied the string and unfolded the paper wrapping. She lifted up the garment within, scarcely able to believe her eyes.

Tidus and Wakka had gotten her a cloak. It felt smooth as silk, and the main body of it was coloured the deep and rich tones of an evergreen forest. Trimming the edges was a golden twelve-strand Celtic braid that ran a three-border circuit from shoulder to bottom to shoulder. The cloak's hood was trimmed and lined with white ermine fur, and the clasp about the neck was a golden brooch in the shape of the radiant sun. It was warm to her touch, warmer than the silk by all rights should have been, and the fabric had a faint white glow to it that Kairi could really only tell thanks to the current lighting situation from the eclipse.

"Wow," Kairi whispered.

"You're a princess, yah?" Wakka said. "And Princesses need cloaks, right?

"It's also magic," Tidus added.

"And where did you two manage to get a magic cloak from?" Riku asked skeptically. "Those things cost more munny than what a pair of highschoolers have."

"Know the legend of old Blackbones?" Tidus asked. He nodded at the cloak. "Found it in his lair! Along with a whole bunch of gold and silver coins, a cool dagger, and a piece of topaz."

"You two did not go and fight the ghost of Pirate King Blackbones the Greedy," Sora said. "Nobody is that stupid to try and get anything from any of his chests."

"But they did, I was there," Selphie said earnestly.

"Selphie, I can imagine them concocting this story to make them sound cool, but you're actually going along with it?" Kairi asked.

"Well did you think we were all happy that you, Sora, and Riku got to go across the universe having adventures and battling evil while we stayed behind and went to school and did homework? Leading peaceful and boring lives?" Selphie asked. She waited for an answer.

"Um..." Sora muttered, rubbing the back of his head.

"So we decided to become adventurers so that you guys don't have all the fun," Tidus said. "We're gonna go to all the different islands, checking out ancient ruins, burial grounds, jungle forests, and mapping out the unmapped islands and naming the unnamed ones. We're gonna be famous."

"So where's the other stuff that you said you got?" Riku asked. "The dagger and the gold?"

Tidus began to sweat, and he rubbed his chin awkwardly. "Uh, well, I kinda dropped the dagger while we were running for our lives from Blackbones' ghost and we didn't realize that there was a hole in our bag until after we got back to our boat, so we lost most of the coins, and then had the rest converted into munny and spent it all on a big meal celebrating."

"So you decided to start off becoming big-shots by going and checking out the tomb of the Pirate King? And then telling us that all you have to show for escaping death and dismemberment it is this cloak and maybe a piece of topaz you could have bought from a jewelry store?" Riku asked. "Again, I'm not buying it."

"Fine, be that way!" Wakka retorted. "Just don't ask for us to forgive you when we become more famous than you, yah?"

"But the cloak is magic!" Selphie reminded them quickly. "We just don't know who to ask to find out just how magical it is."

"I still think that we should have sold it," Wakka said. "We might be able to get a better boat or some stuff that we can actually use." Kairi drew the cloak closer to her body.

"You were planning on selling my birthday present?" She gave both boys a look of shame.

"Until I put my foot down and said that they should give it to you for your birthday because there were only three days left and they still hadn't gotten you something," Selphie dramatically sighed in exasperation.

"For shame..." Olette tisked, shaking her head. "Try it on!"

"I should try it on?"

"Yeah, try it on!" Melissa said, readying her camera. "Let's see what you look like in it." Kairi humoured her mother with a smile, and stood up.

"Alright," she said while shaking the cloak out to its full size, "if you insist." She threw the cloak around her shoulders with the fabric fluttering around her, it didn't really feel like it weighed a whole lot either, and then pinned it closed around her neck with the sun-shaped brooch.

Immediately she could feel a change take place as she felt the cloak's inherent magic. She felt absolutely stunning, and it looked as though everyone around her felt the same way with how quickly the mothers' cameras were snapping up pictures. Kairi gave them a winning smile and half-turned while clutching a small portion of the cloak's edge in her left hand. She brought that further to her left to showcase it for the cameras, and there were a few whistles and "Ow!"s called by her friends and family. Kairi almost laughed at how charismatic she suddenly felt, almost as if the cloak itself was whispering to her mind how best to diplomatically achieve what she desired if it was within her capabilities to get it.

"Riku," she purred, "would you be absolutely wonderful and get me some more pineapple, please?"

"Sure," he said with a light shrug and a smile, and he compliantly went to complete her request.

She turned around, and Tidus and Wakka had once more dropped to one knee before her. "We are not worthy, your highness." Once again, she slapped each on the back of the head.

"Oh get up you morons," she laughed. They rose, and she gave both of them a tight hug. "I love it! Thank you!"

_I am never, ever, telling you two what this thing does just by putting it on! Wait, they've probably already worn it a time or two so they already know! Selphie, I love you so much for convincing them to give it to me. I wonder if she was wearing it at the time, or if she...?_

"Selphie, what on earth did you do to convince these knuckleheads to give me this?"

"I told them that they were being idiots if they were just going to sell the cloak instead of at least letting someone put it to use," Selphie answered with a laugh, though Kairi noticed that there was a blush rising to her friend's cheeks.

_Okay,_ Kairi noted, _so it doesn't completely work, it just helps me be better. Still, Selphie's hiding something from me. Oh well, I guess I can let it slide for now if she doesn't want to tell me, but I'll find out eventually._ Riku returned with her pineapple, and Kairi took a piece before sitting back down to the flashes of cameras.

She wasn't going to take the cloak off. Not by a long shot was she taking this thing off except for bathing and bed.

"Hmm..." she muttered, picking up a little bit and looking at it again, "I'm going to need a new wardrobe to go with this."

Selphie gasped. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Kairi?" The birthday girl laughed.

"I think I am, Selphie. Olette, are you thinking what we're thinking?"

"I think I am, Kairi. Nikki are you thinking what we're thinking?"

"I think I'm thinking what you're thinking, Olette, but I'm probably thinking what they're thinking. Kim, are you thinking what we're thinking?"

"I think I am, Nikki. Naminé are you thinking what we're thinking?"

"I think I am, Kim. Nanaki, are you thinking what all of us are thinking?"

"Probably not," Nanaki deadpanned, looking at all of the girls like they'd gone insane.

"That's a shame," Kairi said, "because it's..."

"SHOPPING TIME!"

"Not now it ain't," said Riku. "There's still more presents to open." Kairi snorted in laughter.

"Alright, fine. But after presents it's-"

"Spend munny and treat the boys like pack mules time," Sora interrupted. "We get it." Even he broke into laughter with the rest of the gathering.

Kim chuckled loudly and raised her head to the starry sky. "Welp, can't beat a magic cloak, but here you go anyway, Kairi," she said, handing over a card. It didn't have a funny greeting on it, but it did have a picture of a really cute puppy saying 'Happy Birthday'. Inside was a gift card worth six hundred munny for one of Kairi's favourite book stores.

"Thanks Kim," Kairi said, smiling at the other girl and giving her a quick hug.

Kim blushed a little bit and muttered. "Yeah, no problem. Happy birthday Kairi."

Nanaki was next to give Kairi a gift. She handed the birthday girl what appeared to be a protective case for glasses. When Kairi opened the case, she found a pair of reflective goggles nestled inside, identical to the pair Nanaki never seemed to take off.

"A Providence Visor," the purple-haired teen explained. "This one's pretty standard compared to the high-end ones, but they're still pretty hard to come by. They work well for making it easier to see when it's bright out, and they've got various settings to adjust to certain situations. You know, like night vision, low-level heat detection, stuff like that. They've also got a built in motion tracker. Pretty handy when fighting something you can't see."

After examining them to the best of her ability, Kairi donned the goggles. Immediately, the dim lighting seemed much brighter to her, clearly bringing the world around her into focus. "How do I change the settings?"

"There are a couple small buttons on the sides of both lenses," Nanaki explained. Kairi ran a finger along the edges of the lenses, and found one of them. She pressed down and the world darkened again, while the outlines of her family and friends began to glow various shades of orange and yellow.

"I'm going to have to play around with these later." Kair beamed up at her. "Thanks, Nanaki." Nanaki nodded, a grin spreading across her face.

"Looks good on you, Kairi," Selphie said, giving her best friend an appraising look. "Definitely 'you'."

"Our turn!" Hayner declared, squeezing himself in between Sora and Kairi while ignoring Sora's protests.

"The three of us decided that it would be a good idea to get you something as a group," Pence said. He and Olette sat down in front of the birthday girl. "The only problem was, we couldn't decide on what we were going to get you."

"That's when I came up with the idea to make something for you," Olette explained. "Something that would represent the friendship the four of us share. So, using our friendship as a catalyst, we're going to chase a Keyblade."

"Wait, wait, wait." Kairi held up her hands to stop her three friends from continuing further. "Let's back up a step. You can make a Keyblade?"

"'Chase' a Keyblade," Olette corrected. "And yes I can." She tucked her hair behind her ear, turning so Kairi could see the Chaser earrings Olette wore. "See? I'm a Chaser."

"That's pretty awesome." Kairi grinned at her, more eager now than she had been. "Alright, so what do we need to do?"

"Put a hand out in front of you," Olette instructed. "Then concentrate on our friendship. Try focusing on memories, or emotions you felt." Kairi, Hayner and Pence obeyed their friend. Each of them held out a hand toward the center of their little circle, faces screwed into looks of concentration.

It felt kind of silly to Kairi at first, just holding her hand out in empty space. But she ignored that feeling and instead focused on when she first met the three teens from Twilight Town. She remembered how they had welcomed her (a complete stranger that had popped out of a magical hole in the wall) into their group of friends. She remembered how they offered to help her find Sora.

She remembered the warmth in her heart when Olette had offered her a place to stay. The gratefulness she had felt when Hayner and Pence offered to find her a job to keep busy and to even loan her camping supplies should she have left to journey out on her own. And of course, the moment when Axel found her and took her away, when the three of them were willing to fight for her sake. The moment when her heart knew that the four of them were friends.

An orb of white light formed in the center of their hands, rapidly expanding until it touched each of their palms. A smile formed on Olette's face as she plunged both of her hands into the orb. "Alright. Here we go. Just keep concentrating on what I told you."

Olette's smile vanished, replaced by a look of complete concentration, as if she had tuned out the entire world. She didn't even wince as a burst of fire briefly surrounded the orb of light, traveling from the bottom hemisphere to the top in the blink of an eye. Electricity danced across the orb's surface, running a circuit around the circumference. Over and over again.

"Chasing Lightsteel," Olette muttered. The orb changed colors, turning from white to a shade of deep silver. The muscles in her arms twitched as though she were grabbing hold of something. "Heat metal." Silver gave way to a brilliant orange. Kairi winced at the sudden change in the light's intensity in the darkened park.

"Pour, then cool." Orange shifted to sky blue, allowing no relief for the eyes of the onlookers.

"Now fold. Fold. Fold. Fold. Fold. Fold." With each 'Fold' the light shifted slowly back to a dim silver. "Shape metal." The orb briefly changed into a multi-faceted diamond, lasting only for a few seconds before its sides expanded back into orb shape. Olette slowly drew her arms apart, spreading them out until there was at least three and a half feet of distance between her palms. As she did so, the orb changed it's shape into a narrow cylinder.

"Water quenching." The rod of light briefly glowed with an ocean blue light before it was quickly replaced by an emerald green shade. "Small ratio Chasing. Accumulation Chasing. Chase core Lightsteel. Chase skin Lightsteel."

Olette gripped one end of the rod in her left hand, while her right slowly traced a line down from the opposite end. "Shaping the teeth. Shaping the blade." Under her hands, the rod began to flatten out and expand where the blade would be, while the teeth expanded even further.

"Heat with fire and merge with catalyst." The light turned bright red. A small shock ran through Kairi's body, eliciting a small gasp of pain from her. From the gasps she heard from Hayner and Pence, she assumed they both had also felt the same thing she did. "Cool with water." Red gave way to ocean blue.

Olette looked up from her work and smiled at her three friends. "You guys can put your arms down now." Kairi giggled as Hayner and Pence both gave exaggerated groans of relief. Olette rolled her eyes at them and gave Kairi a small wink. "Almost done! Just a few more steps to go."

Kairi beamed back at her. "I can't wait!"

With a grin, Olette turned her attention to the partially completed weapon in her hands once more. "Apply coating." The light shifted to a deep, royal purple as sparks danced along the length of the blade. "Rough polish. Fine polish. Sharpening blade. Coarse sharpening. Gentle sharpening. Fine Sharpening. Finer sharpening." With each step, the purple color of the light became steadily lighter until it was almost a shade of periwinkle. "Jido finishing. Hearne finishing. Final sharpening. Final polish."

The blade instantly changed to a stunning white and began to shine even brighter, practically blinding everyone in the process. "Release!" The light burst outward like shattered glass in an explosion, quickly fading to thousands of twinkling lights.

Kairi had to blink several times to get her eyes to adjust to the dimness of the park once more. when she did, she found the hilt of the newly chased Keyblade being offered to her. The guard was in the shape of an oval, with the top half looking like a palm tree and the bottom the colour of the sands of Destiny Islands' beaches. At the joining of the two was the white foam of a cresting wave that began the blade. It sharply shifted into blue, and then transitioned back to sea-foam white before becoming the golden-red of sunset from the middle on until the tip. The key was composed of three bronze dome-shaped bells, with one standing on top of the other two leaving an upside-down triangle-shaped hole in the middle. The two bells along the base emerged from the blade on a sea of small red stars set in a golden wave, and each of the three bells had at least one of the stars on it somewhere.

Olette examined the blade for a moment checking for any flaws. Satisfied with her handiwork, she flipped the blade over, allowing the flat of it to rest in her palms while offering Kairi the hilt. The birthday girl accepted it graciously, letting out a low whistle as her eyes roamed over the details of her new weapon. The weapon's name filled her mind as she took it in her hand. _Ocean's Toll_.

"This is amazing, Olette!" she exclaimed. She stood up and gave the Keyblade a few swings to test its balance, and each time she came to the end of her swing she could _just_ hear a bell tolling, deep and low, from the key. "That's one heck of a talent!"

"Thanks," Olette said with a grin. "I can't take all of the credit though. The stronger the catalyst used in the chasing, the better the Keyblade. And the friendship the four of us share certainly makes one beautiful weapon."

"No argument there," Hayner laughed. "Just look at that sucker!"

A giggle escaped Kairi's lips. "Thanks, you guys!" She bent down and quickly gave Hayner and Pence each a hug. When she turned to Olette, however, she discovered that the Chaser had already gotten to her feet and was making a beeline for the restroom. "Olette?"

The brunette stopped in her tracks and threw a look back over her shoulder. "Don't mind me," she said, waving her hand dismissively, "I'm just going to go splash some water on my face. Chasing Keyblades can take a lot out of you." While the others all expressed their understanding, Kairi remained silent. She saw the beads of pained sweat that dotted Olette's brow and the way she held her wrist. She remembered the last time she had seen a Keyblade chased and put the pieces together.

"Hey, I'll come with you," Kairi said, getting to her feet and quickly jogging to her friend's side. "You don't mind a little company, do you?"

"Why do girls always do this?" Roxas stood up and asked at large. He was met with an assortment of shrugs from the males, and Naminé grabbed him by the collar and had him sit down again.

"I- uh- um- er... Sure. Why not?" Olette stammered. Before she had a chance to change her mind, she found herself dragged quickly inside the restroom by the birthday girl. "Kairi, what-"

"How bad is it?" The redhead interjected.

"How bad is what?" Olette asked, but her voice was wavering and facial muscles were twitching. Kairi could see the clenching in her neck.

"Don't pull that with me," she said, crossing her arms and fixing Olette with a narrowed stare. "I saw what happened when Xanthos chased a Keyblade. Where'd the scar form?"

Sighing in defeat, and doing her best to not cry out in pain, Olette held up her left arm. A silver-toned, x-shaped scar had appeared across the back of her wrist. Kairi shot her a sympathetic look.

"Why are you trying to hide it?" She asked gently. "It's a part of the process, right? It's not something to be ashamed of."

"I'm not ashamed!" Kairi was taken aback by the forcefulness of Olette's words, even though tears of pain were running down her cheeks at this point. "It's just... I don't want Hayner to know... He has a tendency to be overprotective of his friends and he-HNNGGG-overreacts a lot over little things like this. If he knew that chasing did this to me..." A gasp of pain escaped her lips as she slumped against the restroom wall.

"He'll find out sooner or later," Kairi pointed out, in as gentle a tone as she could manage. She placed a comforting hand on Olette's shoulder. "Probably sooner since you two are traveling together."

"I know. I -GAH- I know..." Olette grimaced. She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. "I'm not doing a very good job of handling this, am I?"

"Probably better than some." Kairi half-smiled at her. The two of them were quiet for a moment. Olette stared blankly at the cracked tile walls of the restroom while Kairi watched her facial expressions carefully.

"The pain's died down a bit." Olette glanced at her new scar, grimacing at the sight. "It's more of a dull throb now."

"Is it always supposed to be this bad?" Kairi asked, helping Olette straighten up. The brunette shook her head.

"According to Master Xanthos, my body'll get used to it with practice." She glanced down at her scar again. "I just have to chase Keyblades whenever I can find a new catalyst. I want to try and chase one for every world I go to."

"But, won't that leave you covered in these scars?" Kairi raised her brow as Olette strode to a sink and began running water into it. "I caught a glimpse of Xanthos. Even his face is scarred."

"I can't really say." Olette's voice was slightly distorted as she splashed her face a few times. "The scars can overlap each other. So there's the possibility that they won't cover my whole body and leave me looking deformed. Master Xanthos didn't really go into much detail about it."

Kairi offered Olette a small stack of paper towels to dry herself off with. Olette murmured her thanks and quickly buried her face into the towels.

"So, I take it you still won't be telling Hayner about the scarring?" Kairi asked, glancing at her reflection briefly to admire her new cloak in (somewhat) better lighting. She flipped up the hood for a few seconds and whispered, "Ooh, I look nice!" to herself under her breath.

"I won't really have a choice once he see's this in the light, will I?" Olette held up her wrist for emphasis and let out a groan. "You know what? Enough of my problems. You still have gifts to receive and a birthday to enjoy. We can always talk later."

"That's true." Kairi flipped the hood back down, turned, and beamed at Olette, who was finally smiling again and showing a little more color in her cheeks. "We've got plenty of time to catch up now that I'm not running the risk of being kidnapped."

No sooner had the words left Kairi's tongue then a portal of Darkness opened up less than three feet from the two Wielders.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me," Kairi growled. "On today? Really?" Ocean's Toll flashed into existence at the same time the No Name appeared in Olette's grip.

"Let's make this quick," Olette said with a smirk. "Like I said, you've still got gifts and a party out there. We've been in here long enough."

"Then let's put down whoever's after us and get outta here." Kairi smirked. What neither of them were prepared for was the person who stepped out of the swirling black and purple portal.

"This isn't a park," Axel realized as the portal vanished behind him. "I could've sworn... I'm not that out of practice, am I?" He let out a groan of frustration as he took in his surroundings.

His body tensed up as he caught sight of the the two girls occupying the restroom. For a moment, the three of them simply stared at one another. Then a grin broke across Axel's face.

"Well, at least I got the right place," he laughed.

Kairi stood stock still for a moment, her mind briefly flashing back to when she first met Axel. To the moment he tried to kidnap her and to the fear she had felt, even if it had only lasted briefly. So, Kairi did the only thing that seemed natural when facing down her former kidnapper: she screamed.

_-LD-_

"And then they made me their chief," Roxas finished proudly. Hayner and Pence both let out impressed whistles. Sora fought back a snort of laughter.

"That is nowhere near close to what happened." Naminé rolled her eyes at Roxas' 'story'. "They trapped us in bone cages and dangled us over a cliff so we could wait to be eaten alive. We barely made it out of there with our lives."

"True. But my story's more interesting," Roxas said defensively.

"You were still part of Sora! You wouldn't have felt anything!"

"That doesn't mean that I wouldn't be dead."

"But the point is-" Unfortunately, Naminé never had the chance to reiterate her point. At that moment, one of the walls to the women's restroom was blown apart, scattering ruined chunks of brick and mortar out across the field.

"Holy...shit..." Riku said, staring at the blast site.

"Kairi was in there," Sora said slowly, his eyes slowly widening.

"And Olette..." Pence added.

Silence lasted for another second before the shock wore off, and a number of voices all began shouting, "Kairi!" and "Olette!" simultaneously. Several Keyblades were summoned into their wielders' hands, just in case, as nearly the entire group ran for the restrooms.

An unidentifiable figure was thrown bodily from the cloud of dust left in the explosion's wake, barreling into Roxas, Hayner and Pence in the process. The others slid to a halt and glanced back to try and identify the assailant. The three victims and the person that had knocked them over all let out groans of pain and annoyance as they quickly shook off their sudden disorientation.

"Okay, running with my sword is a bad idea," Hayner hissed as he clutched at the wound his own weapon had left in his upper leg.

"I think I hit my head on something." Roxas winced as he felt a goose-egg forming under his scalp.

"You did," Pence confirmed. "Mine."

"Did anyone get the license plate number of the princess that hit me?" Axel grumbled as he crawled away from the human dog-pile he had created when he had crashed into the three teens.

Roxas did a double take as he realized what had just happened. "Wait. What? Axel?!"

"Hey, Roxas!" Axel grinned at his best friend. "Long time no see."

"Are you the one that blew up the restroom?" Hayner growled, fixing Axel with as menacing a glare as he could manage in the dim light, and given that he was wincing in pain.

"Not this time." The former Nobody pointed at the ruins of the restroom. "It was her."

Now that the dust had settled, everyone could clearly see Kairi charging toward them. Ocean's Toll was clutched tightly in her hands and wreathed in brightly burning flames. Directly on her heels was Olette, shouting at Kairi and doing her best to get the red-head to stop her assault. However, her protests seemed to fall on deaf ears.

"Will someone please stop her from killing me?" Axel asked quickly. "If I try to defend myself, she might just keep attacking!"

"I've got this," Sora said, dismissing his Keyblade. He stepped into Kairi's path, serving as an ineffective wall between her and her intended target. Kairi, however, showed no signs of slowing down.

She raised her eyebrows at her boyfriend as the distance between them rapidly vanished. Sora's confident grin slowly began to slip away as the distance between the two decreased. "Uh...Kairi?"

"Outta my way, Sora! I'm gonna pummel him into dust!"

"Ooh, Kairi's gotten herself into a scrap!" Richard squealed with glee. "This should be entertaining; I've never seen her fight before. Make sure you go for the jugular! It's much more satisfying with the way all of their blood shoots out!"

"Thanks for the tip!" Kairi called out. Sora adjusted his stance, readying himself to stop Kairi before she could make it past him. Fortunately, he didn't have to.

Nanaki stepped in between Sora and Kairi, hand outstretched and a smug smirk on her face. "Drift." With a quick snap of her fingers, a large orb of purple and black swirling energy surrounded Kairi and lifted her off of her feet.

"What the-?" Kairi's anger was replaced by confusion as she suddenly found herself staring down at the ground as Nanaki's zero gravity spell spun her around in the air. "Not funny, Nanaki. Put me down!"

"Yes! Let her explore her hidden violent nature! It's so much fun!" Richard added from the sidelines.

"You're not helping!" Olette shouted as she finally caught up to Kairi. "Kairi, listen to me. Axel's on our side. He's a good guy."

"I know that," Kairi grumbled. "But he still kidnapped me. Don't you think that deserves a beating?"

"Hey, you already beat down Xemnas and the Superior is the one who ordered it in the first place," Axel pleaded. "Besides, I helped your boyfriend here get there in order to rescue you, got it memorized? Don't I get a little credit?"

"I wasn't going to kill you. I think that counts as giving you credit." Kairi shrugged.

"That's a disappointment," Richard grumbled. "I've lost interest." He shoved his hands into his robe's pockets and shuffled off to the food table to kill a little more tuna, kicking a stone as he went. He paused, and turned around. "Has anyone seen my fork?"

"Your what?" Nikki asked.

"My fork," Richard repeated, looking through his robes and around him on the ground in a quick circle. "My Fork of Truth. I never go anywhere without it or my pillaging shovel. Or my bear arms!" He smiled and produced the arms of a bear out from his robes, holding each claw by the protruding bone of the shoulder joint.

"Those don't look like a Fork of Truth."

"Derrr." Richard fixed her with a deadpan stare. "These are my bear arms."

"Richard! Maul Axel with your bear arms! You'll be my best friend forever!" Kairi called out.

"I have no idea what's happening anymore, but I respect your attitude and willingness to maul another living being." Richard wiped a tear of happiness from the corner of his eye. "I'm so happy, I'll maul him for free!"

"What? Hey, no mauling! No mauling!" Axel shouted, scrambling away from the warlock advancing on him. "Roxas, get him to back off!"

"Get him to back off?" Roxas asked incredulously as Richard stalked forward menacingly with the severed bear arms held high and Kairi still floating in the anti-gravity ring. "I couldn't even get him to stop cheating at poker while Sora and Nanaki were on Padosoan. What makes you think that I can get him to stop?"

"Dad," Riku asked with an amused smile adorning his face, "are you and Mom getting pictures of this? This birthday's got to go on record."

"Kairi!" berated Selphie. "_I'm _your BFF!"

"You could at least try!" Axel snapped at Roxas. "Come on, Kairi, call off your attack dog!"

"Richard, no mauling," Naminé said, pressing one hand against the warlock's chest to stop his advance. "Kairi, I understand that Axel kidnapped you, but he saved Sora's life, he kept me safe from Marluxia and the Organization, and he..." Naminé paused and looked at Axel with a frown built from confusion on her face. "What other good stuff have you done?"

"I fixed the power at Alliance HQ!" Axel screamed, ducking underneath the claws of the right bear arm that Richard threw when Naminé turned her attention away from the warlock. "And nearly died doing it! And I helped with the evacuation of Twilight Town, got it memorized?"

"Okay, I guess," Kairi muttered while her hands went to the edges of her cloak and wrapped them around her body to prevent anyone from looking up her skirt as the anti-gravity spell sent her on a slow spin towards being upside-down. "Why did you specifically mention Marluxia?" she asked.

"Because he was a total jerkass creepo lolicon perv," Naminé answered. She shuddered. "If he didn't have Larxene giving him head I'm sure he would have-"

"There's a mental image I could've lived the rest of my life without having," Roxas muttered.

"Hey what about me?" Axel shot off. "You never went to Castle Oblivion. I'm the idiot who was there and walked in on her doing that! I don't need a mental image, it's scarred into my brain, along with this one across my chest!"

"Stop moving so much." Richard growled, still trying to hit Axel with his remaining bear arm. "It makes you harder to hit."

"That's kind of the point!" Axel snapped at him.

"Richard, stop it!" Naminé snapped. The warlock stopped in mid-swing, though interestingly enough he _had_ halted his advance when Naminé placed her hand to his chest.

"But... mauling!" Richard stuttered.

"No!"

The warlock hung his head in dejection. "Fine..." he grumbled.

"Getting kind of dizzy here." Kairi's face was starting to turn a little green from all of the spinning caused by the Zero Gravity spell. "Put me down now, please."

"Only if you aren't going to attack Axel as soon as Nanaki lets you down." Melissa said as she finally caught up to the group of teens. "He's already apologized and he's clearly not here to kidnap you again. So just make amends and move on. You've still got a party going on, you know."

A groan of defeat escaped Kairi's throat. "Fine. Axel, I'm sorry that I tried to attack you and had Richard try and maul you."

"Does the 'best friend forever' offer still stand even if I didn't maul him?" Richard chimed in.

"I forgive you for kidnapping me," Kairi went on, ignoring the warlock.

"So… we're cool?" Axel asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, we're cool." Kairi winced as she finished yet another rotation. "Nanaki? Could you put me down before I start seeing today's food again?"

"Sure thing." Nanaki snapped her fingers and the Zero Gravity spell dissipated. Kairi let out a small cry of shock as she plummeted into Sora, whose arms were in place at just the right moment.

"Listen, about the whole 'kidnapping you so I could turn Sora into a Heartless and get my best friend back' thing…" Axel rubbed the back of his head with a free hand, doing his best to ignore the awkwardness that hung in the air after Kairi's outburst at him. "I'm going to try and find a way to make it up to you. It's only fair, after all."

"Axel, I already forgave you," Kairi deadpanned.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. But it doesn't feel right otherwise." Axel gave her a semi-apologetic grin.

"If you're going to insist, then go right ahead," Kairi said. "What do you plan to do?"

"I'm not really sure, to be honest." Axel lowered his hand and stared at it silently for a few seconds. "I don't think there's a protocol for how kidnappers are supposed to make it up to the kidnap-ees. And I _really_ doubt that Hallmark has a card to cover this sort of thing."

"Probably not," Roxas said, clapping Axel on the back. "You could always just hang around with us until you come up with something, you know?"

"Yeah, we're definitely going to need to get a bigger ship," Sora added in an undertone to Kairi. She responded by rolling her eyes at him, even though she knew he was right.

"Oh! I almost forgot!"Axel said suddenly. The others all glanced at him in confusion as he produced a small silver charm from his pocket and tossed it to Kairi. "Happy birthday!"

Kairi caught the charm in one hand and gave it an appraising look. In the heart of the charm was the image of three katana, two crossed into an 'x' shape with the third intersecting down the middle of the other two. "A summon charm?"

"Figured you'd get better use out of it than me," Axel said dismissively. "I usually run solo. Except when I'm workin' with my good buddy Roxas, of course!" Using his reach to his advantage and grinning widely, he wrapped his arm around Roxas' neck and put him into a light headlock while his free hand tousled the blond's hair.

"Thanks, Axel." Kairi pocketed the charm and finally smiled at her once-kidnapper.

Jonathan sighed as he came up next to his daughter. He placed his hands on his hips and looked forward, shaking his head. "Kairi, how are we going to explain this?" he asked, gesturing at the half blown-up public restroom.

"Gas leak?" Olette suggested.

"Psychotic, undead, pyromaniac warlock on the loose?" Roxas tossed in. Richard crossed his arms.

"You know, I resent that remark," declared said warlock. "I'm not on the loose and I'm not a pyromaniac."

"Fwoosh?" Roxas asked.

"Fwoosh is just one of many ways of killing," Richard clarified. "I also like freezing things to death and stabbing their necks and ripping faces, and animating their skeletons to rip their way out of their flesh. Fwoosh just makes it better with the scent of them cooking alive."

"Burrowing rodents?" Kairi asked, trying to ignore Richard and Roxas. Jonathan gave her an unamused look. "Uh..."

"It was structurally unsound and needed a remodel anyway," Axel said breezily. "You should have seen the graffiti on the stalls. In fact, you still can. There are some pieces scattered around. Don't worry, the Alliance will pay for the damages to build you a new one."

"Dear, just go with the gas leak," Melissa said. "It'll be much easier than trying to explain that your daughters are magic knights and one of them freaked out when her ex-kidnapper showed up out of a dark portal and she blasted away half the building." Jonathan sighed audibly once more.

"Ah...we'll deal with this tomorrow. The festival's still going on and, more importantly, your party's not over yet." Jonathan slowly smiled again and looked around. "Hey, someone give Kairi her margarita back and David, pour me a scotch!"

"We didn't bring scotch!"

"Le gasp! We didn't bring the scotch? Then give me the rum, or rye, I'm not picky! And give Sora and Riku some rum too."

"Jonathan!" Melissa scolded.

He raised his hands in self-defence. "I'm not working today and," he directed his hand towards the area of the giant hole in the wall of the women's restroom, "I want a drink."

"Not about that," Melissa said. "You can't just tell David to give his kid and Sora alcohol."

"Hypocritical mother," Kairi said with a quick circular bobble of her head as she was handed back her margarita glass, half-full, and took another sip.

"I'm fine with Sora having something," Allison commented with a shrug. "And Roxas, too." Sora looked at his mother in stunned wonder.

"Seriously?" he asked, hopeful.

"Knock yourself out," Allison replied with an evil grin, and she privately wondered whether or not Sora would retain his mental faculties enough to prevent him from doing just that.

"But what about that half-hour lecture that you gave us last night about responsibility and 'would-it-kill-you-to-let-your-mother-know-that-yo u're-home-personally-instead-of-leaving-it-to-Kair i's-Mom-all-the-time'?" Sora asked.

"You won't learn to be responsible with your booze unless you know how much you can take," Allison gave her son a sagely warning. "Go on," she said kindly, giving him a light push. "It's your girlfriend's birthday and there are responsible adults here watching over you kids. Have some fun."

Sora gave her a quick hug. "Thanks Mom!" He let go and turned towards David. "I'll take the rum, mixed in with some of the melon pop!"

As Sora turned away, Kairi saw her father's guard come up close. "I think I'll keep close tah ye, sir," said Bael Stoutiron. He nodded at the hole in the washroom.

Jonathan sighed. "Yes, that might be a good idea, even though we don't expect any more incidents. Thank you, Bael."

"At yer service," said the guard with a nod of his now steel-capped head. He had his spear in hand and his shield slung over his back. Kairi again took note of the bearded axe tucked into his belt. She took another sip of her margarita, and returned to the rock that was being dusted off by Wakka.

"Your throne, Your Highness," he said with an exaggerated sweeping arm gesture and bow. Deciding to humour him, just this once, Kairi paused and inclined her head while giving him a soft smile.

"Thank you, my lord Wakka." She extended her free hand towards him. "Please, attend to me." Wakka bowed slightly and took the offered hand, and they sat down.

Sora returned, and looked between Kairi and Wakka with 'what the fuck' written all over his face. "Wakka, you're in my seat."

"Oh no," Kairi replied hautily. "Lord Wakka, Earl of the Ginger Ward, will be sitting beside me for a moment, and Riku, my valiant Lord Protector of the Realm, will you deign to sit with us as well?" Riku stopped, took a sip from the drink his father had given him, and then graced the heiress of House Brightheart with a wry smile. He clutched his fist to his chest in the salute of Destiny Islands and bowed his head.

"At your command, my liege," Riku answered, and sat on the rock at Kairi's left hand.

"Lady Selphie, Duchess of Exin Plaza, would you please inform our guests that I shall resume holding court now and am ready to receive the remaining tribute."

Selphie, though surprised at the sudden change of proceedings, looked at Kairi and laughed at how queenly she appeared, sitting on a rock in a clashing cloak and dress with a pair of goggles strapped around her neck. Selphie began to address the gathered company. "Her Highness, Kairi Melinda Brightheart-"

"Your middle name is Melinda?" giggled Nanaki, while Nikki and Olette each covered up snorts.

"-will now be receiving the rest of her presents. If you have yet to present her with a gift for this, her most esteemed sixteenth birthday, step forward now, cough-Sora-cough, or face my wrath."

"You might want to get your throat looked at, Selph," Sora said. "That can't be healthy."

"Well I know that I wouldn't dare face the wrath of the shopping fiend Duchess of Exin Plaza," Allison said quickly, faking distress and elbowing her son out of the way. She dropped to her knees before Kairi and extended her gift towards the girl with both hands and a bowed head, actually having fun with the change of pace and enjoying the flashing cameras. "Lady Brightheart, I ask that you accept this humble offering as a token of homage to my future daughter-in-law."

"Mom!" Sora spluttered, his face smashing through three shades of red to reside firmly on the colour plane of fuchsia. Kairi was quite pink in the face herself, but nodded her head.

"Th-thank you," she said with an embarrassed smile, and she took the present, wrapped in green paper with a golden bow stuck onto it, into her hands. It was rectangular in shape, and felt heavier than it looked. Wanting to know what was inside, Kairi quickly tore at the wrapping and found a book underneath. A red leather cover with a tied strap protected the inside from the elements and dust. She had never seen this book before, and her fingers fumbled to undo the wreath knot binding it closed. She couldn't stop the gasp that came from her lips when she opened the book and saw the first page dominated by a picture of her and Sora kissing in the booth at Destiny's a month ago.

A big smile warmed her face as Kairi randomly went through the pages, seeing every one with pictures of herself, Sora, Riku, Selphie, Tidus, Wakka, and other friends of hers from childhood up to the present day.

"This is beautiful, Allison," Kairi whispered, looking up at the woman who was still acting and kneeling before her. Kairi laughed. "Oh stand up and give me a hug."

Allison obeyed the command with gusto, rising and sweeping the girl into a huge hug that lifted Kairi off the ground in one quick motion.

Kairi's feet barely managed to touch the ground again before a hand gripped her shoulder and turned her around. Sora stood there, wearing that goofy grin he always wore that Kairi loved so much about him. He held out his hand to her, his eyes never once leaving hers. Resting in his palm was a small black velvet covered box with a ruby-red ribbon tied around it.

"Just one more," Sora said, placing the box in Kairi's hands before stepping back so everyone else could get a better look. "Happy birthday, Kairi."

"You know that you didn't have to give me anything, right?" Kairi smiled warmly back at her boyfriend.

"And face the hell my mother and Selphie would put me through if I didn't? No thanks," Sora teased. "Just because I don't have to, doesn't mean I'm not going to."

Grinning in anticipation, Kairi made short work of the ribbon tying the box shut and set it aside. She fumbled with the box for a moment when it wouldn't open right away for her, and found a small latch that kept the top down. The latch quickly gave way and the top rose on its own accord.

A sharp intake of breath accompanied Kairi's first sight of the gift. Resting on the satin padding inside the box was a stunning necklace. Even in the dark of the day, Kairi could see it clearly. The metal seemed flawless and was the color of a Destiny Islands sunset. Seven gems were set into charms at even intervals: a diamond, an emerald, a lapis lazuli, a golden topaz, an opal, a ruby, and an amethyst. Unlike the circular charms the other gems were set into, the diamond rested in the heart of a three-pointed crown, the color of rose petals and identical to the pendant Sora always wore.

She was speechless. The craftsmanship of the necklace was phenomenal. There were no tool marks on the gems to signify that they had been cut. The metal used was flawless, as though it had been forged in the earth as it was.

"May I?" Sora offered. Kairi looked up at him, eyes still wide with amazement. She nodded, words of gratitude dying in her throat before she could properly voice them. She handed the necklace back to Sora and turned so that her back was to him, quickly ruffling the hood of her new cloak to ensure that it was down. In a quick, fluid movement, Sora placed the necklace around her neck and fastened it in place. Shivers ran down Kairi's spine as his fingertips brushed the sensitive hairs on the back of her neck, lingering there for just a moment longer than necessary. "There. It looks perfect on you, Kairi."

The birthday girl glanced down at the necklace, admiring the way it shined regardless of how she angled it and the way each stone set into the charms seemed to radiate warmth and comfort into her. "Sora, it's beautiful," she whispered breathlessly.

"Especially on you." Kairi gave him a light shove with her shoulder for the cheesy line. "This necklace is special."

"Oh?"

"It's blessed with ancient magic," Sora explained, wrapping his arm around her as Kairi leaned back against him. Silently, he thanked Naminé for using her skills with memory magic to help him remember what the old woman who had given him the necklace had told him about it. "It's supposed to protect the wearer from Darkness. And each gem is blessed as well.

"The amethyst changes color in the presence of illness, pales near poisoned food or drink, and guides the wearer towards sincerity, security and peace of mind. It's supposed to represent truth.

"The ruby should turn pale when misfortune threatens you. It wards off evil spirits, and can be an antidote to snake venom. It represents joy.

"The opal has the power to give you weak glimpses into the future, and aids with weak sight. It has a special bond with the lapis lazuli and symbolizes hope.

"The topaz can give you some contact with the spirit world, and it strengthens and clears the mind. It symbolizes loyalty.

"The lapis lazuli is a heavenly stone. It wards off many forms of evil. It can lessen the darkness when there is no light. It's the symbol of purity.

"The emerald dulls in the presence of evil and when a vow is broken. It is a remedy for sores and ulcers and is an antidote to poison. It symbolizes honor and is the sister gem to the amethyst.

"And the diamond gives courage, strength and helps the cause of true love. It embodies strength and love."

Sora tightened his arms around Kairi's waist for a moment and whispered "Happy birthday" into her ear. Kairi turned in his arms and embraced him in return before planting her lips on his in a tender kiss.

"I love it," she whispered, ignoring the flashes from the camera in her mother's hands. "Thank you, Sora." Sora smiled back at her and kissed the tip of her nose.

"You're very welcome. And as much as I'd love to keep you here, I don't think it's exactly fair to keep you to myself for the rest of your birthday."

"Aw… You don't want to spend time with me?" Kairi said, pulling away from Sora and giving him the fakest pout anyone could possibly give.

"I never said anything about not spending time with you." Sora gave her a smirk. "I'm just not going to hog all of your attention. Especially since our mothers are right behind you and armed with cameras."

"Say what now?"

Kairi barely managed to register what Sora had said before Melissa and Allison descended upon her like a pair of wolves, both eagerly expressing their desire to get in as many photographs of the birthday girl in her new getup before she could escape to the safety of the remaining hours of the festival. And, Kairi being Kairi, she allowed them to. She let out a series of giggles as she was dragged away by the motherly duo to an area with better lighting, insisting that she take a picture with everyone present at the party. A single thought passed through Kairi's bliss-filled mind: _Definitely the best sixteenth birthday party I could've asked for._

_-LD-_

* * *

_This is the longest chapter in Looming Darkness. Sitting at a whopping 33,855 words! Good lord._

_Once again, I want to express my immense gratitude to **Shire** **Folk**. He's been a pleasure to work with and has really contributed ideas towards several plots I'll be exploring in the near and far future. I'm really looking forward to working with him yet again in chapter thirity-five. And, if you haven't read his work yet, then I strongly suggest you go do so. His stories are well worth the read._

_So, could you figure out which parts were written by whom? Internet muffins to those who get at least five right!_

_I promised a review of Dream Drop Distance a while back. But that'll have to wait until later. M__y boss is staring at me and I can only pretend to type an email for so long. I guess that's my cue to actually release this thing and jump headfirst into the next chapter, huh?_

_Until next time!_

**_Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis._**

**_Shadow Horizons_**


	35. The Cornerstone of Darkness (Part I)

_**WARNING! **__ This chapter contains content in one scene that is definitely not suitable for all viewers. Reader discretion is advised. I understand that the scene in question may make some readers uncomfortable. Please remember that _Daybreak _is rated __**M**__ for 'Mature'. Content such as this may appear from time to time in future. I will include warnings from here on out when necessary. _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or Square Enix. Neither does Shire Folk. If we did, the world would be traumatized._

_Please, stick around after reading for a very important PSA relating to a scene in this chapter._

* * *

**Chapter Thirty Five: The Cornerstone of Darkness (Part I)**

_Saturday, July 3rd, 4794 P.C._

_Destiny Islands_

Bael Stoutiron stood outside of a restroom door in Fatum's city hall, taking a small moment of restful watch while Jonathan did his business inside. Besides the 'gas leak' at the park, the day had passed by pretty quietly for him, just like most days since he'd been assigned guard detail to the mayor. He smiled, though, and chuckled in his throat, remembering Kairi including him in her party for that brief moment when she stopped to give him cake and chat with him for a few minutes.

"Lass finally worked up her courage tah say 'hi'," he chuckled before sighing. "Ah, she's a good lass. Glad she's enjoying her special day. Hm, hope she doesn't cut herself with that dagger before she gets a sheath fer-"

He stopped at the sound of footsteps on the tile floor. There weren't supposed to be many people in today, given the holiday nature of the festival, and even fewer would be coming into this corridor. Bael turned his head and grasped his spear from where it rested against the wall. The man he saw approaching was certainly not one he recognized.

"Who are ye?" Bael demanded, eyeing the sword strapped to the silver-cloaked man's left arm. "State yer business here."

"My business is with the Templar you serve, not with a grunt like you," the man replied, his voice emotionless and dry.

"I have no idea what nonsense yer spouting," Bael answered. "But if yer referring to the mayor, I'm afraid you'll need an appointment."

"I have one," replied the cloaked man, raising the tip of his sword.

Bael glanced back at the door to the restroom. Jonathan was inside, unarmed. On the off chance that this emotionless man got past him...

Slipping his shield onto his arm, Bael kicked the door open and shoved his spear through the portal before whipping back around to face his assailant and drawing his axe. "It's been cancelled. Git lost before ye meet my axe."

_-LD-_

Jonathan Brightheart hummed softly to himself as he washed his hands. Seeing just how far Kairi had come in just a month warmed his heart. Already she looked more confident than he had ever seen her look before, and she carried herself with such pride that, as her father, he couldn't help but feel some it himself.

_It's a good thing Sora is taking good care of her._ He chuckled softly. _After all, it's not like she can rely on her old man to be there._

He stopped as the door suddenly burst open, and Bael's spear was shoved inside. He heard his guard say something, and then the sounds of combat filled his ears. Jonathan quickly grabbed his guard's spear and glanced up at the door when a pained grunt came from beyond the door. There was silence for another few seconds before the door opened once more. A silver-cloaked man stepped into the restroom, casting a barrier spell over the entryway to prevent anyone else from entering or leaving.

The man lowered his hood and stared at Jonathan with a pair of emotionless, golden-tinted eyes. His hair, white as freshly fallen snow, fell down to his shoulders, yet, somehow kept out of his eyes of its own accord. His angular facial structure caught the dim restroom lighting at the right angles to give him a truly terrifying look. Strapped to his left arm was the blade of a sword, its tip bathed in the red of blood.

"Who are you?" Jonathan demanded. "What do you want?"

"And a fine Sun's Shadow Festival to you too, Mayor Brightheart," the man said, his tone flat and void of any emotion. "I am Jevenan. I'm here as a favor to Maleficent, soon to be ruler of all worlds."

"Then you're a fool." Jonathan fell into a fighting stance, raising his left arm to cover his front while holding Bael's spear in his right. "The Realm of Light will never be ruled by someone so corrupted by the Darkness."

Jevenan chuckled mirthlessly. "Who is the bigger fool? The Nobody who has chosen to side with the strongest allies? Or is it the Templar, left to grow old and fat on a backwater world, still believing that the Light is the only true path to follow?"

"You." Jonathan flickered briefly before fading out of existence. Jevenan raised an eyebrow at the display of quickly executed magic. He ducked as he heard the sound of steel slicing through the air toward him, narrowly avoiding the dagger Jonathan had produced from inside his suit jacket.

Jevenan was quick to recover. Without wasting any movement, he spun around and attempted to drive his blade into Jonathan's chest. The Mayor however, was equally quick to react. He stabbed his spear deep into the ground, using it as an anchor before dropping as low as he could.

The Nobody's blade hardly even grazed the top of his scalp. Jevenan's attack had left him wide open for a counter from Jonathan. The Mayor tightened his grip on the spear's haft and spun himself around on it and attempted a slash at Jevenan with the dagger in his left hand. He missed, but his feet crashed heavily into Jevenan, hoisting him into the air and sending him flying into one of the mirrors above the row of sinks.

The Nobody rolled back onto his feet, summoning an identical second blade to his other arm as he did so. He lunged at Jonathan before he had time to react and managed to sink his right blade deep into the Mayor's shoulder. Jonathan let out a howl of pain as Jevenan slowly twisted the blade, worsening the wound.

"And here I was told that the Templars were some of the most skilled combatants in all the worlds. How disappointing," Jevenan said with a sigh.

"You're a Nobody. You can't feel disappointment." Jonathan hissed with pain as he struggled to escape. "Don't kid yourself."

"I suppose you're right." With a grunt of effort, Jonathan swung both of his legs up and kicked Jevenan square in the chest. The Nobody was thrown backwards, smashing one of ceramic sinks and sending a fountain of water into the air. A pale green glow surrounded the wound in the Mayor's shoulder, and in a matter of seconds the flesh was left whole and undamaged. "You want to fight a Templar? Fine. Your funeral."

Jevenan rose to his feet, and held his blades before him in a defensive stance as Jonathan's body was surrounded in a pale light. The light quickly faded, revealing him to be dressed in a tattered, silver cloak. The lower half of his face was concealed by a metal mask that was decorated with a jagged golden line over where his mouth should have been. His eyes were concealed behind an ebony-colored blindfold. Gripped in his hands was a massive broadsword, the blade of which seemed to have been crafted from blue crystal and seemed to have an ever present glow to it. A jagged golden line, identical to the one on his mask ran down the center of the blade, glowing with a pulsating light.

The water pooling on the floor came to life, called forth as Jonathan thrust his hand out at Jevenan. The water coalesced into four orbs that floated freely of their own accord. Spikes formed out of the sides and the orbs were sent flying at the Nobody. Jevenan easily sidestepped the first two, while his blades made short work of the second pair. However, the destruction of the second pair briefly blinded the Nobody as water filled his vision.

Jonathan descended upon the Nobody, swinging his broadsword with astonishing speed in one hand. The crystalline blade sliced through empty air as Jevenan dropped to the ground. The Nobody flipped himself back onto his feet and attempted to run the Mayor through as the momentum of the broadsword caused Jonathan to stumble forward.

"Out of practice are we?" Jevenan taunted, lunging forward. A wall of hard-light flared up between the two combatants, stopping the Nobody's blades inches from Jonathan's back.

"On the contrary," the Mayor said as he turned to face his opponent, "I'm getting warmed up." The barrier shattered, fragments of Light magic blasting toward the Nobody like cannon fire. Jevenan was thrown through the wooden stalls, leaving none of them intact.

"Is that really the best you've got?" The Nobody taunted as the stall debris was blasted away from his body. The tiled floor beneath him cracked and shattered as a pair of thick, barb covered vines sprouted from the ground and lashed out.

One of the vines wrapped itself tightly around Jonathan's ankle but was almost instantly severed with a quick slash from the broadsword. The second vine rose up to the ceiling and slammed down, narrowly missing as the Mayor rolled out of harm's way, instead only ruining the remaining sinks.

The broadsword in Jonathan's hands spun like a blur as the Mayor hacked his way through the vines, closing the distance between him and the Nobody. However, he couldn't see Jevenan behind the wall of writhing vines that had formed behind the two primary ones, and didn't have time to react as the Nobody unleashed his next trick.

Two thorns, twice as long as Jonathan was tall and as hard as steel burst out of the ground and effortlessly tore through the armor protecting the Mayor's legs and straight through both of his knees.

"Son of a-!" Jonathan collapsed, his knees no longer capable of supporting him. He barely hit the floor before another thick vine burst out of tiling and rammed into his chest. The mayor was thrown bodily through one of the walls, scattering chunks of drywall and insulation into the office beyond as the force of his landing smashed a wooden desk.

In the blink of an eye, Jevenan stood towering over the crippled Templar. "As fun as this could be, I have a deadline to meet," the Nobody drawled. "Good night, Templar." He drew back his arm and plunged his blade into Jonathan's side.

The mayor let out a cry of pain as darkness filled his vision with agonizing slowness.

_-LD-_

Kairi gave a start as she felt something cold as ice and slightly moist press against the back of her neck, breaking her concentration. She turned around, ready to snap at the culprit. However, her vision was obscured by a bottle of cold lemonade being offered to her by her grinning boyfriend.

"Two wishes in one day?" Sora asked as she accepted the offering. "You're not getting greedy on me, are you?"

"How else am I supposed to get that diamond studded swimming pool?" The birthday-girl quipped. "Those things don't grow on trees, you know." Sora rolled his eyes at her, dropping down to sit beside her on the pier. Instinctively, Kairi shifted closer to him so she could rest her head on his shoulder. They sat in silence for several minutes, watching the colorful symphony of fireworks exploding in the skies above the ocean.

"Do you remember the legends about the Sun's Shadow Festival? You know, the ones not about why we have it?" The auburn-haired teen glanced up at Sora, waiting patiently for him to respond.

"Not really," Sora said with a chuckle. "You know me; I never really was that great at history."

"Well, to keep it simple, it's said that wishing upon the fireworks is considered good luck," Kairi explained. "And with everything going on in the worlds these days, I figured a bit of good luck couldn't hurt."

"So what did you wish for?" Sora asked. Kairi fixed him with an incredulous look.

"I can't tell you that, silly," she giggled. "Don't you know that it's bad luck to tell others what you wished for?"

"I guess you're right," Sora said, still in his ever present cheerful tone. "But isn't that technically just superstition?"

"Maybe." Kairi gave a small shrug. "But it's better to be safe than it is to be sorry."

"Is that why you threw salt over your shoulder at dinner when Roxas knocked the shaker over?" Sora asked. Kairi merely grinned in response.

"My point is, even if it is superstition, it doesn't hurt to play along. After all, my wish from last year came true." She planted a soft kiss on his cheek. "It only took almost a full year to do so though." Sora pointed at himself with a slightly confused expression. A giggle escaped the redhead's lips and she nodded. "I wished for you to come back home."

Sora shot a grin at her and pressed his lips to her forehead. "That's sweet, but didn't you just tell me that it's bad luck to tell someone what you wished for?"

Kairi let out an obviously faked sound of indignation and gave Sora a light shove. "It doesn't count if your wish already came true. So there!"

"If you say so," Sora said through a chuckle. "Too bad today has to end."

"Yeah." Kairi sighed. The two of them quickly lapsed into silence once more, enjoying what was sure to be their last moment of peace for weeks to come until the issue with Maleficent was resolved. Kairi eventually shifted her gaze to the necklace Sora had given her, a small habit she had formed over the course of the day. The gems seemed to glow dimly of their own accord in the dark of the night.

"This really is a beautiful necklace, Sora," she said softly, trailing her fingers over each of the gems as she spoke. She paused before she touched the opal, the images from earlier rushing to the forefront of her mind encouraging her to skip over it. "Thank you again."

"It looks great on you," Sora said, tightening his one-armed hug for a brief moment. "I'm glad you like it." He gave Kairi a slightly nervous glance and then pulled away from her, leaving her with a confused expression on her face. "I do have another gift for you. If you want it, that is?"

"What is it?" Kairi asked, a look of mixed eagerness and uncertainty appearing on her face.

"Just this," Sora said, flashing his trademark goofy grin at her as he pulled a yellow, star shaped fruit out of his pocket and presented it to her. Kairi's heart leapt into her throat and immediately found it hard to breathe.

"Is that… is that a-" she stammered, staring at the fruit in her boyfriend's hand.

"A paopu fruit," Sora said. "I wanted to share one with you. You know, since we don't know what's going to happen when we're out fighting the Heartless."

"I… I don't… I don't know," Kairi said. She could practically feel her cheeks burning. Sora wasn't usually this forward. She didn't quite know how to react. She quickly averted her gaze, unable to look him in the eye without feeling like her cheeks were going to burst into flames. Instead, she decided to focus on her necklace.

"What I mean is…" she started to speak, but she cut herself off. The emerald and the ruby on her necklace had both dulled to a sickly green and a pale pink respectively. Immediately, Sora's words from when he had given her the necklace. _"The emerald dulls around evil." "The ruby grows pale when misfortune threatens the wearer."_

Kairi's gaze hardened as she slowly looked up at Sora. For a fraction of a second, she could have sworn she saw him flicker. It was almost unnoticeable, but she knew what she saw.

"You're not Sora." Her voice came out in a growl. Ocean's Toll flashed into existence in her right hand as she took a step back. "Who are you?"

"Damn. And I was so close too," the Sora look-alike grumbled. "All you had to do was take a bite of the fruit and this would have been a lot simpler." The look-alike tossed the paopu on the ground. Darkness floated off of it in wisps as the illusion surrounding it vanished, revealing instead a bright green apple that seemed to glow from within.

"A sleeping curse, if you were wondering," the look-alike said, gesturing at the apple. "Almost identical to the one your princess pal Snow White got a taste of a few years back. Only this one can't be broken by true love's kiss." The look-alike gave Kairi a sneer and shot a glance back toward the heart of the island. "Not that your 'true love' will be able to do much of anything once the Heartless I summoned take care of him."

Kairi's head whipped around, her gaze locking on the rows of tents and food stands set up just off of the beach. Sure enough, Kairi could see several dark shapes that didn't look anything like normal humans dancing around while flashes of fire, ice and lightning spells could be seen from an unknown source.

"Who are you?" Kairi demanded, whirling to face the imposter Sora.

The imposter grinned as tendrils of Darkness swirled around him. "Someone you never expected." Sora's voice said. The Darkness faded, revealing none other than Kairi's scantily clad friend Kim, who clutched a Keyblade in her left hand. The blade was black as obsidian and longer than Kairi's own by just over half a foot. The key portion sloped out of the obsidian in a dark cone shape before suddenly transitioning to a vibrant blend of red, orange, and yellow; the colours of lava. The hilt was as black as the blade, but surrounded by precious jewels. Kairi's eyes didn't find what the keychain was because her jaw dropped.

"Surprise!" Kim laughed. "Now, be a good little damsel and come with me."

"No way!" Kairi snapped. She quickly fell into a fighting stance, doing her best to shake off the feelings of surprise and betrayal currently running rampant in her heart. Kim shrugged and brought her Keyblade up in front of her.

"Suit yourself." Kim drew her blade back and with a ferocious cry, threw herself at Kairi.

_-LD-_

Richard came to a sudden stop in the heart of the main thoroughfare. Roxas collided with the warlock, having not been prepared for the halt.

"What gives?" the blond grumbled, shoving himself away from Richard.

"Do you ever get the feeling that you're missing out on a really great fight?" the warlock responded cryptically. "Because I'm almost certain that-"

"Not really. No." Roxas side-stepped Richard and continued his hunt for an ice cream vendor.

"You'll feel silly when it turns out I'm right," Richard grumbled.

"No I won't, because you aren't right. Now let's find some ice cream."

"Didn't you already get sick after eating that?" Richard asked.

"Yes. What's your point?"

"Nothing," Richard answered with a smile on his face. "I just wanted to clarify that you enjoyed indulging in mindless self-destruction." Roxas shook his head and continued on for another fifteen steps or so, head bobbing around as he searched through the crowd and the different signs in order to find the sweet treat for which he craved, before a scream off to his right split the air.

"What was that?" Roxas asked.

"The sound of me being right and you being wrong," answered Richard with a gleeful smile. The crowds to their right scattered in a panic as dark shapes with glowing yellow eyes rose out of the ground.

"You have got to be kidding me." Roxas' shoulders slumped. It looked like he wouldn't be getting his ice cream anytime soon.

"I bet you feel silly right now," Richard said cheerfully. Roxas summoned his Keyblades to his hands.

"Shut up," he growled. "Hey! Heartless!" The figures in the alley turned and looked at him. "Yeah, you! You guys suck! You know why? Because you're fucking with my ice cream time!"

_-LD-_

The Kingdom Key spun through the air, little more than a gold and silver blur as it weaved itself in and out of the panicking crowds filing the streets of Fatum. It struck down a Novashadow as it leapt at a fleeing man's exposed back. A trio of Shadows that had cornered a pair of young siblings were reduced to black mist as the Keyblade shredded through them. A pair of Neoshadows were impaled on the blade as it finally came to rest by embedding itself into a bronze statue of a fisherman riding a vulkna shark.

The Keyblade's Wielder appeared above it in a blur of motion. A gloved hand gripped the blade tightly as it was pulled free from the statue. Sora's comically large feet touched the ground softly as he hefted his Keyblade above his head. Two Heartless lunged at him from both sides. A Neoshadow to his left and a Novashadow to his right.

Sora reacted on instinct. He jumped above the faster Novashadows' claws just before they would've sliced into him. The tip of the Kingdom Key was swiftly jabbed against the Heartless' face, not dealing significant damage. Sora grinned and cast a Firaga spell. Magically created flames exploded from the Kingdom Key's tip in a bright ball. The Novashadow was instantly destroyed.

Trailing smoke behind him, Sora was thrown higher into the air by the explosion. Below him, the Neoshadow's head was whipping back and forth, clearly confused as to the whereabouts of the Wielder it was pursuing. Around it, five Shadows rose from the dark street to join in the hunt.

Sparks of electricity gathered around his Keyblade's teeth as Sora took aim at the Neoshadow. With a shout of "Thunder!" Sora unleashed an orb of electric energy into the midst of the Heartless group. The Neoshadow took the worst of it as the orb struck it down. The Shadows around it were knocked flat on their sides as arcs of Thunder magic came loose from the attack and struck them. A second burst of Thunder magic from Sora quickly put an end to them.

As he hung, suspended briefly upside-down in midair, Sora gave a quick glance over the thoroughfare-turned-battlefield. Stands and stalls were crushed and broken. Debris and small random objects littered the emptier part of the street. People continued to run in all directions, pushing and shoving at one another in their blind panic. All the while, more Heartless waited close by, ready to pounce on the two Keyblade Wielders present as soon as an opportunity arose. Almost directly below him, Nanaki was effortlessly fending off a small group of Shadows with simple swings of her Keyblade. She spared a glance up at him and smirked.

"All yours, Spikes," she called up cheerfully. "Freeze!" The tip of her Keyblade became shrouded in swirling ice crystals as Nanaki unleashed a powerful Blizzard spell, freezing seven of the closest Heartless solid. Sora spun around as gravity dragged him back toward the ground, raising the Kingdom Key as he fell. Nanaki dove out of the way as he came crashing down, Keyblade first. The ice trapping the frozen Heartless shattered, as did the Heartless, cut down by the shockwave Sora created.

"Do you always get someone else to deal the killer blow?" Sora asked.

"What, are you saying that you'd rather be shown up on your homeworld by an outsider?" Nanaki teased as she plunged her blade through a Novashadow's chest. "Sheesh, try to give a guy an ego boost and all he does is complain."

Sora let out a derisive snort and dispatched a pair of Shadows headed for Nanaki's exposed back. "You'll have to try a whole lot harder if you wanna show me up. I'm a Keyblade Master, remember?"

His companion stuck her tongue out at him. "A Keyblade Master that seems focused on handling the small fry while I take on the bigger challenges."

The Kingdom Key split a Neoshadow's head in two as Sora spun to look at Nanaki. "Are you saying I can't handle it?"

"I'm just saying that it seems convenient." Purple-tinted magic lit up Nanaki's Keyblade as a gravity field crushed a Novashadow into the dust.

"You only think it seems convenient," Sora replied, quickly looking around. He spotted a Neoshadow about to rise out of the ground and raised his Keyblade in a defensive position. The Neoshadow leapt into the air, and Sora easily blocked its spinning claws with the Kingdom Key. "But there are actually a lot more of these ones than those."

"Your point?" Nanaki asked, turning around and slashing Sora's Neoshadow across the chest. It staggered backwards, spilling darkness out of the line in its chest. Sora finished it off with a blast of ice right into the open wound.

"It sounds more badass to say that you defeated fifty Heartless instead of ten," he answered. Someone shoved him in the shoulder, and both he and Nanaki gave a start as the people who had been running around in a panic like headless chickens were now all running in the same direction: down the street _away_ from the two Wielders.

"What the...?" Nanaki wondered. "There's something behind us isn't there?" Sora and she shared a reluctant look before turning around.

A massive horde Shadow Heartless barreled down the street towards them like a stampede of the bulls, trampling or shoving any remaining stalls or the wreckage of them still on the street. People scattered before the horde as the Heartless tore down the street, packed tight across the way from building to building. Sora swallowed a lump in his throat. The horde had their sights set on the pair of them.

"Great." Nanaki's shoulders slumped. "Feet first into the thick of it."

"I've had worse." Sora gave his companion a confident grin. "Remind me to tell you about the time I took on a thousand Heartless single-handedly to protect a city."

"A thousand Heartless? By yourself?" Nanaki deadpanned.

"Well, I had some help," Sora admitted with a cheesy grin. "I used some of the Surveillance Robots to kill the others. And some of my friends helped too. I think. It's all a very long story."

"I've already heard it. Naminé is surprisingly chatty in her sleep." Nanaki grinned. "It all made perfect sense. Only your friends would be crazy enough to stand by you and face down something like that." She pointed her Keyblade at the rapidly approaching horde. "But, I always knew I was crazy."

"Perfect!" Sora grinned and fell into a fighting stance. "What do you say we keep these Heartless from the rest of the city?"

"I say Keyblade Masters first." Sora quirked an eyebrow at Nanaki, who grinned cheekily back at him. "Lead the way, oh great Keyblade Master."

Doing just that, Sora charged straight for the center of the writhing mass of Heartless. The Shadow horde fell upon him. Claws slashed and grabbed for the Keyblade Master and there seemed to be no end to the glowing yellow eyes of the monsters. Their attacks never reached their mark.

With every swing of the Kingdom Key, three or four Shadows were reduced to dark mist. It wasn't long before Nanaki lost sight of him beneath the 'tide', save for the occasional glint of light reflecting off of his Keyblade. The horde continued on, bearing down on her with raw, animalistic instinct. Purple light surrounded Nanaki as she charged up her magic, preparing to counter the Heartless closest to her.

With a snap of her fingers, the aura surrounding her spread out in a large circle, stretching from one side of the street to the other. Shadows leapt into the circle, eager to cut down the Keyblade Wielder and claim her heart. Nanaki grinned. The Zero Gravity field she had cast kicked in, lifting the Heartless that entered the circle high into the air above her.

"You're not getting past me!" She hollered triumphantly. Her grip tightened on her the Keeper's Crest as she leapt into the air to engage the disoriented Heartless. The first Heartless she reached was sent spinning into its fellows. The momentum of her attack sent her floating away from the floating 'cloud' of Heartless.

Nanaki twisted as she floated, allowing her to plant her feet firmly against a well-placed lamp post. Arcs of lightning magic danced along the edge of the Keeper's Crest as she bent her knees to gather momentum. With a triumphant cry, Nanaki kicked off of the post and launched herself at the Heartless like an arrow. Her Keyblade tore through its victims with little effort. Bolts of lightning lanced out from the blade with each impact, zapping down any Heartless that came within range.

Gravity took hold of her as her momentum carried her out of range of her field. Nanaki turned back toward the 'cloud' of Heartless and raised her palm in their direction. "Crush." The Zero-Gravity field was briefly obscured as a dome of swirling black and purple magic formed over it. The dome persisted for little more than a second before it flattened itself against the ground. More than half of the Heartless horde had been caught in the attack. Without missing a beat, the Lynfaelan turned to help Sora face down the rest of the Heartless.

The first thing she spotted was Sora, smiling without a care in the world and waving at her. Then she realized that he was doing so while standing on a pair of Shadows and riding them like a surfboard. Nanaki felt her jaw drop. The Shadows Sora was riding were only part of the rest of the horde, which was moving down the street like a flood. And, to her utter amazement and mild terror, the Shadows were flying as a group.

"Nanaki! You've got to try this out!" Sora shouted to her. "It's so much fun!"

"What are you doing?" Nanaki still had trouble believing her eyes.

"I call it 'Surf'!" Sora was laughing, still clearly without a care in the world. "It's kind of like my 'Glide' ability. Except not really."

"We're supposed to be fighting these things! This isn't the time for playing around!"

Sora gave her an indignant loop as the flying Heartless swarm looped around at the end of the street and started heading back towards the Lynfaelan. "I am fighting them!" He said defensively.

"You're _riding_ them," Nanaki corrected. "Just because the two words sound sort-of similar, doesn't mean they mean the same thing, you know."

"Har-dee-har-har." Sora stuck his tongue out at her. "Fine, I'll do it your way."

Sora leapt off of the Heartless swarm as it veered toward one of the buildings, landing near his companion. Above the pair, the Heartless circled around in the air. The Shadows grabbed onto one another, pulling each other along to keep their momentum up and to keep the horde as a whole up in the air.

"I've never seen Shadows behave like that," Sora noted. "They always stay on the ground and try to flank me or avoid my attacks by sinking into the ground. I've never seen them fly before."

"I don't think that can count as flying." Nanaki watched as one of the Shadows failed to grab hold of its fellow, and thus fell to its demise against the pavement. "Yeah. Definitely not flying."

"You know, I've got to be honest. I was really hoping to have a day off back home without worrying about the Heartless." Sora let out a sigh of defeat. "Looks like I'm not that lucky."

"Worry about your own luck later." Nanaki slapped Sora on the shoulder. "If we don't get rid of these Heartless A.S.A.P., then the whole city's going to be in a panic. If they aren't already."

"You're right," Sora hefted his Keyblade and dropped into his signature fighting stance. "And I gotta go find Kairi. I was supposed to be getting her something to drink, you know."

"I'm sure she'll understand." Nanaki raised the Keeper's Crest and held it in front of her.

The Heartless swarm looped around once in the sky above them before the leading Heartless changed direction and threw themselves at the Keyblade Wielding duo. Crying out in unison, Sora and Nanaki leapt back into the heat of combat.

_-LD-_

There were three things every guard in the Destiny Islands Defence Force had drilled into their head from day one of basic training.

Number one was that the Islands were chock-full of mystical locations and countless myths and legends. Many of which had some truth. And most of which were dangerous. Therefore, a guard had to be ready for anything, because anything could happen.

Number two was that no plan ever survives an encounter when faced with an enemy, especially against an enemy that used strange or foreign tactics. Therefore, all guards needed to be quick, both on their feet and with their minds.

And third of all, a guard was to never assume anything. To assume something could spell defeat or death for an entire squad.

Captain Markas Swallowsmith was ashamed to admit that all three were thrown to the winds on the night of the Sun's Shadow Festival. Having served in the Fatum division of the DIDF for eighteen years, he'd grown complacent.

He'd assumed that the Festival would've gone over as smoothly as the other various festivals, celebrations, and Island-wide parties he'd guarded before. At worst, there'd be a drunken scuffle or two. But never anything overly serious.

He'd assumed that living on the Islands for the thirty-four years he'd been alive, he'd have heard about all of the myths and legends and seen the monsters that prowled the seas and 'haunted' sites that he could see. The beasts rising from the shadows on the ground and emerging from dark portals however, he had never heard about before. And, loathe though he was to admit it, he was perturbed by them. Their black-as-night flesh. Their massive, glowing yellow eyes. Their sharp looking claws that looked as though they could easily rend flesh from bone.

These monsters behaved like nothing he'd seen before. They attacked anyone that moved, often changing their targets for no apparent reason. What was worse, when they got their claws on someone, they would pull a bright, glowing pink heart from the person's chest, and the person would disappear. No body. No trace they had ever been there. Just… gone.

And it disturbed Markas greatly.

Another of the shadowy monsters leapt at him from the ground, spinning through the air like a mass of claws and darkness. Markas' runeblade was ready. The golden runes carved down the fuller of the blade lit up as he swung the blade into the beast's torso. Electric sparks leapt from the blade and coursed through the monster.

Markas winced as the monster exploded into a cloud of black mist. How many had he felled in the past five minutes. Two dozen? Three? Yet there seemed to be no end to them. Glancing up from where the monster had fallen, Markas took advantage of his brief reprieve and surveyed the street around him. His men were scattered across three visible blocks and from the looks of it, he was short more men than he had been moments before. Even as he watched, one of his soldiers in the distance had a glowing heart pulled from her chest before she, too, faded away.

"Son of a-!" Captain Markas cried out as her heart rose into the sky before Darkness swallowed it, "Bastards! How am I going to tell Izan?"

"Captain, sound the retreat!" Trelio Ariahi, the squad's arcane warrior shouted. Ariahi swung his jewel-topped staff with tremendous strength as he spoke, beating one of the monsters out of the sky. The jewel flared red for an instant before a column of fire erupted from beneath the beast, incinerating it instantly.

"No!" Markas retorted. "We are soldiers of the Defence Force! It is our duty to protect these islands and this festival! I _will not_ let their loss be in vain!" To accentuate his claim, Markas made three quick steps towards the back of one of the monsters, one tall enough to match his six-foot-two frame but floating just above the ground on tiny wings, and took his runeblade into both hands. He brought it down across the back of the creature in a powerful diagonal slash with a cry of "Sei!" and the beast started for a moment as his runeblade delivered an electric jolt along with the crushing physical force of his blow. That moment was just long enough for the soldier it had been fighting against to get beneath the reach of the blue greatsword the creature was holding, and pierce it through the middle with her own runeblade.

"To me!" Markas shouted. "Rally to me, brothers and sisters! To me!" The captain turned to Ariahi. "Trelio, give them a clear path."

"Yes, sir." Ariahi raised his staff above his head in compliance. He closed his eyes, bowed his head slightly, and began to quickly speak words long practiced. "Ike. Sol. Kelm. Mune. Flash. Rem. Nai. Del. Get. Val. Eiz. Trail. Bolto!"

Bolts of blood-red lightning rained down from the heavens. Each strike slew a monster, leaping from one to another. The air crackled and fizzled violently under the onslaught. And the creatures were no much against the raw fury of nature's might. Those who did not sink into the shadows were struck down. Those fortunate enough to escape turned tail and fled for easier prey.

Markas let loose a sigh of relief as his soldiers came rushing back to him. The lightning parting to allow their passage. "Atta boy, Trelio!" The captain said, proudly clapping the arcane warrior on the shoulder.

"Thank you, sir." Ariahi grunted, doing his best to keep his concentration on his spell. He rotated his shoulder a little, still not used to the strength that Markas put into his shoulder claps.

A quick headcount immediately put a damper on Markas' spirits. Twelve of the soldiers under his command were nowhere to be seen.

"No way," one of his men muttered, looking around at their paltry nine left standing around Markus.

"What the hell were those things?" another shouted. "They aren't natural!"

"We still have the rest of the area around Fatuhna Square to cover," the first continued.

"Does anyone else hear that rumbling noise?" the smallest of their group, a girl barely in her twenties inquired.

"What of the rest of our comrades?" Ariahi demanded. "We need to join up with them so we can attack these monsters with all of us at once. We were too divided and they got the upper hand. We need to move as one!"

"I have a bad feeling about this," the girl added, worriedly.

"So we turn our backs on civilians to just to look for our comrades?!" The first strode up to Ariahi, tearing his helmet from his head as he went. "Our Code we swore to uphold during the Joining demands that we defend civilians from any and all threats. Even if we must sacrifice ourselves or our comrades to do so! You would abandon the Code? Bah! Typical mage."

"Enough!" Markas stepped between the two bickering soldiers and forced them apart. "I'll not have you two at each other's throats while our Island is being attacked! Ariahi! Your loyalty is commendable, but we must hope that our comrades hold their own and can find us in this chaos. Bheren! Bite your tongue before you piss off the wrong person. Ariahi just saved all your asses."

"Forgive us, sir," both men replied immediately.

"Good!" Markas let out a frustrated sigh. "Let's move out. It looks like this block's-"

The captain's words were drowned out as the ground below them began to shake violently. A massive, tentacle-entwined head rose up in front of them. Glowing yellow eyes, each the size of a man lit up the darkened street. Clawed hands, large enough to grab hold of any man and squeeze the life out of him reached slowly up out of the ground before crashing back down as the beast pulled it's torso out of the ground.

"... clear," Captain Markas finished in a deadpan.

"Sir," the young woman, Ulya, began in a trembling voice, "your orders, sir?" The hands holding her runeblade were shaking.

"Do they really need said?" Markas asked with grunt. He tightened his grip on his runeblade and shifted into a fighting stance. "That thing can't be allowed to leave this street. Who knows what it'll do if it reaches the civilians." He glanced around at his men, all looking as nervous as he felt. How in the hell were they supposed to take that thing down?!

"We show that _thing_ why their kind made a mistake by attacking our home!" The captain declared. "We use everything in our power to put it down!" A grin spread across Markas' face as his men let loose ferocious battle cries behind him.

A bright streak of light lit up the street from behind the massive monster. It turned slowly to look behind it, only for bright, glowing cracks to form along its body as it did so. The glow grew brighter and brighter until, with the sound of shattering glass, the beast was torn asunder. Markas' jaw dropped open. Black mist dissipated rapidly as a massive, pink crystalline heart rose into the sky from where the beast had risen.

But what really caught his attention was a blonde teenage girl, dressed in a sky-blue halter-top with a serrated grey frill jutting underneath the hem and a beige box-pleated skirt that just reached past her knees that was forcing herself up off of the ground. He could just see the shine from golden earrings reflecting in the light, as well as a glint of what looked like silver coming from a chain necklace.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch," the girl groaned. "Stupid scroll could've at least warned me about the kickback." She stood up for a second only to fall back on her rear. "And the mana drain. That stings."

Markas quickly shook his head, bringing himself back to reality as the girl eased herself back up and crushed an ether against her forehead. "That's the stuff," the girl sighed. She looked up at the soldiers, surprise quickly showing on her face. "Oh! Sorry about that! I didn't realize you guys were there. I didn't get you by accident, did I?"

"Get us by accident?" Ariahi repeated. "_She_ took down that monster?! By herself?!"

"That quickly?" The captain couldn't believe his eyes, even as the girl ran up to them.

"Oh good! Looks like I missed you guys!" She said with a sigh of relief. "I've haven't really had time to practice that Smite spell. It's a lot more powerful than I realized."

"Wait, you're a mage?" Markas asked. "Aren't you a little young for your powers to have developed?"

"I didn't even show signs of being a mage until I was twenty-three!" Ariahi exclaimed.

"I'm not a mage," the girl said defensively. "I'm a Keyblade Wielder. Magic just comes with the territory."

"You're a what?" Markas asked. "A Key Blade Wielder? What makes you so 'key'? No offense intended."

The girl scowled a bit. "Not 'Key Blade'. It's '_Keyblade_'. All one word." She held her hand out in front of her and lit up the dark with a flash of light that quickly faded. Now clutched in her grip was an oddly shaped sword that, much like its name implied, looked to be a cross between a blade and a key. The shaft of the blade was silver and had semi-circular indentations on its sides. The 'teeth' of the key were comprised of two silver, triangular blades that overlapped each other and slanted downward. Both triangles had slanted, heart-shaped gaps in them. The guard was black and curved around the handle on both sides, but didn't connect to the base of the handle itself.

"A Keyblade is the only weapon that can permanently defeat the Heartless," the girl explained. "The Heartless are those monsters you were fighting. Shadows, mostly, but that big one was a boss Heartless, a Darkside."

"Who are you?" Markas asked, bewildered that a girl as young as her could both use magic and was in possession of a unique type of weapon.

"Naminé Brightheart," she replied with a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain."

The captain's eyes widened further. She was still surprising him.

"You've heard of me?" he asked. Naminé pointed to the golden palm leaf decorating Markas' brigandine.

"Nope. I just look for the finer details," she said with a laugh. "Now, I've got to go find my sister. She's going to need some backup."

"Wait a moment!" the captain called out as Naminé turned to leave. "You took down that thing in one hit!"

"And nearly knocked myself out doing so," Naminé added.

"We could use a fighter like you to help protect the Islands!" Markas continued. "If that Keyblade of yours-wait a second, did you say Naminé _Brightheart_?"

"I did."

"As in, you're Mayor Brightheart's daughter?"

"One of them. Why?"

"He's letting his daughter fight these things?" Ariahi exclaimed. "Isn't that risky?"

"Riskier for you guards," Naminé said simply. "None of you have experience fighting Heartless. I do. It's simple."

"Then I have to insist that you stay with us," Markas said firmly. "Not only because you can fight off these Heartless, but so that we can protect you as well."

Naminé smiled sweetly at the captain. "Thanks for the offer, but I'll be fine. Besides, I'm not the only Keyblade Wielder on Fatum at the moment. There's at least eight or so of us total and the Heartless will mostly stay near the city to get to people's hearts. We've got this covered."

"Ah, there you are!" a new voice said, sending a chill up Markus' spine with the ecstatic cackling in it. "I've been looking for you everywhere, elf." Naminé facepalmed and let out a low groan of frustration.

The door to a nearby building was blown off its hinges by a sudden explosion that shattered nearby windows and seemed to light everything nearby on fire. From the flames strode a dark cloaked figure. Its eyes shined yellow, similar to those of the Heartless. What little skin it showed was white as bone and its fingernails were sharpened into razor-sharp points.

"For the last time, Richard. I'm not an elf," Naminé turned to face the newcomer. "And did you have to blow a hole through the building?!"

"I don't understand the question," 'Richard' replied as he reached their group.

"You're impossible," the blonde teen grumbled.

"_I'm_ not impossible. I _do_ the impossible," Richard retorted.

Markas eyed Richard up and down warily. "Who's he?"

"_**I AM RICHARD! CHIEF WARLOCK OF-"**_ Richard began, raising his fists to the sky as lightning flashed, thunder crashed and Hulk smashed. He was cut off as Naminé shoved her hand over the cloth that covered the lower half of Richard's face.

"We don't have time for that." She shot the warlock a scathing look. Richard crossed his arms and pouted.

"You people are always interrupting me from introducing myself. How is anyone supposed to know about the little village up the coast that I'm Mayor of?" He then produced a pamphlet out of nowhere and passed it to Markus. "It's very scenic in springtime, you should visit."

"Yet you always manage to bring it up," Naminé retorted. "I never thought I'd actually say this, but it's good that you're here, Richard."

"It is?" The warlock placed a finger to his temple and scratched his head. "That's odd. Usually people see me as a bad thing. I don't understand why."

"Don't ruin the moment," Naminé sighed. "You know that Island we parked the ship on?"

"The small one with the funny shaped trees and the random star on a stick?" Richard asked. "The one you wouldn't let me burn down and so I had to sleep on it last night since everyone forgot about me?"

"Yes. That one. I need you to go back there, and get rid of any Heartless that may be trying to get on there. Don't let a single one through to the small cave. Got it?"

"So, I get to kill these Heartless. Yes?" Richard asked.

"Yes, Richard. Kill the Heartless."

"Wonderful!" The warlock leapt into the air and clacked his heels together in glee. A disturbing sight indeed. "It's like it's my birthday! Or half birthday. Since I don't get to kill normal people." Richard's excitement vanished. "It's actually lame now. I don't want to, not even as an unbirthday present."

"Do this, and you'll get to cut a path of destruction through Maleficent's armies the likes of which this world has never seen…" Naminé prompted enticingly.

"Do these armies have normal people?"

"Yes."

"Do they have families?"

"Some of them. I suppose," Naminé added, only a little bit of anxiety in her voice from what Markus could tell, though he himself was finding this conversation somewhat queasy.

"Do those families have small children or infants?"

"What does that have to do with anything?!"

Markus' thoughts now went to his own family: his wife Cathy, his sons Thomas and James, and his only daughter, Rose.

"I'll do it," Richard said proudly, completely ignoring Naminé's question.

Markus prayed that this crazed man in the robe with white skin and glowing yellow eyes never found out who his family was or where they were.

Naminé turned back toward Markas. Her left eyelid was twitching something awful and it was plain for all to see that dealing with Richard was not something she overly enjoyed. "I need to go find my sister. You guys look like you can handle the Heartless, especially since you've got Keyblade Wielders on your side."

"Are you sure you can't join us?" the captain asked one last time. Naminé seemed to consider the question for a brief moment before shaking her head.

"I can't," she sighed. "My sister has no idea what she's up against. I have to go to her. Good luck holding the line." The captain nodded, understanding Naminé's decision. He turned back toward his men. Each face he saw was hardened and ready to do as the Mayor's daughter had said. They would hold the line. And they would hold it with pride.

"For the Islands!" Markas shouted, hoisting his runeblade high into the 'night' sky.

"For the Islands!" The other guards and Naminé raised their weapons as well.

"For pony!" Richard declared in unison with the others. Naminé fixed the warlock with a look of confusion.

"What in the-? You can't use that as your battle cry!" she shouted.

"Why not?" the Warlock replied innocently. "You all have one."

"Yeah, we do," Naminé conceded, "but ours is for honor. It's an old Destiny Islands battle tradition before going into the fray!"

"Mine is for ponies." Richard ignited both of his fists and marched past the now irritated blonde.

"That's not-" Naminé stammered as the warlock strode toward the ocean. "You can't-"

"For pony!" Richard shouted, his tone one of finality. He quickly vanished beneath the gentle ocean, only visible by his hands, still burning under the water and defying all laws of known physics.

Naminé stared after him for a few moments longer, obviously doing her best to ignore the twitching coming from her left eyelids.

"I don't even know why I bother with him…" she grumbled. Naminé winced violently, her head lurching backward as though some invisible force had pulled on her hair. "Oh, crap. Kairi!" She turned on her heels and took off running in the direction of the boardwalk, swallowed quickly in shadow cast by the Nox's eclipse of the sun.

"Alright men, you heard the lady!" Markas' barked as he turned in the direction of Fatuhna Square. "Let's go hold that line!"

_-LD-_

Jonathan gave a gasp as ice-cold water splashed over his head. Sputtering, he pushed himself up onto his knees, hacking and coughing as he accidentally inhaled some of it. He blinked his eyes several times to adjust them to the dim, torch-fueled lighting from nearby.

"On your feet," a gruff voice ordered from somewhere in the darkness. "We've wasted enough time as it is." A large hand grabbed him by the upper arm and hoisted him onto his feet. Jonathan bit back a cry of pain as he was forced to hold up his own weight, a feat that quickly proved impossible due to the holes in his knees. The gaping wound in his side did little to help either.

"Looks like I'm not going anywhere," he said. A morbid chuckle forced its way through his lips. "Too bad for you."

"Okay, I've had enough of this place. Move," a female voice growled. The sound of someone pushing another person aside reached Jonathan's ears. A flash of light in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He recognized that flash. It was the same flash made by a Keyblade being summoned. "Lift." A periwinkle light surrounded Jonathan's body as he felt his body slowly float off of the ground and start to float along after the sounds of footsteps retreating from him.

By now, his eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting. He had woken in a long, cobblestone lined hallway. The walls, floor and ceiling were all cracked and damaged in numerous places. Pools of water reflected the light of the single torch carried by a silver cloaked figure and the light of the magic surrounding his body.

Jonathan swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat. He knew exactly where he was and where he was being taken. What he couldn't figure out, however, was how these people had known about this place. Its location was a trade secret. Only the Templar's knew about it. And, even among the Templars, only he knew its exact location.

"Who are you people?" he asked, wincing at the sandpaper-like feel of his tongue and throat.

"They aren't people," the female voice, the one he assumed was the Keyblade Wielder, clarified. "They're Nobodies."

"Nobodies..." Jonathan repeated. "And here I was, thinking that it would be Xehanort or Maleficent that would come for the Cornerstone."

"We're here on Maleficent's behalf," the gruff voice said.

"Oh joy," Jonathan muttered.

Silence, save for the footfalls of the group surrounding him, filled Jonathan's ears for several long minutes. He listened carefully, eventually deducing that there were at least seven sets of footsteps around him. He tried looking around to verify this, but the darkness in the hall seemed to swallow all light before it could travel any decent distance.

Eventually, Jonathan felt his movement begin to slow and quickly stop in unison with the footsteps. He knew why without even being able to see.

"The first of the Trinity Gates," the flat-emotionless voice of the Nobody that had attacked Jonathan earlier echoed through the hall. "Open it, Templar."

"Here's a thought: how about you go to Hell instead?" Jonathan suggested.

"If you don't cooperate, we'll be forced to take more drastic action," the Nobody continued. "I've been told that your daughter is back home, celebrating her birthday. Correct?"

Jonathan's body went rigid as ice filled his veins. "How did you know about my daughter?" he demanded.

"We work for Maleficent. Remember?" the gruff voice chided. "We know all about your little princess with the heart of Light. And she's going to end up having a very unhappy birthday if you don't cooperate with us."

"What do you need me for?" Jonathan grumbled, doing his best to glare at the silhouettes moving along the edges of his vision. "You already found this place. Surely getting through the Trinity Gates wouldn't be an issue?"

"You know full well that the gates prevent corridors of Darkness from opening up within," the voice of the Nobody that had attacked Jonathan said. "Even the Lanes Between can't pierce the barriers. There are no records anywhere that explain how to open the gates. Which means you are the only one who can get us through the gates." At his words, the Keyblade Wielder shifted slightly. Jonathan turned his head to try and get a better look at her.

A defiant grin forced its way onto Jonathan's face. "Too bad for you lot, then. My lips are sealed." He let out a hacking cough that sent waves of pain shooting through his body from the hole in his side. "And if you think you can get to my daughter, then you've got another thing coming. She's a Keyblade Wielder, and she's sharp as a tack. I highly doubt that any of you can get to her. So do your worst."

The sharp, angular face of Jevenan came into focus as the Nobody in question pressed his face close to Jonathan's. A ghost of a smile spread across his pale skin. "Believe me, Templar. We will." The pain in Jonathan's side increased as Jevenan plunged one of his fingers into the hole in the mayor's side. Jonathan gnashed his teeth together as he fought back a cry of pain.

The Nobody pulled his hand away and turned back toward the gate, leaving Jonathan writhing in pain and gasping for breath.

"I'm sorry," the voice of the Keyblade Wielder whispered softly from beside him. "This... this isn't right."

"That's what you get when you let yourself be controlled by Darkness," the wounded man managed to grunt out through his pain. "Darkness is selfish. Darkness only cares about the end. The means don't matter."

"Just tell us what we need to know," the girl whispered. "There's no point to all of this."

"If I tell you how to open the Trinity Gates, then you'll just take the Cornerstone of Darkness. And no matter what I do, you lot are going to go after my daughter. Maleficent already has the other six Princesses of Heart. Once she has Kairi and the Cornerstone, it'll be very difficult to stop her."

"You technically don't even need to tell us how to open the Gates," the Wielder said. She adjusted herself, sitting down in the darkness to stare at the Templar. Jonathan winced as he was lowered slowly to the ground. "I've got a special weapon that'll undo any agreement, pact, oath or bond, even on the atomic level. No gate, spell, or enchantment can hold me back." Jonathan's eyes went wide as a feeling of dread and fear settled rapidly in his stomach.

"Oath Breaker," he realized. "You have Oath Breaker." The girl nodded, a motion that was almost impossible to see in the darkness now that the spell lighting the general area around Jonathan had vanished. "Then why go through the trouble of dealing with me?"

"Because the Nobodies don't know what the Oath Breaker is or what it does," the girl explained. "And when Jevenan brought you here, I knew I couldn't tell them. They'd just kill you to tie up loose ends. And I'm not a killer. At least... I don't want to be... Don't you see? I'm saving your life."

"Well, you're not doing a very good job at it," the Templar grunted through his pain. "See these wounds? I've been bleeding out for a couple of hours now, at least. I doubt I've even got an hour left before I kick the bucket."

"So, you're giving up?" The girl shook her head. "Don't you want to see your daughter at least one last time?"

"It's not like I have a choice. I'm a dead man either way."

The two of them lapsed into silence. Aside from the pacing footsteps and grumblings of the Nobodies, not a sound could be heard.

"If you're dead either way, then don't you at least want to say goodbye to her?" The girl asked after a minute or so. "I know that I would've liked to say goodbye to my dad if I knew I was never going to see him again."

"Like I said. I don't have a choice."

"Yes, you do," the Wielder countered. "Look, if you help get me to the Cornerstone, then I'll make sure that your daughter will be safe from these Nobodies and I'll make sure you get that chance to say goodbye. Deal?"

"Why do you want Maleficent to have the Cornerstone?" Jonathan winced as pain lanced through his core once more. "She's so far gone. Can't you see that? She's only going to destroy herself if she tries to use it to open Kingdom Hearts."

"It's not about what I want," the girl sighed. "My mother wants Maleficent to get the Cornerstone. I don't know why, she just does. And mother always gets what she wants in the end. Unlike you, I don't have a choice."

"Foolish girl," Jonathan muttered weakly. "I don't have much time left to go on. And I'd rather not waste it by arguing with you. So how do I know you won't just stab me in the back when you get the Cornerstone? This could all be a clever ruse."

Jonathan retorted. The girl responded by simply placing her hand over the Templar's chest and muttering a single word.

"Heal." Tendrils of green light flowed out from her hand and spread over Jonathan's body, working rapidly to seal up his wounds. The girl smiled softly back at him. "Does this look like the face of a liar to you?" Jonathan's jaw dropped open as he got his first real look at the Wielder. She had large, indigo colored eyes, ruby red lips and caramel colored hair that was tied into a ponytail with the loose bangs framing her face. This girl was practically the spitting image of Sora.

"That healing magic won't replace the blood I lost," Jonathan moaned. "And it looks like you don't know enough about it to heal my damaged organs. You've only delayed the inevitable by a few minutes."

"A few minutes can make all the difference," the girl said. "So. Deal or no deal?"

"You'll make sure they won't get to Kairi?" The girl nodded. "Then we have a deal." He cleared his throat and called out to the Nobodies further down the hall. "The key to the first Gate is the Proof of Life!" The Nobodies fell silent as they turned to look back at the mayor who was struggling to get to his feet.

"And what is the 'Proof of Life'?" The gruff-voiced Nobody asked. "Where can we find it?"

"It's on your leader's hand." Jonathan let out a violent series of coughs as pain coursed through him yet again in response to his raised volume. "My blood. The blood of the Guardian Templar."

Jevenan glanced down at the glistening blood on his fingertip for a moment before wiping it across the grooved stone wall blocking the path to the Cornerstone. Instantly, the grooves lit up with a pale red light that quickly engulfed the entire wall.

When the light faded, the wall had vanished, revealing a set of narrow, descending stairs that were illuminated by a series of glowing red cracks in the walls. Jevenan turned back toward the shaky form of Jonathan, who was doing his best to stand in defiance.

He flashed an emotionless grin at the mayor and stepped patiently aside. "Lead on."

_-LD-_

Kairi staggered back as she blocked an overhead strike from Kim's Keyblade with Ocean's Toll. Her defence held in place for only half a second before Kim's attack broke through, driving down towards Kairi and missing just to the girl's left. Kairi used the moment to slip to Kim's left side and pointed her Keyblade at the other teen. "Freeze!"

Kim dodged backwards and to the right, completely avoiding the ice before it even left Kairi's Keyblade. Kairi scowled and tried again, pointing Ocean's Toll at where Kim's velocity was taking her. "Fira!" A trio of fireballs, each as big as Kairi's head and half again, _fwooshed_ into existence and rushed towards Kim.

"Reflega!" shouted the other with a smirk. The honeycomb-pattern barrier of her spell took hold, and all three of Kairi's fireballs slammed into it. Fire burned around the half of the shell that took the hit and a little bit of the grass on the ground caught fire, but inside Kim was completely unscathed. She shouted, "Stream!" and the shell around her broke apart into at least twenty different glimmering shards of a blue glass-like substance. Kairi watched in fascination as a half-second after they had appeared they all wove through the air to come together at a focal point in front of Kim.

_I didn't know I could do that with the energy from a reflect spell_, Kairi thought. It was only a moment later that she realized she was staring straight at an orb of swirling blue energy as large as the area from her knees to her neck, and that it was being directed at her!

"Aw shit!" Kairi muttered under her breath as Kim fired it, the orb becoming a beam as it left its position in front of the other Wielder. She jumped to the left and began to sprint with a gentle curve to the right so as to take her around towards Kim again. The beam just missed her, but only a second later Kairi felt a strong force with searing heat strike her in her right side. She tumbled to the ground, feeling her new goggles smacking her chin in the process, and quickly began to reorient herself. Kim. Where was Kim?

She became painfully aware of just where Kim was when the girl's foot collided with her ribs. Kairi yelped and quickly rolled away before the next strike could hit her, and was silently glad that she had when the sound that next entered her ears was the _tink_ of metal striking rock.

"Honestly, I thought that maybe, just maybe, you might have improved a little since your bout with your little boy-toy on the beach," Kim jeered as Kairi quickly got back to her feet. "Looks like I was wrong. You're still just a half-assed excuse for a Keyblade Wielder!" She lunged at Kairi and the redhead twirled away. Blocking Kim with her Keyblade had proved to be a challenge for her, not due to a difference in strength but in positioning. Kairi had never fought a leftie before!

Kairi dodged again as Kim came at her with another flurry of swipes. "Why Kim?" Kairi asked. "Why do this? I thought we were friends!"

"Friends?" Kim spat on the ground. "You really are as weak-minded as I thought, to still be believing the act I put up and the illusion spell I had all of you under."

Kairi ducked underneath another slash and brought Ocean's Toll across her body in a quick horizontal slice. Kim jumped back a foot, getting just out of reach. "Illusion?"

"That's right," Kim told her, advancing once again. "It was all an illusion. We never were friends for years and I've been acting out the part this entire time." She started to laugh and picked up speed in her attacks. Kairi felt blood run down her cheek as Kim caught her with a shallow nick just above her cheekbone. "And now that the cat's out of the bag, I can tell you that I hated every second of it! Laughing at your stupid jokes, pretending to be excited for you and Sora getting together, plotting your gay ass wedding with your airhead best friend. Watching you two kiss each other and forcing myself to smile instead of stabbing you both made me want to vomit!" Kairi blocked Kim's blade with Ocean's Toll, but the other teen kicked her in the stomach, knocking her back as well as taking some of the breath out of her. "And to top it all off, you call yourself an Apprentice to a Master, but you've got no skill. You aren't a Keyblade Wielder; you aren't a warrior, you're a whore!"

Kim unleashed a vicious slash at Kairi's faltering defence, and ripped Ocean's Toll from the redhead's grasp. She placed the tip of her Keyblade to Kairi's throat, and Kairi stood still as stone as both anger and fear rose up in her, each vying with the other for dominance.

"I always had to wonder why a Keyblade Master would take someone like you as an apprentice," Kim remarked snidely in her triumph, "but you clearly aren't his apprentice, now are you? Are you not his whore?"

Kairi's anger won out.

"Well, _Kimberly,_" Kairi replied, "since we're speaking candidly now, I can say the things I always swallowed because I believed we were friends."

Kim made an amused _hmph_ sound. "Really? Like a goody two-shoes like you has anything bad to say. Go on then; I'm listening, Keyblade whore."

"How much did those implants cost? There's no way that those tits are real."

If looks could kill, Kairi was sure she'd have been struck dead at least three times with the one Kim gave her. "F-forget capturing you, you're going to fucking die tonight!" She removed her Keyblade from Kairi's neck, bringing it back and preparing a swing that would remove Kairi's mental faculties from the rest of her body.

Expecting that, Kairi acted in the instant she had left. She raised her right hand and shouted, "Light!" Brilliant white light streamed from her hand and directly into Kim's eyes. Kim cried out and her posture fell apart as she was blinded. Ocean's Toll reappeared in Kairi's hands and she struck Kim across the ribs with the blade, pushing the other teenager back. Kairi swiftly pointed her Keyblade at Kim's chest, and shouted, "Fira!" A giant fireball struck Kim right in the sternum, sending her flying as a cry of sudden pain left her lips.

Kairi rushed forward and swung her weapon down at Kim's prone form, but she rolled out of the way of Kairi's strike and cast a spell. "Force!" Immediately Kairi felt like the weight of a whole gummi ship was pressing down on her. Her knees buckled and collapsed, dropping Kairi to the ground. Kim got up to her knees and poised herself above Kairi, readying her black Keyblade above her head for a downward slash. Kairi fought against the force of Kim's gravity spell and twisted around. She was still pinned, but at least she could look up at the sun in eclipse as she shouted, "Reflect!"

The honeycomb barrier formed around her just in time to halt Kim's strike with a loud _ting!_ Kim got to her feet and jumped backwards as Kairi ordered her magic shield to burst apart, and Kim deftly avoided most of the blasts, only taking one small blue orb to her ankle. Kairi scrambled back to her feet as the weight pressing on her vanished, and snatched her Keyblade up.

"Heh," Kim said with a darkly excited grin on her face, "looks like you've got a little spine after all, little whore."

"You're not so bad yourself," Kairi admitted, sporting the same look, "though you dress like a tramp."

"A tramp?" Kim asked, rushing Kairi. The redhead quickly raised her weapon and stepped to the side, trying to get the best angle possible on Kim's advance. The other girl's obsidian Keyblade came across swiftly, and Kairi worked frantically to stay on her feet while backing away as Kim pressed her, striking at Kairi with a series of quick strikes that flowed fluidly around the redhead. "You're calling me a tramp? Have you felt this weather? It's fucking _hot_ here!"

"Still doesn't excuse you from wandering around in only a bikini top and short shorts like that," Kairi said through gritted teeth, manoeuvring her Keyblade to block where Kim's own was moving to strike at the left side of her neck. This wasn't looking good. Kim was a lot faster than Kairi had expected her to be, and everything being flipped wasn't helping at all! Where Sora would come at her from the left, then the right, and then the left again, Kim was coming from right, left, right!

"Hey, these are natural, and if I want to flaunt them, I will!" Kim retorted. "My ass won't quit, but you're just a jealous bitch!" Kairi leapt back from a horizontal slash of Kim's, but she didn't quite get out of the way and the tip of the other girl's Keyblade cut a small rip into her dress just above her bellybutton.

Kairi gasped. "You ruined the zipper!" She charged at Kim, repeatedly striking high. "Do you know how hard it is to fix this when the zipper gets busted?"

"Don't know, don't care," Kim laughed, holding her Keyblade by the grip in her left hand and supporting a downward slant behind the blade with her right in order to block Kairi's angered assault. She winced as Kairi's blows rained down a little stronger than she expected. "Don't you have, like, twenty of those tube top mini dresses anyway? Oh! Speaking of which, you call me a tramp, but have you seen how fucking high up the hem on that thing is?" She pressed back against Kairi's swing and twisted her Keyblade to lock both of them together by the teeth, and got right into the other teen's face. "You're the one who is constantly looking like she's looking for a good time. I swear I just saw your underwear. By the way, you've got nice taste in panties; if you're going for the slut look, that is."

Kairi snarled through her teeth and tried pressing back to regain her position, but Kim was the stronger, and soon both Keyblades were locked together just underneath Kairi's chin, scant inches away from her neck. "What I wear under my clothes is between me and Sora. It doesn't concern you!"

Kim laughed. "Aha! Now I see how you were able to get a boyfriend. I'll admit it, I never thought that you'd be that loose or that Sora liked whores."

"FIRA!"

An explosion engulfed the two teens at point blank range, lighting up the area and hurling both of them away from each other in opposite directions. Kairi kept her footing, even as she slid backwards across the boardwalk in a low crouch. She ignored the self-inflicted burns she had just received on her arms and chest as her dress started to smoulder from the intensity of her fireball, and willed the black cloak Master Xanthos had given her into existence. Instantly she felt the uncomfortable shift as the cloak she had received from Tidus and Wakka vanished along with her dress, halter top, and Nanaki's gift of goggles to be replaced by the black cloak. Pants popped onto her legs a moment later, but nothing came into being beneath the cloak above her waist.

_Right,_ she thought, _Naminé mentioned something about that._

Kim was just getting back to her feet, but Kairi wasn't going to let her get cozy again. "Insult me all you like, but leave my man out of this! You wanted Island heat, Kim, you got it! Burn!" Kairi launched another fireball at Kim, which the other girl was just barely able to dodge in time. More fireballs flew from Ocean's Toll as Kairi almost danced on the spot, conducting them out of her Keyblade while embers flitted around the bells. "Burn! Burn! Burn! Thunder! Buuurrrnnnaahhhhh! BEE-YETCH!"

Kim had neatly dodged Kairi's first salvo of fire spells, but the random bolt of lightning from the thunder spell stuck her clean in the chest, leaving the other Keyblade Wielder stunned for the moment Kairi needed in order to create a pillar of fire right beneath Kim's feet. Kim screamed, and Kairi felt sickened at how the first sound of that scream had made her feel good. However, Kim's initial scream turned into laughter, and Kairi shifted backwards slightly, nervous.

"Ha!" Kim shouted. "Your magic is as weak as your swordplay! That didn't even break through my armour!" The pillar of fire dropped and Kairi saw Kim standing exactly where she had been, looking little worse for wear even after being struck by Kairi's magic. However, her outfit had changed.

Kairi's jaw hit the boardwalk.

"How the _fuck_ can you call that armour!?" Kairi hollered.

Kim's top was only barely covered by a few bands of silver metal that looked like their only real purpose was to give her immense bust support and keep them from wobbling like kids jumping on a waterbed while she fought, the very peak of the 'breastplate' just barely reaching halfway up Kim's bust in order to conceal the nipple. Slightly above her hips was a thin leather belt that supported what looked to be little more than a four-sided leather loincloth studded with silver and copper on the front and reinforced underneath by mail ringlets. There wasn't a helm, a cape, greaves, bracers, or even boots; Kim still wore the same sandals as she had on before.

"Lightsteel Keyblade Armour, bitch," Kim replied haughtily. "Fully customizable and protects the same no matter what. It could even look like this." The armour 'covering' Kim's chest glowed gold and shifted shape. Kairi gasped as it shrunk, and when the light dimmed there were two tiny triangles of metal covering only the nipple area of her breasts, being held up by chains stretching around her back and around her neck. Kairi gasped at what was essentially the skimpiest 'chainmail bikini top' possible, and looked away with a hand held above her eyebrows.

"For fuck's sakes, Kim, are you _trying_ to get me even more pissed off at you?" Kairi growled in exasperation. Kim giggled.

"What? Jealous of the fact that I have stylish armour and you're stuck with that drab black cloak, or jealous that I have breasts and you don't? Or are you jealous of all of the above?"

Kairi inhaled deeply and gripped her Keyblade in front of her, using the feeling of the metal in her hands as a focus. "Maybe I am but, unlike you, I don't dress like a slut and I have a steady boyfriend. I never needed to walk around in a piece of string in order to get a man."

Kim snarled. "Don't act like such a 'holier than thou' bitch all because you have somebody to take you to bed every night! You're still a weakling who's going to be in the coldest cage in the blackest dungeon Maleficent's got by the end of today!" Kim launched herself at Kairi, and the redhead prepared herself for the strike that was coming, but Kim suddenly stopped several feet away from Kairi, big breasts heaving against the chains of her itsy bitsy top, and pointed her Keyblade at the ground beneath Kairi's feet. "Blizzaga!"

Kairi jumped back, but the ice crystals that formed from her opponent's spell were too large and formed too quickly, leaving Kairi caught in the ice up to her ankles. She fell backwards, feet refusing to move, and the back of her head connected with the wooden planks of the boardwalk. Gasping in pain, Kairi leaned forward and pointed her Keyblade at the ice trapping her feet. "Fire!"

Nothing happened.

"Shit!" Kairi cursed as her body fell backwards, though she was able to keep from hitting her head on the ground again. The skin around her feet was already uncomfortably cold and just getting colder. Kim was slowly walking towards her, laughing quietly while she did so, and Kairi heaved her thighs, abs, and back muscles in order to hold herself somewhat horizontal so that she could look at the ice trapping her. She swung Ocean's Toll at the ice, but her swing had little power in it and all her Keyblade did was chip a small piece of it off. Muscles screaming at her, Kairi flopped back down for a moment.

"Aw, is the poor little Princess of Heart out of mana?" Kim cooed, now standing right beside Kairi. The redhead looked up, gritting her teeth in anger. A slight hiss made it out through her teeth as Kim grasped her by the hair and yanked Kairi's head up by the bangs until they were at eye-level with each other. "You know, I was going to just bag you and give you to Maleficent straight away if you'd just eaten that damn sleeping poison, but since the situation's played out like this, I'm going to have a little fun with you first."

Kim recoiled as Kairi's spit collided with her left cheek. Stunned for a moment, Kairi hissed, "Do your worst," and brought her left hand around in a slap to Kim's right cheek. Kim slowly turned her head back towards Kairi. She grinned.

"You're going to regret that, bitch," Kim stated, still holding Kairi up by her hair. Without warning she swooped down and assertively pressed her lips to Kairi's. Kairi stopped moving, stunned, and was unable to stop Kim's tongue from invading her mouth until it was already too late to do anything about it.

Kairi squirmed as soon as she regained enough sense to move her body again. She tried to jerk her head out of Kim's kiss, but that proved impossible as the blonde still kept a firm grip on her bangs, keeping her in place. Her legs were also unable to do anything about the ice that had entombed her feet.

Kim removed her lips from Kairi's, and Kairi stared up at her, a completely different kind of fear than simply that of defeat in battle beginning to clutch at her heart. "W-w-w-what the fuck was that about?"

Kim struck Kairi on the cheek with the back of her hand. "You do not talk back to your master, slave."

_Slave...that's, that's even worse than anything else she could have called me._

Kairi steeled her eyes. "I am no slave Kimberly, and I will never be one and certainly _never_ be yours!" Another backhand slap struck Kairi on the cheek, and Kim let go of her hair. Kairi gasped as the back of her head made contact with the boardwalk again.

"Then it looks like I'll just have to break you in until you're nice and obedient!" Kim said maliciously. Kairi barely registered her words as her head swam from the sudden impact, but she did register the feeling of Ocean's Toll being kicked out of her hand. Kim grasped both of Kairi's hands and forced them together above Kairi's head before slightly unzipping the black cloak in order to force them out of the sleeves.

"What are you doing?" asked Kairi, horrified. Kim yanked her arms out of the sleeves of the black cloak, leaving it dangling off of Kairi's shoulders, and then pinned both hands together behind Kairi's head again despite Kairi's resistance.

"Gaira," Kim muttered, and the wooden planks of the boardwalk broke free of their nails and wrapped around Kairi's wrists like snakes before solidifying into shape. Kim smirked and moved away from Kairi to admire her in her helpless position for a few moments before casting another spell. "Force."

Kairi felt the oppressive weight of gravity increase again under the influence of the blonde's spell, and Kim cut her free from the ice before casting another spell to bind Kairi's ankles like she had her wrists. Kim dismissed her Keyblade and straddled Kairi's waist.

"What am I doing?" Kim asked. She grinned again and Kairi felt a thrill of fear run up her spine. Kim descended again, forcing her lips onto Kairi's and sticking her tongue into Kairi's mouth. Kairi found herself unable to do anything as the gravity spell was still in effect, and suffered to Kim's tongue roving around the inside of her mouth. She tasted like cinnamon. Kim rose off of Kairi and straightened her back, looking down on the captive Princess of Heart. "Mother doesn't let me date, no matter how many times I ask her to let me. I'm better than you in every way, slave. I'm a better fighter than you, I'm a better spellcaster than you, I'm more beautiful than you, and I have better boobs than you. Yet you, the poor little damsel in distress who thinks she's a tough action girl, gets saved by the hero and has her knight in shining armour. The weak and worthless cast-off gets the guy and the strong and beautiful one is left alone. I want a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, too, dammit!" She punctuated her exclamation by slapping Kairi across the face. Kairi winced from the sting, and Kim spontaneously slapped her twice more.

Kairi spat, trying to force her anger to rise above her fear. "So you're jealous because despite everything you have going for you I have someone and you don't? Newsflash Kim! People don't like to date complete bitches like you!"

Kim yanked Kairi's head up by her hair again and began slapping her face. "What did I tell you, slave? You do not talk like that to your master!"

"Go to hell!" Kairi howled. Kim gripped Kairi by the cheeks instead of the hair, pursing her lips in a goldfish-like 'O' shape and making speaking intelligently difficult while also causing some pain.

"You wanted to know what I was doing?" Kim asked sweetly as the skin of Kairi's cheeks began turning a bright pink from her slaps. "Well then slave, I think I'll tell you. Because you're being so disobedient and as punishment for flaunting your flawless romance in my face, I'm going to take what I want from you."

Kim's hand went to the zipper of the black cloak. Kairi froze.

"W-what!?"

Kim yanked the zipper down, bearing Kairi's chest to the 'night' air. Kim grasped at a breast covered by a lacy crimson bra and squeezed. Kairi immediately gasped in discomfort.

"I'm going to ruin you!" Kim declared. "I'm going to make your precious Sora never want to look at you again with how you'll be after you've broken down and admitted that you're my slave."

"Never!" Kairi snarled. "I'll never be your slave!" The gravity spell had ended, and Kairi swung her bound arms down from where they had been above her head. Kim didn't even flinch as they raced towards her head. Just an inch away from the other's blonde hair Kairi felt a jarring shock as her bound hands collided with some invisible force and bounced back.

"I told you," Kim said smugly. "Lightsteel Keyblade armour, bitch. It's plate armour and completely covers me, except for the open-faced helmet I've got. Ha, it only _looks_ like I'm wearing a metal bikini and leather skirt, but I'm just as protected as full plate!" She leaned down towards Kairi's head again, and squeezed the breast she still held onto harder. "So maybe you'd like to rethink those words."

Kairi growled, even though her fear was now triumphing over her anger. She still had to keep up a brave face, even if it was entirely a bluff to avoid letting on just how terrified she was of her current situation. "No matter what you do to me, I won't submit to you or Maleficent. So what if you're stronger than me? My friends will stop you."

Kim laughed. A giggle at first, followed by a louder and deeper chuckle. "I'll let you in on a little secret, slave. Heartless are attacking all over the city and nobody knows that you're here. They'll all think that you're fighting the Heartless in some other troubled part. Nobody's going to come looking for you, and nobody's going to save you this time." Kim slammed Kairi's hands back to their place beyond her head. She summoned her Keyblade again, and pointed at the space just beyond her hands. "Hemataga."

An iron spike shot out of the volcano-like protruding key of Kim's Keyblade, a chain jangling behind it. Wood splintered as the spike drove into the boardwalk, and the chain wrapped itself around the planks that had snaked their way around Kairi's wrists, binding them all together. The chain itself was barely two feet long, and gave Kairi almost nothing with which to use in order to fight back.

"Now then, slave," Kim began as her Keyblade once again vanished. "It's time for your punishment." Kim ripped the zipper of the cloak down until the garment was completely open, and she pushed it aside so that the only purpose it now served was to act as a fabric barrier between Kim's knees and the boardwalk.

Kairi gasped as the 'armour' Kim was wearing glowed again with golden light, expanding and branching off to different parts of her body. The light faded, and Kim now appeared to be in a black corset, with black leather bracers laced together on either arm from the wrist almost to the elbow, knee-high black leather boots, and fingerless black gloves. She no longer wore a skirt or anything of the sort, but instead her bottom was openly covered by matching black underwear. She summoned her Keyblade again, and the dark blade shortened in length and thinned until it resembled a black riding crop, though it still retained its keychain of a basalt rock over a circle of lava.

Kairi tensed as Kim smacked the instrument in her hands a few times. "Now then, slave, let us begin." Kairi shrieked as Kim yanked her bra down, exposing her breasts to the blonde, and Kairi looked away.

_No, no this can't be happening! This isn't happening! Sora! Naminé! Riku! Someone help me!_

Kairi felt Kim's hands around her neck, and a bit of weight left her chest with the sharp jingling sounds of metal. Kim had removed the necklace Sora had given her not even an hour ago and was fastening it around her own neck. "Hey, no! That's mine! Give it back you bitch!" Kairi immediately paid for her outburst with a sharp strike across her right nipple with the riding crop.

"You do not speak without permission," scolded Kim as Kairi gasped from the strike. "Jewelry like this is wasted on a slave," Kim added, smiling at the necklace and holding it up. "Besides, it looks much better on me."

"I'll kill you," Kairi hissed. "I swear I'll kill you! Ah!" She cried out as Kim struck her again with the riding crop.

"Every time you open that filthy mouth without permission I shall hit you," Kim explained in an even tone. She placed the pad of the crop just against the pink nub sticking out of Kairi's right breast. "Do you understand?"

Kairi defiantly remained silent.

Kim struck it again with her riding crop, forcing another gasp out of her captive. She struck Kairi twice more, once against the opposite nipple, and once right between the shallow mounds. "When I ask for an answer I expect one, slave," Kim said as she lashed Kairi with the crop. "I asked you, do you understand me?"

Gritting her teeth and looking away as tears welled in her eyes from pain, shame, and fear, Kairi answered in a quiet voice. "...Yes."

Kim prodded her with the crop. "Yes...?"

Kairi looked back and glared, refusing to answer the prompt. Instead of the crop, Kim grasped Kairi's nipple between her right index finger and thumb, and began to rub both back and forth. Kairi grimaced at the sensation, and tried to hold back her yelps as Kim smacked it a couple of times.

"My, slave," Kim cooed as she watched both become hard as pebbles, "you seem to be enjoying this."

"No I'm not," refuted Kairi. She winced as Kim grabbed both and began to tweak them between her fingertips, rubbing, pulling, and squeezing intermittently. Kim squeezed one particularly strongly, and Kairi arched her head back and bit her lip.

"What did I tell you about speaking without permission?"

Kairi gasped as Kim twisted.

"Fuck you," she hissed.

Frowning, Kim smacked Kairi's cheeks with the crop. She continued to tease Kairi with her fingers, and the redhead gritted her teeth and tried not to look. She squirmed under duress from the torment.

_Please, make it stop. Sora please, find me soon!_

Something wet touched her breast, and Kairi gasped when she saw that Kim was licking all around her excited nipples. Her breath came in faster as she watched and felt the roughness of the blonde's actions. "No. Don't..." She implored, squirming even more and trying to wiggle free.

Kim bit down on the nipple, drawing a howl out past Kairi's teeth, and then removed her mouth with a wet 'pop'. She removed the red bra that adorned Kairi's underbust, leaving her completely topless before the victor. Kim returned to her prior position of dominance, almost leaning back to leer down at the expression on Kairi's face, an expression which frequently changed.

"I think you're ready now," Kim announced. Kairi glared up at Kim, and suddenly Kim got off of her waist. She gripped Kairi's hips with both hands, and a moment later she had flipped the Princess of Heart over. Kairi wondered for only a moment as to what Kim had in store for her with her ass up in the air, then her blood ran cold as she felt Kim's fingers run up and down the crotch of her black pants.

"Yes," Kim said, rubbing against the fabric. "You _are_ damp down here. You are enjoying this, you little slut."

"No! Stop!" Kairi shrieked. She could no longer feign anger or defiance. Kim yanked down both Kairi's pants and underwear in a swift motion, and whipped her six times across the rump with the crop.

"You! Do! Not! Talk! Back! Slave!" Kim shouted, punctuating each word with a stinging slap of the riding crop against Kairi's ass.

"No! Please don't!" Kairi screamed as Kim started rubbing the fingers of her right hand against Kairi's precious opening. "Anything but that! Nobody's touched me there!"

"Nobody?" Kim laughed. "Well this is too good! Here I thought you were trying to be modest, but you were telling the truth! You are a little virgin bitch, and now I get to be the one to take you!"

She had increased the speed of her rubbing while she had been speaking, and Kairi bit her lip and held back the moan as tears leaked from her eyes. "N-no! Stop it Kim, please! I don't want this!" She cried out as Kim struck her again with the riding crop, but never let up rubbing the lips between Kairi's legs. With every complaint and urging from Kairi for Kim to stop, she received a lash, and soon both cheeks were stinging and red. Finally Kim removed her hand, and Kairi whimpered as the other teen brought them to her lips, coated in the juices she'd coaxed out from the redhead.

"I love this taste," Kim said, licking at the shine in the moonlight. "And now you can see yourself for what you are, you hussy. You're just begging for this."

Kairi's eyes widened and her voice came out in a garbled cry as Kim swiftly placed the tip of her index finger right against the middle of Kairi's wet vagina. "No! Don't do it!"

"You know, I think I like it when I hear you beg for me not to ruin you," Kim chuckled. Kairi involuntarily gasped as Kim didn't say another word and plunged her finger right in. She'd never plucked up enough courage to even put her own fingers inside, and now Kim, _Kim_ of all people, had just taken what she had been saving for Sora.

"Sora, I'm sorry," Kairi whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"What's that?" Kim trilled. "Apologizing to your man because I've gotten you first? Oh it's too bad he's not here to watch this, but hey, he might even be turned on from the show you'd be giving him." She started to pump her digit in and out of Kairi's wet snatch as more juices leaked out, and Kairi kept her eyes closed and head to the ground. She tried to ignore the feeling of her body's arousal and simply drown in the shame she was feeling burning in her heart.

_I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..._

Kim was laughing as Kairi's hips involuntarily moved backwards, thrusting in time with the motions Kim made, and Kairi didn't even notice as she concentrated on her internal mantra.

"Ha! You really are a slut, Kairi! You're getting so wet just from me fingering you. It's too bad I don't have anything bigger to put-" she stopped, and Kairi forced her eyes open to look behind. Kim was eyeing her riding crop with a dark light in her eyes.

A finger was one thing, but _that_!? That was crossing the line! Finding the threads of her anger buried within the shame and humiliation, Kairi grasped onto them as strongly as she could and forced them to appear on her face again. Even if it was only for a few seconds, even if Kim lashed her until she bled, she would hold out for as long as she could.

"You put that thing anywhere near my pussy, Kimberly, and I swear that you're going to regret it!" Kairi snarled.

Kim visibly balked at Kairi's tone. She hadn't been able to speak like that for the last five minutes. Kairi tried her best to withhold her shout of pain as the crop descended on her so fast that a great red welt formed almost immediately.

"**I** am the one in control here!" Kim roared. "**I** am the one deciding your fate! **I** give the orders here, not you! And **I ** am going to-!"

She stopped, frozen, and this time Kairi didn't need to wonder why because she could see it too.

A giant spider, at least thirty feet tall, was walking towards them. Eight great furry legs and eight black eyes all bearing down on the pair of them. Kairi's anger, pain, shame, and indignation all melted away as her body simply shut down at the sight of the massive arachnid, terror overriding absolutely everything. The spider reared up on its back four legs and started hissing from rubbing its fangs together. Suddenly it slapped its legs down, just missing Kairi and Kim by a scant few feet. The ground shuddered beneath the three claws Kairi could just see extending from its furry leg.

Kim was away from Kairi in a flash, screaming and working as hard as she could to gain as much distance from the giant arachnid as she could. Kairi tried tugging at the chain that still bound her to the iron spike, and found it completely immobile buried in the boardwalk. Tears dripped out of her eyes as Kairi felt uncontrollable sobs erupt from within.

"Saved and then killed by a giant spider in less than twenty seconds," she murmured. "My life...really sucks."

"Kairi!"

Wet eyes flew up along with Kairi's head at the voice. Naminé appeared out of thin air, just in front of the spike and standing directly beneath the spider's mouth.

"Naminé?" Kairi sniffed in disbelief. "Naminé...Quick, Naminé, run! That spider's about to-"

Kairi stopped as Naminé knelt down and wrapped her arms around the mostly naked redhead. "I'm so sorry, Kairi," Naminé declared, clutching her tight. "I'm so so so so so sorry I wasn't able to find you sooner."

"Naminé the spider-!"

"Is an illusion," her sister answered, still clutching Kairi tightly. "I needed it to drive Kim off. If she beat you then there was no way I'd be able to win in a straight fight." Letting go of Kairi with one hand, she summoned Rejection of Fate to it, and struck at the wood and chain binding her hands. It broke with the single chop, and Naminé quickly did the same to those trapping her ankles together. Naminé turned back to embrace her sister, and Kairi could feel the tears rolling down her cheeks and striking her neck. The spider began to walk away, heading in the direction Kim had gone. "You're safe now, Kairi."

Kairi sniffed twice, clutched Naminé tightly to her chest, and wept. Never had she been so glad to see Naminé's face in all the short time the blonde had existed.

Many minutes passed, both sisters simply holding each other and wrapped up in their own feelings. Naminé was glad that she was able to find Kairi, but devastated that Kim had been able to defeat her and had been doing such loathsome things to Kairi by the time she had arrived, and had been about to take Kairi's maidenhood with a riding crop in the most humiliating way possible!

"I want..." Naminé began in a low voice that she was sure Kairi was only able to hear due to their close proximity, "I want... I want to kill that bitch."

Kairi slowly pulled out of Naminé's embrace and looked her square in the eye. She knew that the signs of her tears were still burning fresh on her face, but it didn't matter right now. "Take me with you."

"Kairi..."

"Take me with you," Kairi insisted. Naminé looked hesitant.

"Kairi...are you fine?"

Kairi immediately shook her head. "No, I'm not fine, Naminé." She looked down at herself, and quickly pulled her pants and underwear back up from where they'd been around her knees. She hissed as the fabric slid over what Kim had done to her buttocks. "I don't know if I will be, either, but I know that right now I need to make good on my promise and make that fucking bitch regret every single time she hit me with that fucking riding crop she turned her damned shit Keyblade into! I'm a warrior, dammit, not a whore! I'm not a whore and I'm not a slave either!"

Kairi almost choked on her words as they made her feel like breaking down again, but she swallowed them down. Naminé handed Kairi the top Kim had forcibly removed from her and turned away as Kairi dressed herself again in the black cloak, zipping it up completely. Wordlessly the blonde handed Kairi an ether, which Kairi quickly put into her mouth and began chewing furiously.

"Ready to go?" Naminé asked.

Kairi summoned Ocean's Toll into her hand in a flash of light. "Let's make that bitch pay in blood."

_-LD-_

Olette worried that the amount of grinding her teeth had been doing in the last several minutes due to annoyance was going to cause permanent damage to them. She and Nikki were standing in a reasonably large square with a large water feature against its north end. Surrounding them in the air were probably hundreds of Rapid Thruster Heartless. Nikki had just removed at least thirty of them at once with a powerful third-tier magnet spell, the affected Heartless bring drawn in and getting crushed by the force of gravity at the spell's origin, but it didn't matter.

The Heartless' incessant squeaking just wouldn't stop!

Olette jumped up into the cloud of Rapid Thrusters above them and slashed her Keyblade around in a few wide arcs, each swipe cutting through two of the Rapid Thrusters with a single blow. A flash of Blizzard magic whizzed past her head, trapping half a dozen of the Heartless in a solid block of ice next to her. Olette flipped herself around, planting her feet firmly against the ice as she held her Keyblade above her head.

"Thunder!" Bolts of Thunder magic gathered at the tip of the Aubade, swirling together in a tightly condensed ball before lashing out and striking down any nearby enemies. For a brief moment, the air around Olette was free of Heartless. But the cloud of Rapid Thrusters quickly filled the gap and surrounded her once more.

A pair of the Heartless darted forward, their mobility in the air greater than Olette's. They struck at her swiftly with their beak-like helmets before darting away. Olette couldn't help but cry out as their attacks forced her back to the ground.

"Keep it up!" Nikki laughed as she nimbly cartwheeled away from several determined Heartless. "There aren't any more showing up from the looks of things, so we've got them outnumbered!"

"Yeah, three-hundred to two. We totally have them outnumbered," Olette grumbled.

"Sour grapes!" Nikki stuck her tongue out at the Chaser, not even looking as she brought her Divewing Keyblade up to cleave a trio of Heartless in two.

"You're enjoying this?" Olette facepalmed in realization. "Don't you realize what kind of danger we're in?"

"Duh! Why do you think I'm having so much fun?" Nikki leapt into the air and came crashing down, Keyblade first. The resulting shockwave reduced several Rapid Thrusters to clouds of black mist and floating, crystalline hearts. "You've got to enjoy the little things."

"We're fighting to protect a city!" Olette leapt over a Heartless as it tried to strike at her exposed legs. "How is that fun?"

"For starters? You and I are the only people nearby. So we don't have to worry about anyone else getting hurt." Thunder magic danced along the edge of Nikki's Divewing as the blue-eyed teen charged it with her magic. "So we can cut loose and enjoy the fight. Think about how good this exercise is for you!" The Divewing went spinning through the air, striking down Heartless after Heartless. With each blow landed, bolts of lightning lanced out, striking the nearby Rapid Thrusters that weren't in the Keyblade's path.

"Well," Olette murmured, "I _could_ stand to lose a few pounds."

"With the amount of training Master Xanthos put you through, I thought that you'd be pretty happy with that bod you've got there " Nikki answered, firing off another magnega spell to draw in the Rapid Thrusters.

Olette backed up a step, striking at each of five Rapid Thrusters that were coming in at her and reducing each in turn into a cloud of darkness and floating crystalline heart. "Tch. When did you get so chatty?"

"I'm usually chatty when I'm not studying." Nikki gestured with her hand toward the Heartless trapped by her Magnega spell. The Divewing came spinning back toward her through the 'night' landing heavy blows against the trapped Heartless.

"Studying?" Olette aimed her Keyblade at the cloud of Rapid Thrusters and cast a series of fire spells. Coconut-sized balls of flame launched from the Aubade's tip and rocketed into the sky in pursuit of Heartless to burn.

"I'm an active medical student. Part of Master Jenna's 'training' for me," Nikki deadpanned. She didn't even spare a glance at the Rapid Thruster trying to sneak up on her as her Keyblade dropped through the air behind her, gravity bringing the weapon down on the Heartless full force. "And let me say, from a medical point of view, you only get to look as good as you do if you're eating healthy and keeping up with your exercise. And since there doesn't seem to be a shortage of Heartless to beat into submission…" The raven-haired teen clapped Olette on the shoulder.

"You really think I look good?" Olette had her doubts. "How do I know you aren't just telling me what I want to hear?" A small group of Rapid Thrusters fell victim to the Aubade when they made the poor decision to fly too closely to teen wielding it.

"Doctor's code." Nikki leaned to the side to avoid an attack. "There's no point in lying to my patients. Especially if they're my friends."

"Since when am I your 'patient'?" The brunette gave her medically inclined friend a skeptical glance.

Nikki stuck her tongue out Olette. "Since you probably won't find someone else with medical training and degrees from three medical academies on two different worlds that's crazy enough to travel with you."

"Wait. You have three medical degrees?" Olette couldn't believe what she was hearing. "How?!"

"I've got an I.Q. of one-hundred and twenty-nine." Nikki shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.

Olette stopped, her mind needing to process this information. "So, you're the Brain?"

"'The Brain'?" Nikki spun her Keyblade around once before driving the point into the ground. Columns of earth and stone burst upward with tremendous speed to assault the Heartless above. "As in 'Pinky and..'?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of 'Arthur'," Olette said, leaping from column to column as Nikki continued to create them. She slashed left and right at the Rapid Thrusters near to her position with the Aublade, and Nikki called up in confusion.

"Arthur?"

"Yeah, you know, Arthur the Aardvark," Olette answered flippantly, tossing her Keyblade in a Strike Raid towards a particularly tight thicket of Heartless. "That old kids' show from way back when."

Nikki gasped. "I haven't seen that show in YEARS! Wait, which one was 'Brain', again?"

Olette paused. She barely noticed the squeaking of the Rapid Thrusters now. "He was that...that...whatever animal he was. The one with brown fur who always wore a grey sweater and was, like, the smartest kid in school and top of Mr. Ratburn's class. There was that one episode where he got a B and everybody freaked out, and then there was that other one that was like a library book musical episode and he got 'Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde' and sang that song where he was Jekyll Jekyll Hyde Jekyll Hyde Hyde Jekyll, Jekyll Jekyll Hyde Jekyll Hyde."

"Oh _that_ guy!" Nikki answered, watching as Olette sent out a swarm of weak lightning bolts, one each time she said either 'Jekyll' or 'Hyde', and wiping out several Rapid Thrusters with each of them. "Yeah, okay, I can take that nickname in that context. World domination with my plans always being foiled doesn't sound too good given I'm a Keyblade Wielder."

"Probably doesn't look too good on a resumé either." Olette landed near her companion, barely making noise as her feet hit ground. She placed her hand on her hip and looked up in satisfaction. "Huh, looks like we made a pretty big dent in them."

"Yeah," said Nikki. "I bet there's only around fifty or so left. Would you like to do the honours?"

"Nah, after you, Doctor Nikki."

Nikki made a pouty face and puffed out her cheeks. "I said I have three degrees, not a doctorate. I still have at least three more years to go on that, probably more with how much the worlds are going all to shit recently."

Olette laughed and lightly hopped backwards, avoiding a line of five Rapid Thrusters that had all tried to get her. Aublade and Divewing cut all five down in under a second. "So are you saying that you want to leave mopping the rest of them up to me?" Olette asked while their faces were lit by the glowing crystalline pink hearts released from their defeated foes.

"I never said that," Nikki answered with good humour, "but why don't you finish them off right here, right now, with me, together?" She and Olette grinned at each other and readied their Keyblades.

"That was totally from SNL," Olette said.

"Shut up and let's give these Heartless more cowbell!"

"Wait!" a new voice shouted right before the girls were about to leap into the fray to finish things off. "Stand back! We'll handle this!"

Olette turned her head and saw a man dressed in a brown brigandine over a chainmail shirt with steel armour on his arms and legs, and carrying a hand-and-a-half sword with golden runes etched down the length of the blade in both of his hands. Behind him were maybe as many as twenty-three other people, all but one wearing the same type of uniform as him, though the man in front had a golden palm leaf pinned to his brigandine right above his heart. All of them were panting as if they'd just run a marathon, and most of them had scratch marks and other signs of wear and tear from battle on their armour.

"No, no," Olette said calmly, holding out her hand, palm outward, towards the soldiers, "you just stay there and catch your breath. We'll handle this."

"You're only children!"

Nikki made a clicking sound with her tongue. "If I had a hundred munny every time I heard _that_ one I wouldn't need to adventure with Master Jenna in order to pay for med school." She glanced up at the Rapid Thrusters, with only a few of them eyeing the new arrivals instead of the two deadly Keyblade Wielders in front of them. "What do you say we attack them now before they decide that those guys are easier pickings than their mortal enemies?"

"I say yes, and you must have heard that _a lot_ since you have two different med schools that you're attending," Olette replied.

Nikki chuckled. "Well, variety is the spice of life." She held Divewing back behind her body and tensed, getting into a half-crouching position as she prepared to pounce. "Stand back, soldiers of Destiny Islands, and prepare to be amazed! The Doctor is in!"

"I thought that you said you didn't have a doctorate," Olette quickly interjected before her cohort could attack. Nikki fumbled for a quarter-second before regaining her posture with cheeks flushed in embarrassment and annoyance.

"Stand back, soldiers of Destiny Islands, and prepare to be amazed! The Graduate Student is in!"

_-LD-_

"Keyhole. Keyhole. Hole shaped like a key. Or a key shaped like a hole," Richard muttered as he strode out of the waves and onto the shores of the play island. He stopped shortly after reaching dry sand and looked around at the island. "If I were a Keyhole, where would I stick myself?" He tapped a finger against the side of his head.

"A hole-shaped key shouldn't be too hard to find." Richard peered around at the island. "I've never seen a hole-shaped key before though. That might make this difficult." A pair of Darkball Heartless rose out of the ground and roared directly into the warlock's face. Richard didn't even flinch.

"Ah! Perhaps you lot might tell me where I may find this hole-shaped key?" The Darkballs looked at each other in confusion. Then both burst into flames from the inside out.

Richard shook his head in disappointment and stepped through the dark mist left behind by the fading Heartless. "A simple 'no' would've sufficed," he grumbled. "Just can't find good help from a kindred spirit anymore." He strode off once more, heading further inland.

Ten more Darkballs rose up around the warlock in greeting. Fire and ice formed around the warlocks' hands. "One of you must know where I can find the key-shaped hole. And I'll just bet you're all about as talkative as your friends were back there. We'll have to change that, won't we?" The Darkballs shot straight for the warlock before he could finish.

The Darkballs on his left burst into flame while the ones on his right were impaled on oversized spears of ice. Half a dozen Invisibles rose from the shadows, swinging their massive swords over their heads. Richard placed an arm around the shoulders of one.

"I do hope you'll excuse me," the warlock said. "I'm just acting out because I don't get to kill anyone." With a snap of his fingers, the sand on the beach came alive. It reached up and swallowed the Invisibles whole.

"It's like they're not even trying," Richard grumbled. "This is why I like killing things that can think-" The warlocks' whining was cut off as an Invisible's sword ran him through from behind. "There's a sword through my chest?" Richard glared down at the weapon. Flames _fwooshed_ into existence around his hands as he spun around and punched the Invisible in the face. "That was rather uncalled for." The Heartless was blasted into oblivion, its sword remaining lodged in Richard as it went.

Richard pulled the sword out of himself. He spun the blade around once before throwing it through another Invisible's head. "Ha! Richard: Twenty. Heartless: Zero. Losers!"

A massive, jet-black fist rose from the ground and backhanded Richard. The warlock flew headfirst into the treehouse just off the beach. The treehouse collapsed moments after the impact, burying Richard beneath the wooden rubble.

"Okay. Cheap shot," Richard grumbled as he pulled himself out of the rubble. Two Darksides rose slowly from the ground, massive yellow eyes glowing brightly amongst the dark sky. A third Darkside rose up from behind the warlock, grabbing him tightly with its massive claws and hoisting him high into the air.

"As much as I'm enjoying our time together, I was thinking that-," Richard began as the Heartless brought him closer to its face. The warlock pulled his hands free and launched a rather sizeable ball of condensed flame at the spot between the Darksides' eyes. "Ha!" He cackled gleefully. The Darkside didn't even seem fazed. Richard reached into the folds of his robe and produced a twenty-sided die, which he proceeded to roll on the palm of his hand.

"A natural twenty!" Richard proclaimed victoriously. He held out his hand to the Darkside, showing off the die in his hand. "That means I win. You can fall down now." The Heartless remained standing, unimpressed by the warlock's antics, as any Heartless would be. Richard glared up at the beast. "What? Are you fourth edition?" The Darkside stared back, not a trace of emotion on its tentacle-wrapped face. Instead, it drew back its arm and threw the warlock high over the top of the play island's tallest tree.

"Heh. I'm a bird," Richard snorted gleefully as he soared over the top-most leaves. "But I can't help but think I'm forgetting something." The warlock slammed heavily into the island's other beach, sending a massive cloud of sand up into the air. Richard clambered out of the pit his impact had left behind, shaking sand out from the inside of his robes as he went.

"Ah yes. Gravity. I always forget you." The warlock lifted his face mask slightly, allowing for a small downpour of the grains to escape his face. He spared a glance up at the stars above. "Though you do have the best ideas."

Across the island, the Darksides and their horde of Heartless underlings that continued to rise from the shadows turned their attention on a tiny opening in the rock wall between the island's largest tree and its waterfall. The Heartless could feel it there. The Keyhole. The Door. The only thing between them and a heart unlike those they normally consumed.

The heart of an entire world. And it was theirs.

Or, it would have been, had Richard not dropped back out of the sky, landing firmly between the Heartless and their goal. Shadows and Neoshadows leapt back from the warlock. Invisibles and Darkballs rushed forward to attack. A cloud of Rapid Thrusters descended from above.

Richard remained unphased. His eyes were ablaze with an unholy, and very real, fire. Blood-red light surrounded his hands as he held them up to the heavens. He mumbled a chant under his breath as the flames in his eyes and the glow around his hands intensified.

"For... for... for..." the warlock repeated over and over again as he drew upon his immense power, reaching out with an invisible hand to the heavens.

A violent screeching filled the air, like metal being torn asunder by a pack of starving cats. That were on fire.

"For... for... for..."

The Heartless turned their gaze skyward. A ball of fire and steel and gummi-ship parts. From the Sea of the Worlds in the night sky above, Richard had pulled the _Kingdom_ from its orbit, and brought it screaming down toward the island he and the Heartless stood upon. Friction between the ship and the atmosphere of the world set the _Kingdom_'s hull ablaze, and Richard's unholy and unnatural magic only made the flames burn until there seemed to be less ship and more chaotic fire.

Richard leveled his gaze at the three largest Heartless that towered above their fellows. Beneath his mask, he grinned. His eyes twinkled with delight at the thought of what he was about to do. With a ferocious war cry, he brought the _Kingdom_ crashing down into the Darksides. "For PONY!"

The _Kingdom_ made impact, and exploded with tremendous force, both natural and arcane.

_-LD-_

Keila eyed Jonathan with hesitation as the Templar led Jevenan and his Nobody lackeys across a massive, carved stone bridge that lead to the third Trinity Gate. The bridge alone made the girl nervous. It spanned a massive, mile long chasm without any support beams or structures to keep it steady and secure. Nestled at the bottom of the chasm was a lake of boiling lava. Smoke and sediments were cast into the air with each bursting bubble of the molten earth, making breathing painful for all present. And the heat was nothing to sneeze at either.

_I can't remember the last time I sweated so much._ Keila grumbled to herself. Though, whether from heat, or an imminent sense of dread, she wasn't sure. The bridge itself was almost as terrifying as the prospect of falling to a fiery demise. Entire chunks of the bridge had been blown clean apart. Debris was scattered across the length of it and large boulders, clearly having fallen from the jagged stone ceiling high above them threatened to bar their path.

Ancient bloodstains were frequent across the stone. It was impossible to go more than three steps without walking in the dried lifeblood of some poor, long dead bastard. Broken and worn swords lay where they had fallen, some still grasped in the mummified hands of their owners.

But what disturbed Keila the most was the sight of well over a hundred ancient Keyblades, driven into a still solid side of the bridge like twisted spikes. What color the Keyblades had once had was now faded, leaving each only in various shades of black and grey. Each Keyblade, lifeless, separated from the hearts of their Wielders, were like tombstones. Keila couldn't help but shiver.

_Did nowhere escape the Keyblade War?_ She pondered as she slid past the Keyblades, bringing up the rear of the group. She nearly ran into the hulking brute of a Nobody, Zental, as she turned her gaze away from the weapons. Zental shot her an unamused grimace before pointing further down the path.

Leaning around the Nobody, Keila looked to see where he was pointing. Less than a hundred yards away was a massive iron-wrought door. The third and final Trinity Gate. Words of an ancient language were carved into the frame, glowing of their own accord. A pair of intertwined serpents, each easily a dozen times long as Keila was tall, were carved down the center of the door, serving as a decorative lock. On either side of the door frame, a pair of stone daises rose a few feet into the air, each glowing with runes of their own, different from the language carved into the Gate's frame.

"What now, Templar?" Jevenan asked, shoving the mayor of Fatum toward the Gate. "What riddle opens the Gate? What puzzle must we complete? What trial must we endure?"

Keila's unease continued to rise as she caught a glimpse of Jonathan's expression. It wasn't one of the defeated old man she had seen when she healed him earlier. It was determined. Smug. Confident.

Questions the teen hadn't had before suddenly rushed to her mind. _Why did he agree so easily to come along? Sure, Jevenan's tough, but his daughter's got a ton of friends around her today. And a lot of them have Keyblades. Two of them are Masters that took down all of Organization XIII and Maleficent! Jevenan and his cronies wouldn't stand a chance!_ Keila's eyes narrowed. _There's no way the Templar doesn't know all of that. He's a _Templar_ for crying out loud! Mother always told us that the Templars never lacked information. He agreed to my plan _way_ too easily._

Her internal rambling was cut off as Jonathan spoke, a grin adorning his face now. "Two of you need to stand there and there." He pointed to each dais in turn. "Then I'll speak to the Guardians to open the Gate. Nothing complicated."

Jevenan nodded in approval. "Zental. Coris. Up you go."

The brute of a Nobody and the short, stocky woman obeyed silently, each moving to stand on the daises. Keila watched in interest as Jonathan placed himself between the daises and raised one hand toward the door.

"By rite of blood and word and flesh, by the right granted to me by the Templar Order, I demand entry to the Sanctum!" The Templar's eyes lit up with a blindingly blue light as he spoke, yet he did not flinch.

The eyes of the serpents on the door flashed red for an instant. Then they came alive. Iron became flesh and scale as the serpents pried themselves from the Gate. Keila and the others instinctively stepped back, weapons appearing in their hands in the blink of an eye. The serpents paid them no heed. They eyed one another for a moment, before turning their gaze upon the daises. Zental and Coris, to their credit, didn't move a muscle as the serpents examined them.

"_**Acceptable,"**_ the serpent on the left said, its voice monotone and genderless.

"_**Though disappointing,"**_ the other hissed in the same voice.

"_**You may pass Templar. As is your right,"**_ the spoke in unison. Keila let out a breath she had been holding since the serpents came alive. Only for it to catch in her throat as each serpent darted forward with lightning speed. Quicker than the blink of an eye, they clamped down on Zental and Coris, splitting the Nobodies in two and killing them instantly. The serpents slithered the rest of the bodies away from the Gate and coiled themselves up on the daises over the vanishing legs of their victims.

"As I said, nothing complicated." Jonathan glanced back at Jevenan, now seemingly smugger than he had been before. Jevenan narrowed his eyes.

"You didn't mention sacrifice. I would've sent less _valuable_ cohorts," Jevenan said flatly. Keila didn't miss the glance the Nobody sent her way.

"Then we'd never get in," Jonathan rebutted as he turned his gaze on Keila. "The Gate requires a Keyblade to open it. And only you have one. Would you do the honors?"

Keila nodded nervously, still somewhat taken by surprise at how the serpents had reacted. She cautiously approached the door, summoning Darker than Dark to her hands as she went. She was highly aware of her hammering heart, each shortened nervous breath she took and the quaking in her knees. Would the serpents attack her like they did the Nobodies?

Both serpents turned their gazes upon her and Keila felt her blood run cold. _Not like this._ She pleaded to whatever higher power would listen. _I don't want to die!_

"_**An Apprentice."**_ The serpent on her left lowered its head. _**"Amusing."**_

"_**Such confusion in her heart,"**_ the one on her right noted. _**"So much Light for one so blinded by the Dark."**_

"_**A pity. Such power is wasted on fools who only listen to the commands of others without question."**_

"_**And she's coward as well. Clinging to the familiar, when the unfamiliar seems more natural."**_

Keila's teeth ground together as she reached the Gate. They were making fun of her! She couldn't believe it. A massive Keyhole, larger than even she was, appeared in the center of the Gate. "Don't talk about me like I'm not even here!" She snapped at the serpents. With a single swing, the girl aimed the tip of her Keyblade at the Keyhole. A beam of bright light burst forth from the Darker than Dark and entered the Keyhole. The sound of a lock being turned filled the chasm behind her and the Keyhole vanished.

"_**Tread carefully, Wielder of Shadows,"**_ one serpent hissed.

"_**Dark paths only lead to darker realms."**_ The other let out a disturbing chuckle, somewhere between a snort and a hiss. Keila ignored them and strode through the opening Gate.

The chamber beyond was perfectly round and rather small. Every inch was made from obsidian stone, from the floor, to the ceiling, to the thirteen pillars of thorns that surrounded a central pit. In the heart of the pit, floating just inches off of the ground was a small glass-like orb. Black and purple mist swirled within the orb, each seemingly vying for control within.

Just seeing the orb filled Keila with a sense of ice-cold hopelessness, boiling hot rage, smoldering envy, and the heavy burden of terror. There was no mistake in Keila's mind. There it was.

The Cornerstone of Darkness.

_-LD-_

* * *

_**PSA:**_

_Rape and sexual molestation are both very serious issues, but in modern society they aren't taken as seriously as they should be. You should not ever joke about either or take them lightly. I did not have the Kairi/Kim scene happen lightly. It took some debate with Shire Folk and my morality as the scene was being written, with a completely different direction in mind, during the planning stages of this chapter. _

_However, even the best laid plans can change as the situation calls for it and, considering the characters involved, Kim was far more likely to do what she did than what we had planned for her to do. That, and Kim's plain fucked up in the head. Cynthia's her mother, after all. Terrible parenting job; we're lucky Keila's turned out as well as she has. _

_The tiny bit of silver-lining this traumatic event has for Kairi is the possibilities for character development that hadn't existed before now, and that __Naminé saved her before Kim could get any further__._

_Remember folks, this story is _**'M'** _for a reason. Fucked up shit happens. Dark shit happens. This may be fiction, but that doesn't mean it gets to avoid bits of reality. _

_**Author's Note:**_

_Guess who wrote what. Come on, we dare you to guess who wrote at least that damning scene. You have a 33.333% chance of being right. +50 Internets to the person who hits the nail on the head. _

_So. Yeah. Another few months between chapters. What can I say? Life. Procrastination. New game obsessions that Shire Folk led me to. New game obsession that I led both Shire and I to. You know how it is. By the way, join us as citizens of Star Citizen and row through the stars beneath the black flag with us!_

_Anyway, Kingdom Hearts III! Holy shit! I know I'm late to getting to it, but still! I know I'm not the only one who has been waiting seven years for even a hint at it. My excitement cannot be contained._

_Also, when leaving guest reviews, don't be the guy that complains about waiting for new chapters or begs for them. It's not polite and I'll delete them. I post progress reports on my Twitter account. Follow me _** ShadowHorizons**_ for updates and _**Looming Darkness **_trivia. I'll be posting some trivia about this chapter over the next couple of days._

_On a related note, one Guest reviewer going by 'Guest' reviewer has been pestering me almost weekly for the past month doing all of the things I said above that were impolite. Keep it up 'Guest' and I will disable Guest Reviews because your spam is only annoying and only serves to discourage me from writing out of spite. Seriously, knock it off._

_Well, that's all for now. It's late. I'm tired. I've kept Shire up helping me add finishing touches to this thing. It's time to hit the hay. _

_**Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis.**_

_**Shadow Horizons**_

_and_

_**May the Grace of the Valar Protect You**_

_Shire Folk_

_Yo-ho! Yo-ho!__We row beneath the black flag__! __A rollickin' we go__! __We own the sea and sky__!_

_Yo-ho! Yo-ho!__We row beneath the black flag__! A rollickin' we go! __We bleed the kingdoms dry!_


	36. The Cornerstone of Darkness (Part II)

_I won't bore you with words. I'll save that for the bottom notes._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or Richard. I only own my original plot and characters._

* * *

Chapter Thirty Six: The Cornerstone of Darkness (Part II)

_Saturday, July 3rd, 4794 P.C._

_Destiny Islands_

_Chamber of the Cornerstone_

"That's it?" Jevenan said. Keila was shoved aside as the Nobody forced his way into the room. "That's the Cornerstone?"

"You sound disappointed." Jonathan limped up to the entryway, peering in after the Nobody.

The Nobody scoffed. "The Cornerstone is the very epitome of Darkness. This… bauble, cannot possibly be the Cornerstone."

"Quite the architect you are," Jonathan muttered. "The Cornerstones of Light, Darkness and Harmony are no different than the cornerstones that provide the foundation to support a building. Granted, they're supporting the whole Realm of Light, but you get the point."

He limped his way across the threshold and into the chamber. "But we aren't here to discuss the purpose of the Cornerstones, are we?" Quick as could be, he placed his hand carefully against one of the stones lining the wall.

A dull grinding sound filled the chamber as the stone was pushed into the wall. The faint sounds of ancient, hidden mechanisms echoed from behind the walls for a moment before the chamber door slammed shut behind the Templar. Light flared up along the walls, floor and ceiling, revealing a faintly shimmering shield.

"So that's how it is then." Jevenan sighed. "I suspected that you were going to pull something like this. You complied with our demands quicker than I imagined you would, considering you're supposed to guard this place above anything else."

"If it makes you feel any better, I tried activating the other traps earlier." A victorious grin spread slowly across Jonathan's face as he spoke. "To my disappointment, it would seem that their mechanisms have worn out from old age. Can't say I'm too surprised. This place has been around since the fifth Keyblade War nearly six thousand years ago."

"You do realize that you've trapped yourself in here with us, yes?"

"And we'll die here together." The Templar's tone hinted at his resignation to his fate. He glanced over at Keila. "Sorry. But I have no other choice. I can't let anyone get their hands on the Cornerstone. And I sure as hell don't plan on letting anything happen to my daughter."

The Nobody turned his back on Jonathan, facing the Cornerstone instead. Silence prevailed in the chamber for several moments. Jonathan's eyes never once left Jevenan's back and Keila was left wondering when one of them would attack the other.

"You came up with this plan rather quickly for a man so close to Death's doorstep," the Nobody noted. "And it almost would've worked too. We can't create portals of Darkness down here. And the seal you activated would make it impossible to use brute force to escape."

Jonathan's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'it almost would've worked'?"

"Did you think we would not come prepared?"

The Templar's eyes grew wide in shock as a gunshot echoed from right behind him, followed instantly by the blinding pain of a bullet tearing through his back. The room spun as he collapsed to the ground.

Gasping for breath, Jonathan tried desperately to turn his head and face his assailant, but his muscles refused to respond. The faint clacking of heeled shoes on the stone floor filled his ears as the assailant approached. Standing above him was a woman clad in a red dress under a white overcoat decorated in a thousand red roses. Clutched in her hand was a small side arm.

"I recognize you," the Templar wheezed, ignoring the blood that he was starting to cough up. "Echidna Parass. You're with the Apostles of the Star." Echidna smiled coldly down at him. "How did you get in here?"

"The same way we're going to leave," she replied. Her cold gaze turned toward the Nobody. "Do you have it?"

Jevenan stuck a hand directly underneath the Cornerstone. A dull _thump_ filled the air as purple tinted lightning arced along the Cornerstone's surface. Rather anticlimactically, the Cornerstone fell into the Nobody's open palm. He examined it for a brief moment, rolling it back and forth in his palm before tossing it to Echidna. The instant she caught the orb, the shielding preventing escape from the chamber flickered briefly and died.

"So, the Cornerstone was powering this temple," Keila noted. "That's… pretty clever, actually."

"Which means I can now do this," Jevenan said. He almost sounded pleased (as if a Nobody were capable of such a thing). With a snap of his fingers, a Corridor of Darkness formed to his side, swirling with it's black and purple energy.

Echidna turned to leave "I'll take this to Maleficent. Finish up with your business on the Islands and return to the Castle quickly." With her free hand, she drew a circle in the air before her. A portal of swirling blue energy manifested itself and grew until it was large enough for a single person to step through. Without another word, she stepped through her portal and vanished.

"That just leaves us with the small matter of what to do with you." Jevenan turned his attention once more on the fallen Templar. "You're not long for this life, from what I can tell. Not with the amount of blood you've lost from our spat earlier. And the bullet in your back." He knelt down on one knee, putting him nearly on level with Jonathan. "So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave you here, bleeding out. No one coming to help you. No way of escape. And you can join the corpses in the previous chamber. And, as you lay here, I want you to know that I'll be up there on the surface. And I'll be hunting down your daughter."

Jonathan gritted his teeth against the pain and spat in Jevenan's face. "Burn in Hell, you bastard." To his credit, Jevenan didn't so much as flinch.

"And when I find your daughter, I'm going to beat her within an inch of her life," he droned on, rising up once more. "All the while, I'll be sure to tell her that it's all because you chose to save your own skin instead of protecting her." He grinned maliciously. "She doesn't need to know the truth after all."

"I'll kill you!" Jonathan roared. He struggled to push himself up with one arm, only for the Nobody to kick it out from under him. "I swear I will see you killed." Jevenan peered down at him for a moment. Then summoned one of his arm blades into existence.

"No. You won't have the chance." The Nobody lunged forward, plunging his blade deep into Jonathan's chest and twisted the blade. "Thanks again for your help, Templar." Jonathan howled as the blade was pulled free from him. Faintly in the gloom and through the blurriness of his pain-affected vision, the fallen Templar was forced to watch as Jevenan's silhouette stepped through the portal of Darkness and was gone.

_-LD-_

_Fatum Central Square_

A piercing scream filled the square as a Berserker raised it's hammer high above its head, ready to bring it crashing down on a young woman's head. The sound of the hammer rushing downwards filled her ears, nearly drowned out by her own screams.

Seconds ticked by and the blow never came. The woman opened her eyes and immediately took sight of an armor-clad teen standing between the Nobody and her. In his hand was a blade that she couldn't clearly make out, but half of the hilt was an angel's wing. His other hand was tightly gripping the shaft of the Berserker's hammer. The Nobody's arms were shaking heavily as it tried with all its might to bring down the weapon, but the teen didn't budge.

"Are you hurt?" the teen turned his head slightly, peering back at the woman through long silver bangs. A stiff shake of the head was all he received in response. "Good. Then you can still run. Head for the north district. The Defense Force has the path to there cleared." The woman didn't need telling twice.

Riku kept an eye on her until she was out of sight before he shifted his focus back to the Nobody before him. "Right then. Where were we?" His grip tightened against the shaft of the Nobody's claymore as he began to apply pressure back to it. The claymore fell back, slowly at first, but then rapidly losing ground as Riku gained momentum. Riku shoved, the sword flew back and left the Berserker wide open. In that half second he had, Riku took his perfect opportunity, and slashed the Berserker twice across the chest before burying Way to the Dawn into its body up to the hilt.

The Nobody burst apart in a shower of white sparks and munny, and Riku quickly pocketed the cash while keeping an eye out for more enemies.

"Very good, Riku," Dawn said. "According to my calculations, this will bring your current bank balance up over forty-three thousand munny. These creatures really are quite lucrative."

Riku grumbled as the numbers flashed in gold on the HUD in front of his eyes. "Great, Dawn, but I don't need to see it right now. In case you didn't notice, we're in the middle of a war zone."

"And I thought that you'd be pleased," Dawn pouted, retracting the number, but only minimizing it so that it still blinked close to the lower-right corner of his vision.

"Dawn…"

"What? You'd be excited too if you knew all the bells and whistles this thing comes with! Did you know I can change the language interface to one of seven hundred languages? Seven hundred!"

"Great!" Riku twirled the Way to the Dawn in his grip before running it through the head of an Creeper as it lunged toward him. "How about you turn the motion tracker back on? I could really use it at a time like this."

The upper left hand corner of his HUD was briefly filled with an image of Dawn as she stuck her tongue out at him. "I thought you said it was distracting?"

"I changed my mind!" Riku snapped, deflecting a volley of energy bolts fired by a group of Snipers. "Turn it back on!"

"Stop being so wishy-washy," Dawn griped. She snapped her fingers and the motion-tracking system reactivated. Her image vanished just as red lines outlined the objects in Riku's view, fluctuating with every movement. A small circle flared to life, just on the upper right edge of the HUD, displaying a series of smaller red circles dancing around a yellow one at the center.

"Hey, could you also get rid of that munny counter?" It vanished from his vision just as three of the red dots on his mini-map vanished and reappeared in a tight circle around the centre yellow dot.

Reacting on instinct, the armored teen leapt into the air. The lances wielded by three Dragoons passed only through thin air. He twisted, Thunder magic gathering along his Keyblade as he took aim. An impact between his shoulder blades ruined it, and he misfired the spell into the ground. Riku rolled away to his right, and something heavy slammed into the ground where he had been standing, cracking the stone and kicking up debris.

Though dust and debris clouded his visor, a distinct red outline took form around the offending attacker, revealing the form of another Berserker slowly lifting its claymore out of the ground. The silhouettes of the three Dragoons leapt down directly in front of him, each moving to attack. Even with his vision slightly impaired, it made no difference to Riku; he knew how to fight blindfolded.

He made them look like they were standing still, quickly striking all three Dragoons with a flurry of hits from his Keyblade that left them staggering before slicing all three apart with one more stroke. He turned around, still seeing the Berserker outlined in red through the darkness and the dust. It's body was shrinking as it reached up to hold onto its claymore high up the grip, and the giant hammer-like sword began to glow with blue light.

Riku leapt out of the way as it commenced its attack, and even tossed a few Dusks into its way. The Berserker mashed them like potatoes beneath its weapon, and Riku kept out of the way as it chomped down towards the ground, and flew around in a wide arc.

"Riku, I have detected-"

"Already on it, Dawn," Riku answered, catching sight of the Berserker flying up above him and charging its weapon full of energy. He leapt out of the way just as the claymore cake crashing down and escaped the powerful close-range shockwaves of pent-up power. The Berserker returned to full height, and Riku quickly stabbed it in the back. The Berserker burst apart, and Riku's eyes quickly tracked the movements of the Nobodies around him.

He swung Way to the Dawn, deflecting a shot from a Sniper Nobody right back at it and scoring a perfect headshot. Red dots swirled around the centre yellow dot on the map in the upper right corner of his vision, though one of them had just vanished. A Dancer came at him, reaching for his ankles. Riku dodged her, jumping into the air and spinning with a twist that sliced the Nobody through twice, and cut apart the other Dancer coming at his other side equally. Riku landed, crouched. A Dragoon came at him; he killed it, slipping underneath its lance and stabbing it deep in the chest.

"Is this the best they can do?" Riku asked, shaking his head pitifully.

No sooner had the words left him, than a Sorcerer rose up in a flash of white, flanked on all sides by Snipers, Dancers and Dusks. Dawn gave a small sigh.

"Any other questions you want answered?" Red exclamation points appeared over the Snipers on Riku's HUD. "On the bright side, now you can test out the tracking feature I uncovered."

The Way to the Dawn came up, countering one of the Dancers as the Nobodies attacked. "You're enjoying this!" He spun and drove his Keyblade through the arms of another Dancer, pinning it to the ground below. The Nobody looked up at Riku just as he brought an armored boot forward in a powerful kick.

He rolled to the side as the Dancer faded away. Three bolts from the remaining Snipers struck where he had been not a second a later. Three red arrows on the edge of Riku's HUD gave him a general idea as to where they were. The Sorcerer, however, seemed determined to prevent him from attacking the Snipers. Cubes of solid, rose colored magic formed in front of the Nobody.

The cubes launched at him. He thrust his hand out in front of him. A spherical barrier of darkness surrounded him, effortlessly deflecting the cubes. He raised the Way to the Dawn up to eye level and took aim at the Sorcerer. An orb of swirling blue and black magic launched from the Keyblade and rocketed straight for the Nobody, only to be intercepted by more cubes.

"This is getting nowhere." Riku let out a groan of irritation as another bolt from a Sniper narrowly missed him.

"Look on the bright side," Dawn chimed in cheerfully, "There's only four enemies left!"

Golden light surrounded Riku's right hand as he stared down his opponent. "Bright side. Right." The light spread from his hand and quickly enveloped the Way to the Dawn, extending well beyond where the blade ended. Small, curved black spikes formed along the edge of the blade, each nearly six inches in length. Smirking beneath his visor, he placed his free hand against the crossguard and clenched tightly. "I think it's about time to wrap this up." He yanked his hand back from the Keyblade, dragging a chain-shaped cord of light with it. The Way to the Dawn gave a roar like the start of an engine. The spikes quickly became a black blur as they began to move along the blade.

He lunged forward with a tremendous burst of speed as the Sorcerer's cubes rapidly formed a wall between them. Riku brought the Way to the Dawn down on the cubes, the Sunblade magic effortlessly tearing into them. More cubes formed as the Sorcerer moved further away from Riku in an attempt to save itself. The Sunblade raged on in its Wielders grasp, and the Sorcerer's defense fell with ease.

Riku leapt back as the wall of cubes continued to form, slowing him down even with the Sunblade active. He drew his blade back and gripped it tightly with both hands. He vanished in a flash of light and reappeared just behind the Sorcerer, Keyblade extended out in front of him. Quick as could be, Riku spun and brought his weapon down on the Nobodies shoulder. The Sorcerer shook and convulsed as the Sunblade dug into it, shredding its way down the its midsection.

Riku let out a sigh of relief as the unmistakable sound of clinking munny and vanishing Nobody filled his ears. "You sure knew how to get on my nerves, you know that?"

The inside of his visor flashed a red warning right across the center of his vision. A split second later, a Sniper's round struck his shoulder, sending him stumbling forward. With a growl of irritation, Riku twisted around and prepared to attack. To his surprise however, the last Sniper was already fading to mist by the time he had it in his sight.

On a balcony high above him, Sora stood proudly, Kingdom Key resting on his shoulder. The brunet waved down at him. "Hey, Riku! There you are! Wait, is that you!? Where'd you get the kickass armour?"

The Sunblade's light spikes slowed and faded as the roaring engine sound dwindled into silence. With a simple thought, Riku's helmet vanished, allowing him to grin back at Sora.

"Master Xanthos, and here I was, thinking I was doing all of the work." The Way to the Dawn vanished in a flash of light. "Where've you been for the past half hour?"

"There's Heartless all over the place." Sora leapt down from the balcony. "I've been trying to find Kairi and the others."

"Any luck besides me?"

Sora shook his head. "I was with Nanaki a few streets back, but we got separated when she took off after some Invisibles."

"Then why didn't you stick with her?" Riku frowned. "Lead by example and all that, _Master_ Sora." Sora let out a laugh.

"It's not like I had a choice. I'm running from a Seraph."

"A what?"

There was a loud crash and a rain of debris as a building next to where Riku was standing practically Heartless that emerged was about seven feet tall. Its skin a dark, purplish-bruise color. Black mist hung around in place of its head with two pairs of glowing yellow eyes floating in the center. On each hand it had seven long black claws in place of fingers. Emblazoned on its chest, just below its neckline, was the Heartless emblem.

"That," was Sora's reply.

_-LD-_

"Fancy meeting you here," Nikki said as she sliced the Divewing through the last two Shadows in the immediate area. She turned to look at him properly, adjusting her hair slightly under her hood. "Prince, right?"

"A-actually, it's P-Pence, "he replied, his cheeks turning pink while he averted his eyes. His throat felt dry, and his heart was pounding.

_Dammit! Why can't I freaking talk to her?_

"I figured that you'd be with your friend, Hayner," Nikki added nonchalantly, "or getting to safety. No offence, but you don't really seem like the fighting type."

"I'm not, really," Pence muttered, looking down at the weapon in his hands. "But, Hayner and I got separated, and this shotgun I picked up only has two rounds left. I'm just glad I ran into one of you guys."

_Great job, Pence,_ he berated himself, _now you made it sound like you're a coward. I'm such an idiot!_

Nikki sighed. "I bet you are; now you won't get yourself killed. Stay close and keep up. Neither of us really know the layout of this city. They could get the jump on us from anywhere."

Pence nodded but didn't say anything. His throat felt constricted, preventing him from saying anything else it deemed as stupid. The street was barely lit, only a quarter of the lights along the side functioning and nearly all of the added decorations and lighting for the Sun's Shadow Festival wrecked.

Pence wracked his brain in the gloom as he walked behind Nikki, trying desperately to come up with something to say to break the ice with Nikki and not dig himself a bigger hole.

"Say, uh, what do you think we should do?" He asked.

"Find the others and fight Heartless along the way," Nikki answered. "Olette and I split up a little while ago after clearing a square. She went with the Destiny Islands soldiers to make sure they didn't die, and I left to find the boss."

"The boss?" Pence asked. He turned his head, thinking that he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. There was nothing there but the wooden wall of a shop front.

"There's no way these Heartless are all here on their own because they felt like it," Nikki reasoned. "It's far too large and coordinated. Somebody unleashed them here, and they had to have known that there were so many Keyblade Wielders here at the time, too. There's no way Maleficent's intelligence is that shoddy, not with the people she has working with her. So I'm going to find out who did it and beat the why out of him."

"Really? All by yourself?" Pence asked.

"I may be just an apprentice but I can handle myself," Nikki answered, perhaps a bit sharper than what Pence felt his comment warranted. "Master Jenna has faith in me. I can do this."

"I-I never said you couldn't," Pence quickly countered, increasing his pace to catch up since Nikki seemed to want to speed through the street. He caught sight of something it looked like Nikki hadn't. "Hey! Watch out!"

Nikki turned her head, and was sent flying as a Darkside punched her. She struck the side of a building and crashed right through it. Pence shouted her name and rushed in through the hole before the Darkside could do anything else. Nikki was lying in a pile of rubble in what was somebody's kitchen. Bits of wood and stone from broken counters covered her front, and blood flowed down from a wound on her head.

"Bastard!" Nikki grumbled as she lifted her head up. "Cheap shot."

"Are you okay?" Pence asked quickly. "You're bleeding."

"I'm fine, and I'm going to take that guy out, so would both of you zip it," Nikki fired back. She paused, and lay back down in her rubble pile. "On second thought, I'm not. I need a little time to rest."

"Well here is not going to cut it for that," Pence told her. He reached down to help her up. "Come on, let's get to someplace safe before they come after us."

"Where, though?" Nikki wondered. "These things are all over the city." She stood up, swaying slightly on sketchy balance before righting herself.

"I don't know, but out of here through the front door isn't really an option right now," Pence said, looking around. The Shadows were just skulking around by the hole in the wall, seemingly unwilling to enter the house after them. "Well if they aren't following us let's make another exit," Pence declared, turning towards the large glass window next to the sliding glass door. He pressed his shotgun up against his shoulder and braced himself while keeping his knees nice and loose.

"I'm sorry, whoever owns this place," Pence declared, and pulled the trigger. His shotgun blast was loud in their ears, and the sound of the glass breaking broke through it like a knife. He and Nikki kicked the broken shards at the bottom away before fleeing into the yard.

"Look!" Nikki said. "It looks like there's some kind of temple across the street. Maybe that's why the Heartless aren't following us."

"I've never heard of the Heartless to avoid holy places," Pence said.

"Neither have I," Nikki agreed. "Maybe they have set up some kind of protective enchantment around the place?"

"Well we should just get there right now," Pence said as they reached the wooden fence around the small yard. "It looks safe enough."

The building was large and white, with a sunrise created of many rose, yellow, and red gemstones on the face of the central tower that rose up out of the square block that the majority of it appeared to be from the angle they were looking at it. A small lawn grew in front, with palm trees flanking the large double doors in lines of four down both sides of the path to the doors. There were faces in the windows, some looking panicked.

Pence felt the ground shudder under his feet and turned his head in the direction of the noise. The Darkside was starting to come around the corner in the street, coming after them.

"Let's go!" Pence said, and vaulted over the fence. Nikki was right beside him, but stumbled a little on her landing. The doors to the temple opened as they started to book it across the road, revealing a pair of men.

"Come on! Come on, this way!" They shouted. "You're almost here!"

The moment the two teens crossed the threshold of the yard they felt...something, as if they had just passed through a curtain of water but remained completely dry. Pence shook his head anyway, and only turned his head when they reached the door. The Darkside and other Heartless had come right up against the lawn, but had stopped just before the first blades of grass. It was as if some invisible force was keeping them out.

"Get inside, quickly," one of the men said. "The barrier keeps them out, but you'll be safer inside the temple."

"Thank you," Nikki said, stepping inside first. Pence followed her, with the two men coming inside after them. It was as they were locking and barring the door that Pence saw crossbows across their backs and quivers bristling with bolts hooked to their belts. "What is this place?" Nikki asked.

The awe in the female teen's voice caused Pence to turn around, and he felt himself hushed as he looked upon a very large marble statue, easily twenty feet tall or more, of a man riding on the back of a great bear. In his right hand and raised to the sky was a composite recurve bow, and on his back rested a quiver filled with arrows.

Before Pence or Nikki could even ask who the statue was of, the two of them were ushered away from it. "You're in the temple of Arcturus, the Dawnbringer ," one of the men who had opened the doors for them said, guiding them further into the building. "You're injured. Come this way so that we can get a look at you."

"Very well," Nikki said, reaching around her person for something. "I'm sure that I just need to rest a bit, though." She pulled out a thin metal rod that had a strange red cord inside of it, which she yanked out. Pence watched as Nikki pushed up the left sleeve of her black cloak and wrapped the cord around her arm, and then pressed down on the top of the rod with her thumb. The rod suddenly split into two rods, and a very thin screen stretched out between the two as Nikki looked at it with her lips becoming very thin. She rolled it back up, pressed the button again, and unwound the cord from her arm. It shot back inside of the tube. "Yeah, I definitely need some rest."

"Nikki?" Pence asked.

"My mana's shot," Nikki told him regretfully. "I used up too much when Olette and I were fighting a horde of Heartless in that square a little while ago." She grimmaced and wiped some of the blood from her forehead. "Not to mention this hurts."

Pence didn't know what to say, so he said nothing, and kept walking. There were people huddled together along the sides of the walls, in groups of families, friends, or strangers, all of them taking refuge inside from the Heartless beyond the temple's doors. Soldiers and temple guards like the one they were following paced the halls, but there weren't many of them.

The pair were led through a door into another room. This one was also filled with people, but many of them were on cots or mats and the room also smelled of blood. One woman, presumably one of the temple's healers, looked up as they entered.

"Two more," the man leading them said. "The girl needs to get looked at for sure."

"Yes, thank you Jorry," the woman said softly. She nodded her head and the man, Jorry, left the way he came. She turned her attention towards Nikki and Pence. "Come. This way please. You're safe here."

She led them to a few empty chairs against one wall close to another open doorway. Pence and Nikki sat down after a simple gesture from her and she immediately knelt in front of Nikki. "My name's Redheart," she said as she pushed aside Nikki's hair to get a look at the cut on her head.

"Nikki," answered the girl, staying perfectly still to let the woman work.

"Nikki, that's a nice name," Redheart complimented with a smile. She reached down for her bag and pulled out a few disinfectant swabs. "Fortunately for you this cut isn't so bad," she told Nikki while she cleaned it up, Nikki unable to withhold her wince at the alcohol. "However, it does look like it's starting to develop some swelling and bruising. How did you get this?"

"A Darkside caught her off-guard and punched her through a wall," Pence answered.

Redheart looked at him sharply. "A Darkside? No, nevermind." She turned back to Nikki. "Remove the cloak please."

"What?" Pence asked.

"Okay," Nikki said, immediately beginning to obey.

"What?" Pence repeated.

"From what you just said she's suffered severe impact trauma to her abdomen," Redheart explained. "I'll need to do a thorough examination of the area and I can't do that while she's wearing this black cloak. Besides," she gave him a shifty look, "don't you like seeing your girlfriend when she's not covering everything up like this?"

Pence immediately felt his face flush and he found himself speechless while Nikki finally (in Pence's mind) showed signs of embarrassment. She looked away from the temple healer without delay, her cheeks regaining colour at a rapid pace. "He's not my boyfriend," she said quickly.

"G-g-girlfriend?" Pence asked, finally managing to get his tongue to work. Nikki's eyes met his, and for a moment they were both silent as they simply looked into one another's eyes. Hers were deep, like a river of milky chocolate. The moment lasted only a second, but it seemed like it lasted an eternity before it ended as both he and Nikki regained their wits at the same time. His next words were lost in the jumble created between him and her as they both refuted Redheart's idea that they were dating, as they had only interacted a couple of times before finding each other on the street a few minutes prior, and at best were acquaintances or friends of a friend would be a more accurate term.

All of which caused Redheart to laugh.

"What's funny, Redheart?" another healer asked.

"Oh nothing, Gloria," Redheart answered. "I just assumed that this young man and woman who came in together were dating, that's all." Nikki shed the cloak, pointedly not looking at anyone while a nearby patient who was shirtless but bandaged up commented with a humoured laugh of, "Kids."

Pence then looked at Nikki again, and he carefully ensured the safety was on his shotgun before he put it down, because otherwise he might have fired it by accident since his stomach started to do somersaults and he did not know what would happen next. Underneath the black cloak, Nikki's brown hair was let down, long enough to reach a quarter of the way down her upper arms, and her bangs were held out of her eyes by a silver and lapis lazuli hairclip. Tiny garnet earrings rimmed with silver were in her earlobes, catching the interior lighting just right enough to sparkle. As far as her clothes went, Nikki's top was a slightly subdued light blue t-shirt with the rod of Asclepius on the left sleeve in white, and a light yellow sash around her waist above a white skirt.

There was still a blush on her cheeks, which made Pence's heart rate increase as his thoughts whirled but focussed on one point.

_Okay Pence, she's gorgeous, she's a Keyblade Wielder, she can kick hordes of Heartless butt, and she is so far out of your league that the moon is closer, but she's around your age. Remember, she's still a high school age girl; she's normal!_

Nikki's sudden gasp woke Pence from his thoughts. She was clutching her arm up in front of her and facing away from the healer, whom had just touched her chest around her stomach.

Redheart's mouth had formed a very thin line as she gave Nikki a stern look. "It appears you're hurt more than just that bump on your head."

"It's nothing, I'm fine," Nikki refuted. "Besides, I've had worse than this."

"Hearing that does not make me happy," Redheart said. "Now remove the shirt, please. I need to check on the extent of your injuries."

"I said I'm fine!" Nikki answered. "I reject your diagnosis."

"Nikki," Pence started, "you got punched through a wall! If you're hurt you should really get looked at."

"I'm fine," Nikki repeated. "I can't let a little thing like this stop me. I've got to take out whoever's controlling the Heartless. This is my first time on my own; I'd dishonour Master Jenna if I let myself get taken out of the fight like-uah!" Her face scrunched up in pain and mouth opened soundlessly as Redheart firmly placed her hand against Nikki's stomach.

"You must be a very brave young girl to have held in that you were in so much pain," Redheart declared simply, "and I don't know what you were doing, but your fight ends here."

"I'm...fine..." Nikki squeaked out.

Pence growled and snatched her arm by the wrist. The sudden contact caused Nikki to look at him, startled. For a moment, Pence froze at her expression. She appeared frightened, like an injured fawn surrounded by wolves, and it was probably from more than his sudden action. Then his frustration won out and he thawed.

"Stop being so stubborn!" Pence hissed. "You're hurt and you told me yourself that your mana levels are garbage. You can't fight right now, even if you are a badass Keyblade Wielder, so suck it up and let Redheart tend to your wounds."

"Then who's going to go looking for that boss that unleashed all of these Heartless here?" Nikki snarled.

"I will," Pence answered definitively, not quite sure how much of his answer was baseless machismo.

Nikki scoffed. "You? Please. You don't have a Keyblade, you aren't trained to fight, your shotgun only has one round left, and you don't look like you could handle a day at the gym, let alone a pack of Heartless. Drop the macho act, nacho man."

Pence felt a solid lump of lead drop into his stomach, but he ensured his face was stone-cold. He didn't answer her as he stood from the chair and left the gun behind.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Nikki asked.

Pence remained silent as he left the room.

He walked, not caring or knowing exactly where he was going within the temple. He barely noticed the layout of the temple or even the colour of the walls. Nobody questioned him walking around. This was a place of peace in a time of trouble; walking around was a perfectly normal thing for him to do. The floor shuddered beneath his feet a few times, maybe four, and he heard some people whispering fearfully that the monsters were trying to break through the barrier.

Eventually he found himself standing in front of the statue he'd seen when he and Nikki, _no, don't think about Nikki_, had entered. There was writing on the plinth below where the bear stood that Pence hadn't had time to notice before.

ARCTURUS, LORD OF LIGHT

Pence looked up at the statue, staring into the eyes of the man riding the bear. They seemed large, larger than their physical size, as if the entire island could fit inside of them like an ant in a ten gallon bucket. They were so large that they threatened to swallow Pence up inside of the white marble that made the statue.

Then the statue was looking at _him_!

Every muscle in Pence's body froze. From his heart to his diaphragm and even the tiny tissues in his toes, everything stilled under the soul-piercing stare of the statue. He was naked, exposed, insignificant as dust in the solar wind. There was a definite sensation of falling backwards, yet he never touched the floor behind him, and his eyes swam with the image of that man's eyes boring into him. Pence felt his mind on ice, something was touching him, probing him, learning of him.

And it felt..._good. _Better than good, in fact, it was a pleasant sensation. Despite the complete paralysis of his body and the overwhelming might of the statue's eyes, there was no fear in Pence's mind. A gentle wind was sifting through his ears, whispering to remain calm, that he was safe, that everything would be alright.

The statue started to move. No, move wasn't quite right, the statue _lived_. Pence's chest unfroze as the breath of the bear touched his nose, and he began to breathe as well. The bear sniffed at him, and turned its head to look up at its rider as best as it could. The man looked down at his mount, and then at Pence again. Pence watched in awe as he lowered the arm that held the magnificent white composite recurve longbow, and started to extend it towards Pence. With trembling fingers, Pence reached out towards it.

"Are you interested in the statue, young man?"

Pence blinked and turned to look at who had spoken. There was a man standing beside him, robed in white and carrying a staff capped by a sunrise symbol like what was outside on the building's central tower. Pence looked back at the statue, and saw it frozen in place in the same pose he had first seen it in.

He shook his head. Had that all been in his mind?

"Uhm...yeah," Pence answered slowly. "Who is this statue of?"

The priest stood next to him, and looked up at the statue. "This, my child, is Arcturus the Sun God. The Dawnbringer, Lord of Light, Son of the Morning Ray, these are the names he is known by. Here, he is depicted riding on the back of his friend, the great bear Callisto, and wielding Corona, his bow."

"A Sun god?" Pence asked. "But I thought that Destiny Islands already had the Sun Goddess Sol, the Guiding Light? Isn't that what the story of this festival is about? How can you have two Sun deities?"

The priest chuckled. "An apt question. Sol is indeed the goddess who rules over the sun and all it provides for these islands, but Arcturus is a greater deity of larger power and scope. While Sol nurtures and guides us, Arcturus protects not only us here on Destiny Islands, but across many worlds. He is the god of all suns, of Light itself, and ever he cherishes life and happiness. He is a good god in the truest sense, even if he is sometimes single-minded about it. It is he who remains vigilant and watchful, despising evil in all of its forms, waging war against those who desicrate life, and keeping the great darkness in check." The priest looked away from the statue of his god and down at Pence, who was still enraptured by the piece of art. "Considering the current times, would you care to hear a local tale about him that has been passed down through the many generations?"

Pence nodded his head. Something was drawing him to this god, and he wasn't sure what.

The priest raised his arms, and looked around the entrance chamber of the temple. He looked at Pence, at the guards by the door, at the families watching outside through the windows and at the people huddled by the walls. "Come! Forget for now our troubles outside, and come together so we may hear the tale of Arcturus and Corona."

Before the priest could even begin, the temple shuddered from an even greater tremor than all the prior ones before put together. The walls and ceiling by the door started to come down with a thundering crash, struck by some kind of mighty impact. Pence looked up immediately, and his eyes widened when he saw through the flying rubble at what had caused it.

There was a giant black fist. It slowly withdrew, and along with the shouts and the screams of the civilians Pence could see the head of the Darkside that owned the fist peering into the building.

"They've broken through!" One of the temple guards shouted as Shadows began to hop in over the ruined walls of the building. "Defend the temple with your lives, men! The darkness cannot win here!"

Pence stayed rooted to the spot as the guards and Heartless clashed while everywhere else people fled the scene. A crossbow bolt flew straight into the stomach of a Shadow, punching it back before the Shadow vanished in a puff of darkness. Another three Shadows rose out of the ground behind a different guard, slicing his back open with their claws while he was turning to face them with his runeblade. He cried out in agony before his body vanished, leaving behind a glowing pink heart that floated for a moment before it was consumed by darkness and vanished.

"Let me go! I've got to help!"

Pence really didn't want to have anything to do with Nikki right now, but he couldn't help but look for her voice. She was charging towards the battle with the Divewing out in her hand, or at least she was attempting to charge towards the fighting. Redheart and a male healer were behind her, grabbing her arms and trying to pull her back. Her entire chest was covered in white bandages, as well as one on her forehead that had a splotch of red on it from the cut there. Including her white skirt, she might have passed for a girl dressing as a sexy mummy for Halloween.

The Darkside still standing over the rubble of the walls saw her right away, and raised its hand back behind its body. Nikki, despite having two adults pulling her back, had nearly made it level to the statue now.

Pence snapped out of his stunned reverie. "Nikki! Get out of here!"

"Get out of here yourself!" Nikki snapped back, bearing the Divewing Keyblade in front of her after finally throwing off the two healers. "You have no place in a fight!" Pence glanced back at the Darkside and dropped to the ground, shouting at Nikki to get clear.

The Darkside's hand swept over him, crashing through the statue of Arcturus and smacking Nikki again, along with about two hundred pounds of broken stonework. She barely had the ability to let out a shriek of surprise and pain before she collapsed into a wall for the second time in under twenty minutes. The Divewing clattered out of her hand and against a stone.

"Nikki!" Pence shouted. She was down on her stomach, one of the legs of the bear over her back and keeping her pinned. Blood was again soaking through the bandage on her head, and Pence could see some reddish spots beginning to appear on pieces of her torso that he could see. The Darkside had returned its arm to its proper place, and was looking down at the fallen Keyblade Wielder. It had a clear path through the ruined wall towards her; all of the guards were occupied fighting the numerous Shadows that had come with it.

Pence rose and took a step towards her and stopped, feeling something under his foot.

Nikki reached out with her hand towards where her Keyblade was with trembling fingers. She was in trouble; that much she knew. Before it had just been the scrape on her forehead and a mass of bruised tissues, maybe possibly extending to a rib. With the amount of pain she could currently feel, Nikki was generally certain that at least two of her ribs were fractured and that her skin had suffered lesions in multiple places. The Divewing flashed into her hand, and while gritting her teeth and trying to bear through the pain of having her back crushed by a hunk of metamorphic rock, she turned the Divewing's tip towards the floor and attempted to use it as a cane. Maybe she'd be able to get some leverage with it that'd help her back throw the rock off of it; then she could make that Darkside pay for mocking her.

Her arms shook. Her body wailed in pain. The pressure from the bear arm stuck on her back dug into her spine. "I...am...a Keyblade Wielder," she struggled to say out loud. "I...am the Apprentice...to Keyblade Master Jenna...and I...will not go down like-!"

Nikki choked as she looked up, the stone still refusing to budge even with all the strength she could muster going into moving it, and the Divewing clattered uselessly to the ground again. The Darkside was nearly on top of her, staring passively down at her. She could feel the hunger in it; she could feel it hunger for her heart, and the fear she had been keeping buried unveiled itself in the tears that leaked from her eyes.

Someone suddenly stood in the way. Red shirt, blue jeans, a messy eruption of black hair held up by a headband; it was Pence.

"Idiot…" Nikki whispered. "Run!"

"No way," Pence told her, defying the Darkside in front of them, "not when I can still fight." Nikki then noticed something clutched in his hand. It looked like the weapon that the statue had been holding.

"You dolt!" she hissed. "That's no bow, it's only stone!"

Pence grinned. "Oh really?" With a single fluid motion, Pence placed an arrow from the quiver that had been on the statue's back onto the bowstring. Nikki narrowed her eyes at it. If it was all part of the same marble statue, how come the arrows were able to come out of the quiver? Weren't they carved into it, and wasn't the quiver part of the body of the statue? Why did it look like they were _supposed_ to be individual pieces? And the strap on the quiver fit too comfortably on Pence's back. Wait, shouldn't the bow itself still be stuck to the statue guy's hand?

He thumbed the bowstring as he nocked the marble arrow to it, and Nikki saw it vibrate. Her eyes widened. Pence stood straight, bow held out in his left hand while he began to draw the arrow back. Nikki could almost see his muscles moving underneath his shirt as Pence began to speak just as the Darkside began to rear back for another punch, this one one that would probably send the two of them to oblivion. "You were right, Nikki. I haven't been trained to fight. I don't have a Keyblade and I don't know how to use a sword. Even an idiot can use a gun, but this is a weapon I have no trouble with. Now, shine!"

All of a sudden the carvings within the silver-white bow that Nikki had not seen before started to glow with golden light. She looked at it in awe as the arrowhead on Pence's nocked arrow began to glow with the same light, while for a moment it appeared that there was a spark of lightning around it. Pence loosed his arrow, and the golden-tipped projectile flew through the air in a flash to strike the Darkside right in its forehead. A great explosion of golden light lit the temple's entry hall, and all combat stopped as every eye turned towards the light. Seconds later when it cleared there was no Darkside to be seen.

"Heh, a bow that takes this much strength to use and I get a headshot on my first arrow," Pence declared with a grin. "I'm a genius."

Nikki could only watch, mouth agape, as Pence drew another arrow, nocked it, and drew back to full draw by his ear in only three more seconds. This time she could see the lightning crackling around the arrowhead as he drew it from the quiver. Pence took another moment to aim while his arrow gained the golden glow coming from the bow, and loosed. The arrow filled with light streaked through the air and struck a Shadow dead centre of the torso. The Shadow burst apart into darkness.

Pence fired another arrow, and then another. He didn't miss either shot, wiping out both Shadows. The whole thing was over a few seconds after that, with one of the guards striking down the last Shadow.

There was only silence after that, as everyone stared at Pence in awe.

_-LD-_

_There she is,_ Kairi thought, sprinting along the seashore and catching sight of her quarry. Ocean's Toll was clutched tightly in her hand, vibrating from Kairi's anger, humiliation, and hunger for retribution. "KIMBERLY!"

The blonde bimbo turned her head and appeared to sneer. "Well, look who's back for more. I guess slaves really can't escape from their masters."

"Shut your fucking mouth!" Kairi shouted, charging. She brought her Keyblade up in both hands and hurled it back down towards Kim's head. The other teen, whom Kairi noted was still in that infuriating dominatrix outfit, quickly raised her Keyblade up to block Kairi's. There was a shockwave as she stopped Kairi's advance cold, but then her eyes widened as she slid back a few feet and her arms momentarily went numb from the force of the blow.

"You have something of mine," Kairi growled, "and I am going to rip it off of you."

"What? You mean this thing?" Kim asked, laughing while gesturing at the necklace prominently featured above her chest. "I already told you, slave, that it looks much better on me and not gutter trash like you."

"FIRA!"

Kim laughed as she dodged the fireball Kairi had hurled at her. "I thought I told you before, slave, you just aren't strong enough to beat me, unless you're only getting me warmed up to continue where I left off!"

"If you think that you are going to touch me again, you're dead wrong!" Kairi retorted. She launched her body towards Kim, kicking up a spray of sand behind her while winding up for another attack. Kim raised her own weapon to block, and missed as Kairi's swooped in underneath it and struck her on the boob.

Kim looked like she was ready to explode in fury from the sheer audacity of Kairi hitting her, and especially right there. If she hadn't been wearing her Keyblade Armour, she most certainly would have sustained a pretty serious injury from the amount of force Kairi had used.

Kairi landed and crouched. She spun while Kim was still flailing from her successful attack and pointed her Keyblade at her foe. "Thunder!" A cracking bolt of lightning burst out of her Keyblade and nailed Kim in the chest. Electric sparks jittered all over Kim's body while she ground her teeth into a fine powder.

"Hrrrr..." Kim growled, her voice rising in intensity. There was no conceivable way that this girl she'd beaten into submission earlier was getting the upper hand on her! "You bitch!"

Kim rushed at Kairi, swinging her black Keyblade for Kairi's head. She was too quick for Kairi; she knew that. Her Keyblade sailed through the air on a collision course for the redhead's brain. It didn't even matter that Maleficent wanted Kairi alive; this was an insult that Kim would not permit to live.

Kairi's head wasn't there. Kim's eyes widened in shock as Kairi moved her head impossibly quickly in order to avoid the attack, dipping just underneath. Kairi slammed Ocean's Toll into Kim's chest again, grinning.

"You're fighting on my turf now, Kim," Kairi declared, jumping forward and striking Kim again before she could adequately regain her footing. "This is sand! You won't find me so easy to rape now, you lonely whore!"

Kim snarled, and the black outfit that her armour had appeared as glowed with golden light for the third time that day, and Kim now stood armoured in black and red from neck to toe, with an open-faced helmet shaped like a cobra. On her neck Kairi still saw the necklace Kim had snatched from her, glinting in the ambient light.

"If you think that that's supposed to intimidate me, keep dreaming!" Kairi shouted, launching another attack. This time Kim kept up with her, matching Kairi stroke for stroke. Kim wasn't exactly being pushed back, but Kairi wasn't gaining any ground either. Like before, her inexperience in fighting a foe who wielded her sword in her left hand left Kairi at a disadvantage, but this time Kim's inexperience in the fickleness of sand and its effect on movement and footing worked in Kairi's favour. What Kairi lacked in technique she was able to make up for in positioning, slipping away from Kim's blows when it looked for certain that Kim had her and landing strikes that Kim had thought her impossible to make.

A thunderbolt struck Kim in the back, right after she made an attack from which Kairi seemed to vanish with how quickly she'd dodged it. Kim turned around, catching Kairi sneering at her in confidence, and screamed in her throat. "I'm going to fuck you to an inch of your life you worthless slave! Force!"

"Reflect!" Kairi shouted simultaneously with Kim's declared gravity spell. Kairi's honeycomb protection erected immediately, countering the increased gravity she would otherwise have been subjected to, leaving her wide open. Kim backed away immediately, slipping up a little as the sand acted as cushions beneath her feet.

It wasn't enough, though.

"Burst!" Kairi shouted, and her shield came apart, condensed into many magical orbs of blue arcane energy. Many of them struck Kim as they expanded and exploded outwards in a ring around Kairi, knocking the girl off of her feet. Kairi took full advantage of the moment she had, and quickly reached Kim's body as she lay on her back. "Fira!"

Her fireball impacted Kim dead centre of the chest, pushing Kim further into the sand and keeping her down for another precious moment. Kairi kneeled, and very quickly snatched her necklace back. "I'll take that!" Kairi hissed, and took off running before Kim could retaliate.

Kim kicked sand all over the place as she scrambled to her feet and turned in the direction Kairi had gone, but stopped dead as soon as she had.

Kairi was gone.

Growling in frustration, Kim grit her teeth and seethed. "Learned how to turn yourself invisible, eh?" she asked pointlessly, seeing the sand get kicked up even though nobody was there. "Well guess what you dumb slave? If the sand is your ally, it's also mine. It's telling me exactly where you are!" She raised her black Keyblade and pointed it in the direction of the running sand. "Blizz-!"

"Thunder Blade!"

Kim's eyes widened in shock. That voice had come from behind her! She was only able to turn halfway before Kairi's electrically charged Keyblade struck her back. The electric charge was gruelling on Kim's nerves, far worse than any of the prior spells that had struck her. The physical strike of the Keyblade had assisted Kairi in getting through the anti-magic wards imbued in the armour, or maybe her magic was just that much more intense right now. Kim really couldn't figure it out.

_How? She was over there! How is she behind me!?_

"How'd you like that?" Kairi taunted her. "I already told you, I will _never _be your slave!"

Light blinded both of them suddenly as it surged from Kairi's left hand. It died down a moment later, Kairi noticing a weight in her hand that hadn't been there before. She and Kim both looked down in shock.

The Oathkeeper was in her left hand, running parallel to Ocean's Toll in her right.

"What in the...?" Kim asked, stunned, before her lip curled. "How did you do that? How did you, pretty little princess, gain the power of two? Answer me!"

Kairi stared down at Oathkeeper, jaw slack in surprise at the sudden appearance of another Keyblade. "I don't-" Kim was quick to cut her off with a swift jab at her stomach. Kairi sent a silent prayer to the heavens that Kim's Keyblade tip didn't end in a point, or the fight would've been over then and there. Sand was thrown into the air as she crashed rear-first to the ground.

"Gotcha now!" Kim's triumphant shout filled Kairi's ears as the blonde swooped in, ready to deal a decisive blow.

Kairi wasn't having any of it. In one fluid motion, she buried her foot in the sand and kicked upwards. Kim recoiled as the sand struck her in the eyes, screeching loudly from the pain. Not missing a beat, Kairi aimed both Keyblades at Kim's chest and let out a furious shout. Twin balls of fire raced from each Keyblade and blasted Kim off of her feet.

The attack did little more than put a small distance between the two of them, but for Kairi, it was more than enough. She was already back on her feet and ready to keep going. Unfortunately for her, so was Kim.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?!" the blonde roared as she charged at Kairi.

Ocean's Toll was brought up between them, intercepting the slash aimed at Kairi's stomach. "It's better that what you've got planned!" Kairi spun her Keyblade around in a wide circle, forcing Kim's Keyblade to stab at the ground. Kim stumbled forward, her head nearly knocking into Kairi's chin. With her left hand, Kairi struck at her exposed back with Oathkeeper's pommel, sending Kim sprawling face-first into the sand. Grinning triumphantly, Kairi leapt away from her opponent, keeping as much distance between them as possible.

Kim yanked her head free from the sand, coughing and spluttering. "Damn you!" She spat out a large glob of sand as she stood. "Oh that's disgusting."

"You deserve worse," Kairi muttered.

"Worse? I deserve better!" Kim retorted, pushing herself through the sand to get to her feet."Do you have any idea on just how much of my life I've spent training to wield a Keyblade? For as long as I can remember! That's how much! But here you are! Miss High and Mighty herself! Princess of Heart, Keyblade Wielder, dual-wielding, and dating the Keyblade's Chosen One! You haven't earned any of that!" Light flared around Kim's shoulders as the helmet to her armor writhed like the snake it resembled before fully encompassing her head, solidifying in a fearful manner that really did make her head look like a cobra. "I, however, _have _earned it! I'm in the top five of all my brothers and sisters and I'm going to take what's rightfully mine!"

An orb of swirling purple magic formed on the tip of Kim's Keyblade as she took aim at Kairi. "You've got the advantage here on the sand, but what if I robbed you of that?" The orb pulsed and more than tripled its size. "Drift!"

A squeak of surprise escaped Kairi as the gravity around her vanished and she was lifted into the air.

_Oh, shit! Not good!_

Kairi looked over at Kim in legitimate terror as the armoured teen approached. After Nanaki had used the same spell on her earlier, Kairi already knew that right now she was completely at the mercy of whatever forces acted upon her. Kairi quickly pointed both of her Keyblades at Kim, desperately screaming, "Thunder!"

She missed. Her aim had been off and both bolts struck beside Kim on either side, melting tiny portions of sand. Kim was standing in front of her now, Kairi hovering in the air and leaning backwards while slowly rotating in that direction. Kim wasn't even smiling. "Now this looks familiar," she said. "Wouldn't you agree, my little **slave**!" Kim shrieked out the last word while striking Kairi's side with a diagonal uppercut that had all of her strength behind it. Kairi screamed as the blade cut through her black cloak and into her skin, and Kairi began to get disoriented as the power behind the attack sent her into a wild, unstoppable spin.

If Kim struck her again, Kairi had no idea. Her right side burned in pain as her blood leaked out, her head was dizzy as her brain went everywhere inside the confines of her skull, completely unable to get a sense of up, down, left, right, or sideways; and she was really wishing that she hadn't had all of those margaritas or eaten so much of her cake. Kairi's stomach threatened a revolt and her throat tried to form a barricade based on the grounds of not knowing where it would end up.

_Naminé, if you're going to do anything else, do it now please!_

Something impacted Kairi, and she realized after a moment that it was the sand. The spell must have ended. She tried to focus her eyes, but it was a lost cause; her equilibrium was too messed up at the moment, and her body reacted to it. Kairi couldn't even coordinate her hands to pull her hood over her head; it was all she could do to keep propped up on her elbows. Her side hurt, hot blood leaving from the wound Kim had opened in her to soak her black cloak and stain the sand red. The sand in front of her face reeked of vomit, and some clung to her chin and burned her nose.

She could hear Kim talking, and it felt like Kim was standing right over her again. Kairi was right about to try a disoriented swing at her, but her stomach's revolt was far from quelled.

"...pitiful," Kim was saying. "Time to say goodnight, slave. We're going to have a nice, long, reunion after you've met Maleficent. You will not enjoy it, but I certainly will."

Kairi looked up. Her head was still swimming, but she saw enough to understand what was going on.

_Thanks, Naminé,_ she silently thought, sending her sister all of her gratitude. Kairi could see Kim standing above herself, but several feet away. There was a mirror image of Kairi, blearily looking up at the armoured blonde with an identical pile of vomit and blood-stained sand beneath her, while Kairi herself remained unnoticed; the recipient of an invisibility spell of Naminé's. If it hadn't been for this little trick of theirs, Kim would certainly have gotten the upper hand a lot sooner, and Kairi would be experiencing hell all over again, probably with Naminé forced to watch and await her turn.

A faint screeching filled the air, like metal being shredded in a blender, growing louder with each passing moment. It took her less than a second to spot the culprit. A massive ball of fire was falling from the sky, just over the play island in the distance. The fire seemed to have grabbed Kim's attention as well, stealing it away from the illusionary copy of Kairi.

A split second before the fireball made impact against the island, Kairi realized just what the fireball was. The _Kingdom_ was about to crash nose first. A sudden weight dropped in her gut followed immediately by panic. She knew what happened when fuel laden vehicles crashed at high velocities. And she knew more than she wanted to about what happened when something exploded from her physics classes in school.

Reacting on instinct, Kairi squeezed her eyes shut and curled herself into a tight ball, protecting her head with her arms. "Naminé! Take cover!" Whether her warning was heard in time, Kairi didn't know. A bright flash of light lit up the night beyond her eyelids. Not even a second later, an earsplitting roar filled the air as an invisible shockwave of super heated air slammed into the beach. Faintly, Kairi could hear Kim cry out in surprise as the blast knocked them further inland.

Kairi rolled to a stop, a ringing in her ears muffling the rest of the world. She opened her eyes and nearly threw up again from how badly the world was spinning. When it no longer felt like she was going to collapse if she stood up, she took a look back at the island. A wounded squeak escaped her.

The entire island was engulfed in fire. The massive tree at its heart burned like a small sun against the dark of the perpetual night. Flaming pieces of debris from the explosion were falling across the sea, some of which reached the beach where Kairi lay.

A cold hand found Kairi's shoulder and shook her out of her initial shock. Naminé's voice, though muffled through the ringing in Kairi's ears finally reached her. "Kairi! Hello? Can you hear me?"

"Naminé?" Kairi said slowly, turning to look at her sister. Naminé's worried expression filled her vision. "Naminé, what just happened?" Blood was running down the side of Naminé's face from an unseen wound hidden by her hair. "You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine," Naminé sighed, "I hit my head when the shockwave knocked me over. We got off better than Kim, anyway."

"What do you-" Kairi began, but stopped when she realized that someone was screaming in pain nearby. Looking around, she caught sight of Kim, kneeling on the ground near a large, jagged-edged piece of the wrecked _Kingdom_ that had crashed into the beach. Kim was clutching her right arm close to her chest and shaking violently. It took Kairi a moment to realize what was wrong due to the darkness, then she saw it. Lying on the ground along the side of the Gummi shard was Kim's severed hand.

"She deserved it though." Naminé's voice was cold and lacked any sympathy for their enemy. "And now we have a major advantage." She glanced up at the burning island in the distance. "For crying out loud. I told him to protect the Keyhole! Not blow it up with a space ship!"

Kairi looked at Naminé blankly. "Told who to do what?"

In response, Naminé pointed at the island. "Richard. I told him to protect the Keyhole. Now look at what he's done. Sora is not going to be happy when he finds out that the _Kingdom _is gone. Kairi where are you going?"

Kairi had risen to her feet, and she carefully placed one foot in front of the other as she walked towards their downed foe. Kim was half screaming and half sobbing in agony, cradling the stump of her hand very close to her chest. Her helmet had been blown off, allowing Kairi to see every emotion on the blonde's face in the burning light of the fire.

Kairi stopped, standing over Kim with both Keyblades in her hands, blades pointed down towards Kim's neck. Kim looked up, and sucked in a sob. "Do it," she snarled. "Finish me, you ungodly lucky bitch. Take your revenge."

Kairi raised both Keyblades above her head, and stabbed them down.

Kim looked in complete shock at the metal inches away from her eyes.

"I hate you so much," Kairi said through clenched teeth. "I never would've thought that I could hate someone so much. So congratulations. You proved me wrong." Kim winced as Oathkeeper's tip moved closer to her eye. "But I'm not going to let that hate dictate what I do, unlike you. I'm letting you live. Not because I don't want to hurt you, but because I want to. I'm choosing to stay my hand, you insufferable whore." Twin flashes of light lit the darkness on the beach as Kairi dismissed her Keyblades.

"I'm not you." Kim's eyes widened in anger. Kairi's voice was full of pity. "I'll never be you. I'm better." Kairi turned her back on Kim and began limping back toward Naminé.

"You'll rue this day, Kairi!" Kim screamed. "I don't want the pity of some self-righteous peon! I'll make you wish you'd killed me you-!"

She stopped short. The gleam of metal right in front of her eyes surprised her. Naminé held the tip of her Keyblade a scant few millimetres away from Kim's face.

"Choose your next words carefully, Kim," Naminé warned. "I may have been Kairi's Nobody, but I am not her, and I won't hesitate."

"Naminé!" Kairi hissed.

"No, Kairi," Naminé answered, her eyes not budging from Kim. "She's vile. She works for Maleficent. She deceived all of us into believing she was our friend and divulge our secrets and plans to her. She stole the present from Sora that you loved so much and she raped you, my sister. That means she stole from and raped a part of me. I may have been a part of you, Kairi, but I am not you. Unless Kim sincerely chooses to take your mercy and repent towards the Light, I will slay her if she makes a move."

Kim laughed through her extreme pain. "'Slay me'? What the fuck did you hit your head on? I understand the little tricks you two played on me now. What makes you think that a novice illusionist who wouldn't fight me directly could even hope to defeat me? The sister of a slave is just as much a slave. You aren't my target and not worth my time, so get out of my way or die."

"You aren't in any position to be making threats," Naminé reminded her, pointedly placing her Keyblade against Kim's throat. Kim, wisely, held her tongue.

Kairi wasn't quite sure what to think of the current situation. She had been the one who had been horribly violated, yet Naminé was the one seeking revenge. _No_, Kairi realized, looking at Naminé's posture, _not revenge. Justice. Naminé..._ Kairi sniffed as a tear came to her eyes. Suddenly she was feeling vulnerable again.

That feeling vanished as Roxas and Axel, both of them on fire, landed with an almighty _thump_ into the sand in front of her.

"Ow! Shit! Light! It burns! It burns!" Roxas roared, immediately beginning to roll around to smother the flames in the sand.

"Quit being such a baby," Axel commented, getting up off the ground and dusting himself off, putting out the flames with surprising ease.

Kairi stared blankly at them for a fraction of a moment. Then anger swelled up inside of her. If they were going to be here, then they could've stopped Kim before she had done what she did to Kairi. And that made her furious. Furious at them for not being fast enough. Furious at Fate for being such a bitch. Furious at the whole damn situation. "Where in the nine hells have you two been!?" Kairi raged, storming up to the two of them.

"Inside the belly of a Behemoth," Axel answered. "Long story. Don't do it, princess, it's not pretty. What's up with you?"

She froze as his eyes met hers. In an instant, her rage dissipated, replaced by shame. How could she blame them? There was nothing they could've done. They hadn't been planning on getting to the beach. If not for Naminé, Kim would've won. Plain and simple. "It… it's nothing..." Kairi whispered, suddenly finding that she couldn't bear to look at him. She unconsciously clutched at her upper arm as she turned away. "I'm fine," she added even more quietly, hopefully quietly enough that Axel and Roxas couldn't hear.

Roxas didn't seem to hear, his attention focused on Naminé as she threatened Kim. Axel however, was a different story. His eyes narrowed as he stared down at Kairi, leading Kairi to clutch tighter at her arm and shift away from him.

"I'm fine," she pleaded, her voice cracking as a wave of various emotions she had been suppressing since Naminé freed her now threatening to spill over. Axel glanced over at Naminé and Kim. Comprehension dawned on his face for a split second, and it was immediately replaced by a cold anger.

"I see," he said quietly. "Don't worry, Kairi. I won't let that harpy get her claws on you again." Twin circles of flame surrounded his hands as he summoned his chakrams to him. He moved to stand behind Naminé, holding his weapons loosely in his grip. "If she gets past you, she's mine," he whispered.

"Axel you don't know-"

"I do," Axel told Naminé quietly. "I saw it in her eyes. I may not have all the details, but I've got more than enough to go off of. Speaking of, when this is all said and done, you're going to tell me everything. We clear?"

Naminé could only nod. "Crystal," she whispered, ensuring her voice was only audible to Axel. It was bad enough that he had an idea of Kairi's ordeal; she didn't need Roxas to suddenly know about it too.

"Hey! Get back here, you!"

Everyone but Kim looked up at the shouting voice, and all were completely shocked that they hadn't heard or seen the approach before now. Axel leapt out of the way as the spinning torso and head of a Guard Armor zoomed above the beach in the light of the bonfire that used to be the play island. Chasing it were Hayner, Olette, and Nanaki, all three of them packed in what looked like a really uncomfortable grouping onboard Nanaki's skimmer.

Roxas spat out sand as he raised his head. "What the hell?" Nobody answered him as Olette shifted her position.

"Nanaki! Pull us into a spin! Hayner, I need a boost!"

The Guard Armor spun around and around in the sand whipping it up and blasting the grouping nearby with Axel constantly scrambling out of its way. From what they could see, its body was already riddled with cracks. Nanaki threw the skimmer to the left, and Hayner did his very best to assist Olette. She pushed off of his cupped hands and soared through the sky with the Aublade directed in front of her, flying straight as a spear and plunging deep into the Guard Armor's body.

A feral cry disturbed the sound of the Guard Armor crashing to the ground beneath Olette's Keyblade before it could disintegrate. Kim had suppressed her pain beneath sheer fury, and loosed herself at Kairi with her Keyblade wound up and ready to slice up the Princess of Heart in her still-good sword hand. Her battle-shout was wordless, a primal uttering of the desire for vengeance and the fight against a bitter enemy. Naminé's eyes widened in horror and fury, but not at Kim, at herself for allowing herself to get distracted. Kairi herself barely had time to look, but her indigo eyes were filled with nothing but terror as her assailant came at her again while she was completely vulnerable.

Kim suddenly halted in mid-air, and everyone looked at her in complete surprise with her blade only about a foot away from slicing through Kairi's cloak and biting into her flesh. Kim herself seemed dumbfounded by her sudden stop, or why it was she couldn't move her arm. Her still-bleeding stump of a hand painted the sand by Kairi's feet completely red. Kim's head roved around, searching for the cause, until she finally registered the pressure around her chest, ankles, and sword arm. She looked down at her body, and her eyes widened when she saw that she was being restrained by her own shadow!

"That's enough of you, sister."

Two people that none of them could have ever suspected emerged from a portal of darkness. Kim was flung backwards as Keila commanded the shadows to throw her away with a faint wave of her hand, though her words had been laced with deadly venom. Naminé saw an opportunity and began to move less than a heartbeat after Kim took flight. As soon as Kim landed once more, Naminé was on top of her, pressing her Keyblade against the dark Wielder's throat with one hand and ramming her mutilated wrist into the coarse sand of the beach with the other. No amount of prior suppression could help Kim, and she screamed in greater agony than when the limb had first been severed as the grains of sand dug into the frazzled, virgin nerves of her muscle tissue.

Kairi only had eyes for the other person, however, and the Wielder of Shadows was the least of her concerns. Ice cold terror gripped her heart as the fires around them revealed the blood rapidly draining from the man using Keila for support.

"DAD!"

Naminé looked around at Kairi's horrified howl, just in time to see her tear by in a blur. The redhead continued to shout and sob that one word, slipping on the sand in her haste to get to her father as Keila slowly laid him down.

"He wouldn't let me get him to a hospital," Keila explained as Kairi fell to her knees beside her father. "He kept saying that we had to find you first."

"I'm right here, Dad," Kairi said softly, clutching at his bloodstained hand and doing her best to fight back the tears rolling down her cheeks. "What happened to you?"

"I had to make sure you were safe," Jonathan said, smiling weakly up at his daughter. "I won't let them get you."

"We can worry about me later," Kairi whimpered. "You're still bleeding!"

"That's what I've been saying," Keila huffed. "He needs a hospital. _Now_. Point me to the closest one and I'll get him there."

"There's one just a couple blocks inland from here." Kairi wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'll help you carry him." Keila nodded.

"I'm just so glad that we found you before Jevenan," Johnathan sighed. "Almost last words that bastard Nobody told me before he left me for dead were that he would beat you within an inch of your life."

"I'm fine, Dad," Kairi said with a frightened sob as she helped Keila lift him up. That was a bold-faced lie, but there was no way that she was going to tell her father about what had happened to her while he was in this state.

She stopped, feeling fresh blood and a touch on her cheek. "I've failed you, Kairi," he whispered. "I allowed the enemy to get the Cornerstone."

Kairi had no idea what her father was talking about or if the blood loss was making him delirious. She shushed him, insisting that he needed to rest.

There was a sudden scream from somewhere off to Kairi's left, and she turned her head. Naminé was up on her feet, screaming her head off and running her hands all over her body like she was trying to remove a hundred frightening creatures from her skin. Kim was back on her feet in triumph, eyes drunk from something Kairi couldn't understand. Perhaps it was pain, perhaps it was something else. Dark, disgusting blood was oozing out from that sand-covered stump on her arm. She was laughing like a deranged berserker, and her Keyblade flashed into her left hand.

"We have the Cornerstone!" She declared, jubilant. "Now all we need is the Princess! You're mine, slave! I'm going to finish what I started, and you're going to become my new fucktoy when Maleficent's done with whatever the fuck she wants you for!"

Axel and Roxas immediately got in her way, both chakrams ablaze and Keyblades shining, but Kim just laughed and shouted. Their knees hit the sand as a gravity spell hit them, and Kim raced past the two. Olette and Nanaki both recovered from the initial shock from Naminé's screaming and Kim's deranged laughing and converged on the blonde with their Keyblades beared. Kim still kept laughing insanely, and pointed her Keyblade and the stump of her arm at the two. "Hemataga!"

Thick spikes of iron shot out from both with the force of cannonballs. Olette and Nanaki both fell back onto the sand, screaming in agony as their shoulders were pierced and left impaled by the spikes, their arms going limp beneath them. Kairi looked at Kim in complete terror as everything fell apart around her. Hayner was too far away and watching Olette squirm and scream in horror. "Do something useful for a change, bitch, and keep her steady," Kim rasped insanely at Keila as she approached. "She's _my_ prize! _I'll_ be getting all the glory for this one!" Kim stopped suddenly as her own shadow grasped her ankle.

"No, Kim!" Keila spat. "You're vile! Nobody's going to be turning Kairi in to Maleficent today! I made a promise and I intend to keep it!"

Kim paused, and appeared to be contemplating something for a few seconds while the screams of the girls she'd inflicted pain upon danced into her ears. "So you're a traitor again, now are you?" Kim asked rhetorically. "Then I guess I finally get to remove your ugly face from my sight. It's good to be me."

Kim slashed at the shadow holding her back and lunged forward, laughing in malicious bloodlust at being given a reason to eliminate the 'sister' she had loathed for so long and for getting the opportunity to redeem herself to Mother for her earlier failure against that sicko, Devin. She'd kill Keila, steal Kairi, and then live like a queen over all her other siblings with Maleficent's support.

Her Keyblade encountered resistance as it cut through skin and spilled blood on the sand, but Kim's laugh died in her throat as a wicked sharp piece of metal slid into it at the same time. She was granted only the briefest of glimpses at the enraged face of a man she'd just seen bloody and dying in the arms of Keila and her target before intense heat embroiled her body and she saw no more.

Lying speechless on the ground, Kairi couldn't tear her eyes away from Kim as her body suddenly caught fire around her neck, right where the dagger had pierced her. Her father at the very last second used up all that remained of his strength to push both Keila and her off of him, slipped the dagger that Bael had given Kairi, that she'd completely forgotten about, out of her belt, and stabbed Kimberly in the throat with it. In so doing, however, Kim's Keyblade dealt him the final blow, piercing his chest one last time and running through to the other side.

They stood immobile like that, Kim's Keyblade buried in Jonathan's body to the hilt, and her body burning around the bloodied dagger in his hands. A sharp screech of metal being torn apart filled the air as Kim's Keyblade fell apart, pieces of ruined Lightsteel falling to the sand at Jonathan's feet. No one who could was able to utter a word, until the one least likely to be saying anything spoke up over the quieted agonized wails of Olette and Nanaki.

"So that's where it was," Jonathan murmured. "His Heatsteel dagger was with you. No wonder Bael was defeated. Kairi...you've been given a...kingly gift."

"Dad…" Kairi squeaked, watching as his grip on the dagger slackened and he began to fall. "DAD! NO!"

She caught him just as he was reaching the ground, but he was so heavy even so that his weight carried her down with him. "Dad! Daddy! Naminé get over here! Heal!"

Jonathan's breathing was shallow as the magical green vines wrapped around his wounds. The bleeding barely showed any signs of slowing down as Kairi tried again, pouring all of her mana into her efforts. Naminé was beside her, having recovered from whatever fit had come over her. Kairi could barely see the blonde through her tear-filled bleary vision.

"Heal!" Naminé shouted, trying again to make the magic work. "Heal, dammit!" She was aware of the others watching them. "Help," she pleaded. "Someone, please! Help!"

Kairi pounded her blood-covered fists on her knees. It was useless; the bleeding refused to stop! Her entire body was shaking and cold, despite being coated in her father's warm blood.

He touched her cheek.

Kairi looked at his face, startled by the touch. There wasn't any pain in his eyes. "I love you so much, Kairi."

"Daddy..." Kairi whimpered, just like she was a little girl again and coming to him with an owie. She sniffed deeply. "No, you can't die, Daddy. Not yet. You still need to walk me down the aisle, and to be there when your grandkids are born, and spoil them rotten as they're growing up."

"I'll miss that," he whispered, "but they'll do fine without a grandpa, so long as they know he died keeping their mother safe."

"You can't leave us yet!" Naminé sobbed. "I barely know what it means to have a father! You can't die, not now." He moved his hand over to touch Naminé's cheek, and she grasped the hand tightly and wept against it.

"But this _is_ what it means," he said softly. "To give everything to protect your little girls. Naminé...I want you to take my ring."

"Y...your ring?" she sniffed, looking at the hand she had been holding against her cheek. Now that she looked at it, there was a ring on his middle finger. It was a silver band with two thin red lines running parallel along its surface.

He shifted his gaze to the third who was close-by, the one he hadn't met before today. "You'll...do as you said?" he asked, his voice growing fainter.

Keila nodded her head, finding tears staining her eyes as well. "I will. I'll do everything I can. They won't get their hands on Kairi, not today anyway."

"Good," Jonathan sighed. "Then I can rest easy."

"Dad no!" Kairi cried.

"I'm so proud of you," Jonathan's voice was barely above a whisper. "So very proud of you."

"Stop talking like that!" Kairi shouted. "You're going to be fine! You have to be fine! Don't leave me, Dad."

"You and your mother stay strong now, my loves...stay strong...protect the worlds…love..."

His hand suddenly felt limp and heavy in Naminé's grasp.

_-LD-_

Sora groaned, blood running down his arm as he and Riku finally made it to the beach. A cold drink of lemonade was in Sora's right hand, free and clear from the blood on his left. "Man, Kairi is going to be pissed at me for taking so long to get back."

"Hey, that Heartless was one tough son of a bitch," Riku reminded him, panting heavily as well. Though his armour had spared him from acquiring any bloody wounds like Sora, he felt for sure that he had some bruises that would last a week or more. "You're saying that you, Kairi, and Naminé took down two of those things before? Damn, that must have been one heck of a fight."

"I concur," Dawn piped up. "Its attack pattern was rather confusing at first."

Sora glanced over at Riku, his best friend's face hidden by his helmet again. "I'm totally jealous, you know. Your ship came with an AI and now it's in that spiffy armour of yours." Riku chuckled, then sighed in resignation.

"The island's on fire," he said softly.

"I know," Sora answered. "Fighting's always tough, but this is our _home_. I can't believe it's been hurt like this. This is painful."

"Look, I think I can see them," Riku said a minute later. "Wait, didn't you and Kairi leave by yourselves? Why is-" Riku stopped speaking and picked up his pace. "Something's wrong."

It only took a few more steps, but then they could hear the sobbing. Neither was sure what or who it was from or whether the sobbing was from physical or emotional pain. They picked up pace, and very quickly they could see that Kairi and Naminé were both on their knees with a brunette, the three of them hunched over a still figure on the ground.

Sora stopped at once about ten paces from them, just now catching sight of who it was on the ground in front of him. A cold hand squeezed his heart until it felt like it would either stop or burst, and his stomach turned and turned until it had at least twenty knots in it.

Kairi was on her knees, hugging close the body of her unmoving father. The Mayor was dead; his girlfriend's dad was dead.

Dead.

The lemonade he'd brought dropped to the ground with a soft _thwump._ The Kingdom Key appeared in his hand in a flash, his grip so tight on it that his knuckles were white. "Who did this?"

Kairi and Naminé's sobs slowed, and everyone present looked up at the sound of his voice. Only now did Sora notice that Olette and Nanaki were here too, large iron spikes driven into their shoulders and being set in place by Axel and Hayner for later treatment. Roxas was standing behind Naminé, a hand resting consolingly on her left shoulder. A second corpse lay feet from Jonathan's body, charred beyond recognition and still burning.

"Sora..." Kairi sniffed.

"Who did this?" Sora repeated. His eyes shifted over to the brunette kneeling beside Kairi and Naminé. He knew her. She had attacked him back in Radiant Garden. "You? Did you do this?" Keila gave a start as she realized Sora was talking to her. "Answer me!"

"I didn't harm him in any way!" Keila shouted, rising to face him. Sora recoiled for a moment, seeing fresh tears in her eyes too. "Jevenan wounded him first, and would have simply killed him if he hadn't needed him, but my sister Kim was the one who dealt the final blow!"

"Kim!?" Sora asked, shocked. "But, but why would Kim...?"

"She never was our friend, Sora," Kairi murmured, her voice quiet but loud enough for all to hear. "She used some kind of illusion to make us all think that she had been our friend for years. She pretended to be you, and she...she almost..." Kairi covered her face with her hands, and she shook her head before falling back onto her father's body.

Sora turned around, taking two steps as if to march away. Riku quickly intercepted him. "Where are you going?" he whispered.

"I'm going to get that guy who nearly killed her dad," Sora growled, moving to push past Riku.

Riku stood his ground. "No. You are _not_ leaving Kairi like this just to get revenge," he intoned seriously. "Just look at her!" Sora did, and Riku could immediately see the conflicting emotions battling it out underneath his facial muscles.

The brunet Keyblade Master looked back at Riku. "You get him, then." With that, he dismissed the Kingdom Key and went straight to Kairi's side. She was in his arms almost before he opened them, sobbing with a medium amount of volume and shaking from grief into his shoulder.

Riku glanced over at Keila again. "So what are you doing here then?"

"The Mayor and I made a deal," she said, somewhat uneasily and averting her eyes from everyone. "When I first saw him, he was already in terrible shape from when Jevenan attacked him. We cut a deal that would allow him to live long enough to say goodbye to Kairi and I would ensure that she not be taken to Maleficent."

"And what was his part of the deal?" Riku asked.

Keila kept her eyes averted, chewing on her lip. "Kairi, your father was a very brave and honourable man. He did everything he could both to protect his daughters and his mission. Be as proud of him as he was of you."

"I asked you a question," Riku reminded her, stepping closer and removing his helmet.

Keila looked up. Her face immediately paled as if she'd seen a ghost. "You..." She took a step back. Pure terror etched onto her face. "That's not possible."

Riku's eyes slowly widened in recognition. "I know you," he said slowly. His look of recognition switched immediately to one of anger. "You tried to kill me!"

Everyone turned to look at Keila, who was becoming more and more visibly distraught by the second. "How did you survive?!" She demanded, voice wavering and rising in pitch. "I stabbed you! You fell off of a cliff in the middle of nowhere! That fall had to be at least five hundred feet and you landed on your head! I saw your body. Your bones and neck were completely shattered! You were dead! No one could survive something like that."

The Way to the Dawn flashed into existence as Riku advanced on Keila. "Yet, here I am, alive and better than ever." Keila stumbled back and fell on her rear as she tried to escape. "Why did you try to kill me?! What have I ever done to you?!"

"Nothing! Okay?!" Keila snapped back. "I didn't have a choice! I was just following orders!"

"Orders?" Riku scoffed. "I'm supposed to buy that?"

"It's the truth!" Keila's fear was gone, replaced by indignation. "And its not like I was even able to beat you fairly anyway!"

Riku paused in his advance. "What are you talking about? I know your face, but who are you and how did you beat me?"

Keila's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets, and her fave turned into a snarl. "You've got to be kidding me. You're joking, right? There's no way you'd forget that!"

Riku leveled Way to the Dawn at her. "Do I appear to be in a gaming mood? How did you beat me you damn cheater? Dawn, do you remember?"

"Nope."

Keila beared her teeth and stomped to her feet, summoning her own Keyblade to her hand. "You kissed me you jerk!"

There was dead silence. Sora gave a small cough and shot Riku a curious glance.

Riku snapped out of it first with a quick shake of his head. "Nu-uh! Nope. I did not kiss you."

"Yes, you did!" Keila shouted. "There was no way I could beat you fairly, so since you were being all, 'ooh, stop fighting, Keila, I thought we were friends,' I feigned injury, you came over to check if I was fine, then I kissed you and you...and you...you kissed me back. It felt like I was melting, like I meant something to you...and then I stabbed you with a crystal shard and pushed you off the cliff."

There was some more silence, before Riku broke it again. "Nope. Didn't happen."

Keila screamed through clenched teeth. "You are the worst man alive!" She prepared to charge.

"**HEY!**"

Both of them stopped dead in their tracks as Kairi yelled at the two of them. Furious tears were in her eyes.

"I really don't care what happened between you two right now, but would you kindly take your lovers' quarrel SOMEPLACE THE FUCK ELSE!?" Riku tried and failed to meet Kairi's eyes, instead choosing to stare at the blood-stained sand beneath her feet. "I don't care if you've been trying to kill each other or whatever the hell your problem is! My dad is _dead_, but you two choose _now_ of all times to bicker like toddlers?! Get some damn perspective!"

"Kairi, I..."

"No, shut up, Riku. I don't want to hear it."

"Sorry…" Riku said softly. Kairi hung her head, hiding her face against Sora's shoulder.

Riku looked back over at Keila. "Okay, you mentioned that someone else attacked him beside Kim. Tell me who."

"Jevenan," Keila said immediately. "He's the leader of Maleficent's Nobodies. Maleficent sent him here to retrieve the Cornerstone of Darkness."

"And he had to attack Jonathan to do that?"

Keila shook her head. "I don't know if attacking him was necessary. Jonathan's the only person who knew how to get to the Cornerstone. Jevenan threatened to hurt Kairi if he didn't cooperate. Jonathan did, but only to use traps to kill Jevenan's Nobodies. But the Cornerstone was still taken and now Jevenan is looking for Kairi."

A look of realization dawned on Riku's face. "That was part of Jonathan's deal? Lead Jevenan to the Cornerstone and you'd keep Kairi safe?"

Keila nodded.

"So Maleficent wins anyway!" Roxas exclaimed.

"Not quite," Keila was quick to say. "Maleficent won't get Kairi, and she needs her, but she did get the Cornerstone of Darkness. However, you guys have the Cornerstone of Light. So she doesn't exactly win _per se_, but it's more along the lines of achieving a balance with you guys." She blinked and placed her chin in her hand before looking up at the clouds lit only by the reddish light from the blazing fire behind her. "I'm not sure if this makes me a traitor or not," she said anxiously. "But, getting rid of that total bitch, Kim, and Jevenan definitely works in my favor."

The Way to the Dawn clinked against Riku's armor as he rested it against his shoulder. "Look, I may not like, or trust you, but I can put that aside if you help me hunt down this Jevenan guy. I'm not about to let you out of your deal with him until we're absolutely positive that Kairi's safe from these guys."

"Alright," Keila said. "But this truce only lasts for today, got it Master Riku?"

He spun the Way to the Dawn around in his hand twice before planting it into the sand. Keila did the same with the Darker than Dark, and the two came together to shake hands. "The next time we meet after this, we meet as enemies."

"Deal," Keila replied, finalizing it with a definite shake and break.

"Well, isn't that just touching?" A voice called out across the beach. "Enemies putting their differences aside to achieve a common goal. How… cliché." Riku and Keila both froze as a pair of blades were placed against their throats. "Imagine my surprise to find you here, Keila, helping out the enemy. I wonder what Maleficent will say?" Jevenan leaned in between the two Wielders, the details of his face becoming visible in the firelight. "For shame."

"Go soak your head in acid, you worthless Nobody," Keila growled.

"If only I had a heart, your insults might have the slightest impact on me," the Nobody taunted. "But let's get straight to business. If the Princess will kindly turn herself over to me, I'll let your little friends here walk away alive and well. I think that's a fair deal."

Sora's grip around Kairi's shoulder tightened like a vice. "You are not taking Kairi," he said, venom lacing his voice.

"This is a one time offer," Jevenan said, a smug look forming on his face. "None of you are in any position to turn me down if you care for their safety." The pressure of the blades on Riku and Keila's throats increased, drawing the faintest traces of blood.

"_**Then it's a good thing I don't."**_

With a loud _fwoosh_, a bright ball of flame struck Jevenan square between his shoulders, sending him flying face first into the sand. Richard stood just a few yards behind him, robe tattered and still on fire in some places.

"Nobody puts Richard in the corner!" the warlock declared.

The Way to the Dawn flashed back to Riku's hand as he lunged forward. "Get him!"

Twin fire covered chakram spun forward faster than anyone could move, slicing into Jevenan's sides thrice until they flew back to Axel's grip. Gravity twisted and warped around Jevenan, weighing him down and crushing him into the sand as Nanaki aimed her uninjured arm in his direction. Beside her, Olette had summoned her Aubade and aimed it in the Nobody's direction. No fewer than a dozen Keyblades of various shapes and sizes appeared in a shower of sparkling light, each floating above Olette before each Keyblade rocketed forward and nailed Jevenan to the ground. Riku and Sora leapt into the air above him, Keyblade's aimed downward and ready to deal the killing blow.

Thick tree trunks burst out of the ground beside the Nobody and struck both teens from the air. Olette's Keyblades were cast aside as Jevenan stood back up. Jevenan twisted his hand in Nanaki's direction. Vines rose from the earth and twisted together to form a large knot before slamming into the incapacitated Wielder.

"Your attacks were cute, but it'll take a lot more than that to keep me down," the Nobody taunted. "Care to keep trying?"

"Sure." At the sound of Keila's voice, Jevenan turned. Keila swung her weapon down on him with an overhead strike. Jevenan raised his arm blades, perfectly poised to intercept her strike. To his surprise, she wasn't attacking with her Keyblade, but instead the ironwood staff she had been keeping strapped to her back. Oath Breaker struck against the blades, and the blades turned instantly to dust.

"What?!" Jevenan exclaimed, eyes wide in fear as Oath Breaker descended. It struck against the top of his head with a _thunk_.

For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then the night was split as Jevenan let out an unearthly howl of horror and pain. His skin was torn away from his muscles as it was torn apart atom by atom. His muscles unraveled and disintegrated. Blood vanished into dust. Organs withered away as though they had never existed and his skeleton exploded violently. In less than a second, Jevenan was wiped from existence.

The others stared in total shock at where the Nobody had once stood. Keila balked in terror down at Oath Breaker. She didn't understand what had happened. She was confident she had been using the Darker than Dark. When had it been replaced with Oath Breaker? Oath Breaker shivered as though satisfied in her grip.

"Okay," Richard said, breaking the stunned silence. "Where can I get one of those?"

Keila almost dropped it, her hands were shaking so much in absolute fear of the staff she held. "This...is not cool," she said. "Totally not cool. I know I was all for getting rid of him, but that? Oh god."

Riku slowly got back to his feet, carefully eyeing Oath Breaker as if it would suddenly charge at him. "Are you going to be okay?" He asked Keila gently.

"I'll be fine," she said with a shudder. Behind her, a portal of Darkness opened up. "I just… I have to go." And go she did, stepping quick as could be into the portal and leaving the stunned group behind.

The others recovered fairly quickly after that. Axel and Hayner did their best to numb the pain from the spikes in Nanaki and Olette's shoulders. Riku left to get paramedics to the beach as quickly as he could. And Kairi and Naminé returned to grieving over Jonathan's body while Sora and Roxas held them tight.

The battle for Destiny Islands ended not with a bang, but with the sobs of two young girls who had lost their father.

_-Daybreak-_

* * *

_Okay, before anyone starts harping on me for it, I do like Kairi. She is my favorite female character in the series __**(Aqua does give her a run for her money though. -Shire & Shadow)**__. It's just the whims of Fate that she has had to go through so much crap these past couple of chapters. Good things happen, in (most) fiction to those who suffer adversity, though. The night is darkest before the dawn and all that __**(Dark Knight quote. "And here...we...go." - Shire)**__. I digress._

_I've got to say, it feels good to be rid of Kim. When I first drafted her, her purpose was to fill a role and provide someone outside of Sora and Co. to interact with Riku's side of the story __**(I accidentally thought that she was Kim Possible and would go on adventures with them. - Shire)[And I laughed at him. -Shadow]**__. That changed when I created Keila though. Which left me with the question of what I was going to do with Kim. I had no purpose for her, I had no plans to use her ever again. But that left me with a character that was unresolved and was now a loose end to me. Thus, Kim the fucking psychotic bitch was born again, only to be killed off. Loose end: resolved. __**(We still did not originally intend for Kim to be as much as a psycho bitch and have issues as much as she did, though. That ended up playing out on its own. -Shire) [Seriously, all these characters write themselves most of the time. -Shadow](And with 300? brothers and sisters, you've got to have at least a few crazies in the family. -Shire)**_

_As for Jonathan's death, I had it planned out for the longest time. When I created who he was and what he did (being a Templar, not just the Mayor), I also knew that he would die during the Sun's Shadow Festival. He didn't initially go out like a hero though. I'm glad I had that changed._

_Jevenan's demise was better than I had initially planned. Using Oath Breaker on him was one of my favorite things to write._

_Important news:_

_After discussing with my beta and Shire Folk, I have decided to have this story arc be the end of __**Daybreak**__. There is still __**ONE**__ more chapter left in __**Daybreak**__ though, so don't fret. After the upcoming epilogue, the second part of the __**Looming Darkness**__ saga, __**Nightfall**__ will begin. So, be sure to follow me, not just this story so that you'll be in the loop when I release the first chapter of __**Nightfall**__._

_I'm launching a Facebook group as of today titled: 'Where Darkness Gathers'. Link to the group is on my Profile page._

_Shire Folk is now official co-author (as needed), due to how much we've been collaborating on both of our stories._

_Less important stuff:_

_Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was released. I've played it. I loved it. I can't stop playing it. Please send more rum. I'm out._

_Assassin's Creed II is currently being played through by Shire Folk as he aims to get through the series to reach Black Flag. He's loving every second of it. Claudia is a manipulative little sister and Ezio is a pushover older brother. __**[And I take credit for getting him involved in the series, and Mass Effect. He still hasn't touched Halo yet because he hates Microsoft since they abandoned PC gaming. I hope to change that. But don't let him in on it. HAHAHAHAHAHA -Shadow] (I REFUSE to get an XBox One! Not even for RYSE: Son of Rome! - Shire) [I'm getting all next gen consoles except the Wii U. I don't judge. -Shadow] (I convinced him to get into Sony's good books with the PS4, and the demo KH vids from it didn't hurt at all. - Shire)**_

_Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and __**Daybreak**__ as well. Remember to follow me, and join the Facebook group. Or follow me on Twitter. Links to both are on my profile page. _

_Please look forward to the Epilogue of __**Daybreak**__, coming soon!_

_**Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis.**_

_**-Shadow Horizons**_

_**May the Grace of the Valar Protect You**_

_**-Shire Folk**_


	37. Epilogue

_Disclaimer: Shadow Horizons does not own Kingdom Hearts, or anything by Disney and/or Square Enix. He only owns his original plot and characters._

* * *

Epilogue

"_The fate of all is always dust."_

_Monday, July 5th, 4794 P.C._

Devin Mayes let out a sigh as the last seal formed over the vault door, locking away Oath Breaker from the rest of the universe.

Try as he may, he couldn't get the image of pure terror the young Wielder had had on her face when she called him back to the Destiny Islands out of his head. She had all but thrown Oath Breaker into his hands to get it away from her. It didn't take a genius to figure out why.

But, he had more pressing matters to attend to. Casting his gloves aside, Devin removed the silver ring with parallel red bands from his middle finger and tossed it into the air before him. The ring flashed red and remained at the zenith of its ascent. Three translucent images of two men and a woman flickered into existence in front of it.

"Maleficent has the Cornerstone of Darkness."

The three projections were silent for a moment before the woman on Devin's right spoke up. "And Jonathan?"

Devin hung his head.

_-__**Daybreak**__-_

_Wednesday, July 7th, 4794 P.C._

_Destiny Islands_

Citizens from all over the Islands lined the streets of Exinn, each person garbed in traditional funeral wear. Dark cloaks were draped over everyone's shoulders, with hoods pulled low to conceal their faces. Each person clutched a small candle in their hands, the tiny flames providing the only light along the roads.

Kairi peered through the gap in her curtains as people walked by her home in a solemn march. Grieving families and friends moved in tight clusters as they moved toward the eastern-most coast of the island.

She gently allowed the curtain to fall closed as a knock sounded at her door. The door creaked open as she turned. Naminé stepped partially into the room, one hand kept on the door. No words were shared between the two. There was no need. Through the sadness in Naminé's eyes, reflecting the same in Kairi's own, the message was clear.

Time to go.

Out in the hall stood Melissa, dressed in an ocean blue dress instead of traditional mourning colors. Kairi had called her out on it earlier, but Melissa had simply smiled and told her daughter that Jonathan once made her swear to not wear black to his funeral. In mourning or not, she was simply making good on her promise.

Melissa pulled Kairi and Naminé into a tight hug as soon as they stepped into arm's length. They stayed there, wrapped in each others' arms and shared their grief for a minute or two before Melissa broke the hug and led her daughters outside.

_I thought I heard the old man say:_

"_Leave her, Johnny, leave her."_

Immediately, Kairi's eyes fell upon the open casket resting at the bottom of the steps to her home. Her heart leapt into her throat at the sight of her father. For a brief instant, her mind's eye was filled with the memory of him collapsing in the sand, a Keyblade thrust through his chest. The feel of Naminé's hand in hers brought her back to the present before the panic she felt that night could set in.

The look Naminé gave her was clearly a reminder to take deep breaths. Kairi nodded weakly and did just that. She looked back down at the casket, doing her best to fight back tears that threatened to form as she stared at her father.

_Tomorrow ye will get your pay,_

_And it's time for us to leave her._

Nestled there in the casket, Jonathan would've looked as though he were simply sleeping to those who didn't know him as well. Kairi knew better. The persistent crease in his brow he had had when sleeping was absent. And her father would never fold his hands across his chest. He always had one arm behind his head when he slept or relaxed.

_Leave her, Johnny, leave her._

_Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her._

Kairi's mother brushed past and gently placed her hand atop Jonathan's. Her eyes were shining with the beginnings of tears as she stared down at her husband. Melissa was strong, and for the first time since the end of the Festival, Kairi caught a glimpse of just how truly devastated her mother was.

_For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow,_

_And it's time for us to leave her._

Tearing her gaze away, Kairi looked around at the small crowd gathered near the casket. Her friends were easiest to spot, dressed as they were in the black cloaks worn by the former Organization. Riku's parents and Sora's mother were already by Melissa's side, offering her condolences in hushed tones. Bael Stoutiron sat in his wheelchair close by, attended to by Nikki.

_Oh, the wind was foul and the sea ran high._

_Leave her, Johnny, leave her._

Bael's head was hung in a mixture of sadness and shame. After the Heartless attack on the Islands, he had been found in Fatum's city hall, beaten, battered and bruised. The warrior hadn't said a word to anyone other than Melissa, when he had practically thrown himself at her feet to beg her forgiveness in his failure to protect Jonathan.

_She shipped it green and none went by,_

_And it's time for us to leave her._

It all seemed slightly unreal to Kairi. Almost as if any second her father would spring up from his casket and shout 'Surprise!'. But she knew better.

She was vaguely aware of those who approached her and her family, offering their condolences and gently embracing them.

_Leave her, Johnny, leave her._

_Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her._

The small crowd took turns as they said their final goodbyes to Jonathan. It didn't take much time, and soon Kairi, Naminé and Melissa were the last to stand beside the casket. Each of them managed to choke out their final goodbyes, fresh tears forming once more.

_For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow,_

_And it's time for us to leave her._

As they stepped back, nine members of the Defense Force, the pallbearers, moved into position around the casket. With flawless unison, they closed the lid on the casket and locked it into place. The Destiny Islands flag, a rising sun against a blue background, was draped over the casket before the pallbearers hoisted it onto a caisson.

_I hate to sail on this rotten tub._

_Leave her, Johnny, leave her_

The procession that followed was little more than a blur in Kairi's mind. A color guard had led them, marching along the coast toward the eastern-most shores of Exin. The horse-drawn caisson followed, with Kairi and her family, as well as friends of the family, following close behind. Bringing up the rear, and marching along to the steady sound of drums was a company of the Defense Force soldiers.

_No grog allowed, and rotten grub,_

_And it's time for us to leave her._

The darkness of night was steadily growing brighter as the procession reached the shore. Already, the distant horizon seemed to glow with several shades of sunrise as dawn approached. Kairi's attention, however, was focused on the small boat resting on the shoreline. An honor guard of eight Defense Force soldiers flanked both sides of the boat, snapping to attention as the procession approached. Other families gathered along the shore as well, bringing their departed to boats nearly identical to the one the procession came to a stop in front of.

_Leave her, Johnny, leave her._

_Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her._

Kairi watched numbly as her father's casket was lifted from the caisson and carried by the pallbearers to the boat. The honor guard accepted the casket and gently placed it in the boat. A lantern was lit and hung from the bow of the ship, to symbolize the guiding light that would lead all departed souls from this life into the next. Melissa, Naminé and Kairi stepped forward as the honor guard removed the lid to the casket and draped the flag over Jonathan's body, leaving only his head exposed to the world.

Each of them bent down and whispered a final goodbye to Jonathan. Naminé choked back a sob and was quick to retreat into Roxas' embrace. Melissa placed a gentle kiss against her husband's forehead, silent tears flowing freely down her face as she did so. Kairi hugged her mother tightly as they pulled away, doing her best to ignore her own tears.

_For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow,_

_And it's time for us to leave her._

The honor guard stepped forward again and took hold of the handles built into the sides of the boat. Grunting with effort, they pushed the boat out into the water and set it on its way, gliding smoothly toward the horizon. Across the shore, other boats followed suit, floating away from land in an eerie silence.

She was vaguely aware of orders being shouted by the Defense Force Captain. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw fifteen soldiers snap to attention and raise their weapons in unison. Fifteen shots rang out along the silent shoreline. There was a brief pause before another fifteen shots were fired.

_We swear by rote for want of more._

_Leave her, Johnny, leave her._

Fires were lit along the shore as the first rays of dawn began to appear over the ocean. Archers that stood next to the flames ignited their arrows and took aim at the vessels of the departed. Kairi drew in a shuddering breath in anticipation.

_But now we're through, so we'll go on shore,_

_And it's time for us to leave her._

The sun broke the horizon, casting its golden rays across the waters. Flaming arrows were launched into the air, at least a hundred of them, if not more. Kairi felt her mother squeeze her hand tightly as the arrows made contact. The boats were quick to ignite. With the colors of the sunrise, and the floating pyres the boats had become, the ocean seemed as if it were on fire.

For how long they stood there, Kairi hadn't the faintest of ideas. Her hand had gone numb from her mother's grip, and she had a suspicion that Melissa's had as well. They watched in grim silence as Jonathan's pyre was claimed by the sea.

_Leave her, Johnny, leave her. _

_Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her._

The boat vanished beneath the gentle waves, and Melissa broke down into muffled sobs. She practically collapsed against Kairi and probably would've fallen to her knees had her daughter not supported her. Tears of her own streamed down Kairi's cheeks as she hugged her mother tightly. She bit her lower lip tightly as she struggled to not make a sound.

Naminé's arms were around them both not even a second later, tightly embracing her family as they mourned.

_For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow._

_And it's time for us to leave her._

_**-Daybreak-**_

_Altar of Naught_

_The World That Never Was_

Maleficent's hands gently caressed the Cornerstone of Darkness. Her eyes were fixed on the incomplete, heart-shaped moon hanging high in the perpetual night sky nearby. Her plan to get both the Cornerstone and acquire the final Princess of Heart hadn't been fully completed, but that didn't ruin her mood. She still had the Cornerstone, and with its powers, she would become more powerful than ever before. It mattered little that she still needed Kairi to complete her plan.

After all, the deck was stacked in her favor now.

Kingdom Hearts would soon be hers.

_**-Daybreak-**_

_Destiny Islands_

The sun was setting in the distance, not that Kairi could see it make its daily descent toward the western horizon. Instead, she had her back to the west, sitting as she was on the eastern shore of Exin. She had been there for most of the day, eyes fixed on the gently lapping waves. Lost in thought.

The sound of footsteps in the sand drew her attention away from the ocean. A moment later, Sora was laying down beside her, arms behind his head as he stared up at the sky. The couple was silent for a long moment, with only the sounds of seagulls and water to accompany them.

"Was it this bad?" Kairi's voice was the steadiest it had been in days. Sora turned his head to look at her. Her tone was a grimly curious one.

"Was what this bad?"

"When your dad disappeared. Did it hurt as badly for you, as losing my dad is hurting me?" Kairi's voice cracked slightly.

A small hum escaped Sora as he looked back up into the sky, wracking his memory for an answer. "You know, I don't remember too well. He disappeared over ten years ago. Right before you came to the Islands, if I'm remembering correctly." To Kairi, he sounded distant. "No one really knows what happened to him. He went out during a storm and never came back. No boats missing, no sign that he had left the Island. He was just… gone."

"You're lucky," she whispered, hugging her knees close to her chest. "Your dad might still be out there somewhere."

"Maybe." Sora grimaced. "But it's not exactly fair to compare our two situations, especially since my side's a mystery to me."

Kairi sighed softly and glanced over at her boyfriend. "True enough." The pair shared another moment of silence, each briefly lost in thought.

"Axel got a message from the King," Sora mentioned after a few minutes of listening to the sounds of nature.

A nod was Kairi's response. "He came back here earlier to tell me." She stretched her legs out in front of her and laid back in the sand. "So, the stars are going out again?"

"Seems that way."

Kairi turned her head to look at Sora, and found him staring right back. "I can't come with you this time, you know," she said sadly. A nod. "Not right away. It's too soon and I can't just leave my mother all alone like that, not now. Not even for the other worlds."

"I know," Sora replied. "I would've been surprised if you were coming along right away."

Kairi swallowed a nervous lump forming in her throat. "When are you leaving?"

Sora didn't answer right away. "The day after tomorrow. I need to go see Cid about getting a replacement ship since Richard blew ours up protecting the Keyhole, so Riku's gonna give me a lift to Radiant Garden."

"And after that?"

Sora gave a noncommittal shrug. "I'll go check up on my friends on other worlds. You know, make sure everything's still going good for them."

Kairi smiled softly. "That's good. I bet some of them would like to hear from you." She missed the falter in Sora's serene expression.

"Probably. A few of them are probably realizing the thing about the stars." A sigh left him as he returned his gaze to the sky. "I don't know what changed, but there don't seem to be that many Heartless these days. So when I'm done revisiting everyone, I'm going to go out and figure out how Maleficent's making all the stars go out so quickly."

"I wouldn't expect any less from you." Kairi placed a hand on top of Sora's. "That's what I really like about you, Sora." He smiled back at her.

"I have something to give you," he said suddenly. Kairi's eyes were drawn toward Sora's free hand that he was now holding out to her. Resting in his palm was a small, clear crystal on a woven silver chain.

Kairi gave Sora a questioning look as she took the crystal from his palm and examined it. "What's this?"

"A way to keep in touch." Sora pulled an identical crystal that he was wearing around his neck into sight. "Just touch the crystal and say my name and we'll be able to speak to each other." Kairi draped the crystal over her head, letting it fall into place just below her collarbone. "This way, when you're ready to leave and come with me again, I'll be right back here to pick you up." Sora found his face buried into Kairi's shoulder, her hug squeezing him as if she would fall off the face of the world if she were to let go.

"You stay safe," she whispered, voice cracking slightly. Sora put his arms around her, only for her to squeeze harder. "You hear me? Don't do anything reckless. Because I can't lose you too. You have to promise me that you'll be safe." She pulled back from the hug and held out a pinkie finger toward him, something the two of them hadn't done in years. Sora's pinkie wrapped around hers.

"I promise."

_Leave her, Johnny, leave her._

_Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her._

_For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow._

_And it's time for us to leave her._

_**-Daybreak-**_

* * *

_To Be Continued in__** Looming Darkness: Nightfall**_

* * *

_Man, oh man. I cannot tell you all how good it feels to finally be done with Part I after working on it for about three and a half years. _

_Looking back at the first few chapters I wrote years ago, it's easy for me to see just how much Daybreak has helped me hone my writing talents. With the wonderful help of __**Infinite Chaos**__, my editor and best friend in the whole entire world, I don't know where this story (or myself, for that matter) would be today She's been keeping me in line and supporting me through the rough, writers-block filled patches._

_On that note, I would also like to extend my eternal gratitude to __**Shire Folk**__. He's been nothing but a tremendous help during the 'Sun's Shadow Festival' arc, giving me plot ideas and even taking some of the burden off of my shoulders and onto his own._

_I'd also like to thank __**Soviet Bacon **__and __**Dumbgamer99 **__for pre-reading and providing me with feedback that has helped shaped this story since I brought them on the team almost two years ago._

_And of course, I want to thank all of you. Without you readers, this story would be nothing and I doubt I would've made it this far. Your comments and words of encouragement have helped me through some rough patches in life, gave me the mental fortitude to power through writer's block, and have been a neverending fountain of inspiration. So thank you. Each and every one of you._

_So, fun fact time._

_The conclusion of the 'Sun's Shadow Festival' arc was originally supposed to be the halfway point for Part I of __**Looming Darkness**__. However, after several discussions with my team, and some careful plot evaluations on my part, I decided that this was an appropriate place to end._

_Another factor that led into that decision was the world choices I had lined up for the original second half of Part I (now the new Part II). Several of these worlds are going to be the toughest challenges I face when writing them, because in all my years of reading Kingdom Hearts fanfiction, I've never seen someone try to pull them off before. This also makes them the worlds with the highest risk factor in regards to reader reception. However, I wouldn't be moving forward with these worlds if I wasn't confident that I could do them justice (and having a team of four to pre-read them and make triple-sure they're practically perfect) certainly helps._

_I'm very excited about __**Nightfall**__. Words cannot describe._

_Onto other things:_

_Featured in this epilogue is the shanty '_Leave Her, Johnny_'. This shanty was typically sung at the end of a voyage, or when sailors grew weary of life aboard their seabound homes. I felt it suited the epilogue, for it marks the end of Jonathan's voyage in life. There are many versions of this shanty floating around out there, so I'll put a link to the one I was listening to when I wrote this epilogue up on the __**Looming Darkness **__Facebook group._

_Speaking of the Facebook group (__**Where Darkness Gathers**__), that is the best way to keep track of how soon a chapter might come out. I know that I'm awful about releasing frequently (I want to change! I promise! Blame life!) And, I'll be posting all kinds of fun stuff there (teasers for chapters, important news, pictures, music, etc). _

_The group is a place to meet, greet, and be yourselves. So pull up a chair and pour yourselves a drink. Anything posted there can become a story idea not only for __**Looming Darkness**__, but for anything any fanfic author in this tiny community might want to write. We can also talk about literally anything here. It's supposed to be a social place! _

_There's a link to the group on my profile page! So what're you waiting for? Join on up!_

_I'm starting to ramble. I'm getting kind of emotional now that I'm done with __**Daybreak**__. It's such a huge milestone for me and has been such a big part of my life for the past three and a half (or so) years. Anyway…_

_Thank you all so very much for reading! I really hope that you're looking forward to __**Nightfall**__!_

_Speaking of, I'm going to go get started on __**Nightfall**__. It's not going to write itself!_

_**Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis.**_

_**Shadow Horizons**_

_(With love from __**Infinite Chaos**__, __**Shire Folk**__, __**Soviet Bacon**__, and __**Dumbgamer99**__)_


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